Whatever Happened To 1990s Rapper Ma$e?
2017 Marked A Major On-Stage Comeback For Ma$e
Video: YouTube
Technically, Ma$e never officially signed onto G-Unit and was still under contract at Bad Boy, although he didn't release any new music under that imprint after 2004. By 2009, Ma$e was asking Diddy to release him (Bad Boy has a notorious reputation when it comes to dealing with artists' contracts), but this wasn't made official until 2012.
Since then, Ma$e has released one-off singles featuring the likes of Eric Bellinger and Jennifer Hudson. Most recently, he reunited with the rest of the Bad Boy Family on its reunion tour.
Ma$e Was Managed By Magic Johnson
Video: YouTube
In the late '90s, former basketball great Magic Johnson turned to music management. He signed a bunch of prominent R&B and hip-hop artists including Ma$e, Kelly Price, and Boyz II Men. At the time, Johnson said,
"We play ball, we work out, we talk about different things. What Ma$e needed in his life was a man who could understand his goals, his dreams, and also what he's going through as an artist, and I know all of those things."
He's Still Feuding With One-Time BFF Cam'Ron
Video: YouTube
As childhood friends, Ma$e and Cam'Ron (born Cameron Giles) grew up together in Harlem rapping and playing basketball. The two, along with Herb McGruff, the late Bloodshed, and Big L, formed the hip-hop group Children of the Corn, but split after Bloodshed's passing in 1997. Each went on to solo-stardom (Cam with Roc-A-Fella and Dipset), but the two became fiercely competitive.
Rumor has it that Ma$e tried to get Cam to pay him $40,000 to appear in Cam'Ron's 1998 music video "Horse and Carriage." Their relationship reportedly deteriorated quickly after that. Cam has since claimed that Ma$e only started going to church to avoid becoming a target of violence, then took the ruse too far by becoming a pastor.
He Linked Up With 50 Cent's G-Unit
Video: YouTube
After releasing Welcome Back, Ma$e didn't keep up his Bad Boy affiliation for long, turning instead to up-and-coming superstar 50 Cent's G-Unit to raise his profile. Reassuming his original moniker, "Murda Ma$e," the rapper took a more aggressive approach to his music.
Understandably, that shocked the reverend's fans, but luckily for them, Ma$e didn't stick around with G-Unit for that long.
He Retired And Became A Pastor
Video: YouTube
Ma$e's debut album, Harlem World, was a huge hit, and he was even featured on several smash singles from Puff Daddy's No Way Out. But when it came time to promote his sophomore effort, Double Up, Ma$e made a complete about-face - he decided not to perform any of his songs, opting for spoken-word performances instead, and soon chose to enter the church as a pastor.
Instead of promoting secular values, Ma$e began touting family, marriage, and Christ from the pulpit.
Ma$e Reunited With Diddy Five Years After Retiring
Video: YouTube
After leaving Bad Boy Records in 1999, Ma$e linked back up with his former mentor Sean "Puff Daddy"/"Diddy" Combs in 2004. The Harlem rapper released his third album that year, which he called Welcome Back, featuring a single of the same name. His lyrical material was lighter and less sexual than it had previously been; however, his music didn't set speakers - or charts - on fire.
Around the same time, Ma$e made some high-profile musical appearances, first on Kanye West's, "Jesus Walks," and then on Fat Joe and Terror Squad's hit, "Lean Back."
Ma$e Got In Quite A Bit Of Legal Trouble
Video: YouTube
Ma$e has definitely had some legal woes over the years. In 2012, a jeweler claimed that Ma$e owed him $35,000. Then, in 2014, a model sued him for using her likeness without her permission to promote his new single - he lost the lawsuit and had to cough up $7,500. And in 2015, he was hit with a tax lien for more than $12,000.
He Enrolled In College
Video: YouTube
Not long after entering retirement, Ma$e decided to go back to school. In 1999, he enrolled in a bachelor's program at Clark Atlanta University where he lived off campus and kept a pretty low-profile.
He attended college for a year, majoring in mathematics; he'd also previously studied at SUNY Purchase for a time.
He Ran Two Churches In Georgia And Arizona
Video: YouTube
After becoming a minister in 2000, Ma$e founded a congregation called S.A.N.E. (Saving a Nation Endangered Church International) in Atlanta later that year. Now called El Elyon, the church grew exponentially to include two thousand members under Ma$e's pastorship; he even went on tour, preaching to congregations across the country.
Eager to build members' spiritual and fiscal contributions, he encouraged them to donate and then built a new branch in Phoenix, Arizona, in 2008. This was a far way away from his "Shiny Suit Era" of rap.
He Underwent A Really Messy Divorce And Left The Church
Video: YouTube
Ma$e went through a rather tumultuous divorce with his longtime wife and fellow pastor Twyla Betha in the early 2010s. They separated in 2012, with him requesting custody of their two children, but he tried to have the divorce petition dismissed not long after.
Despite the fact that the two were working on a book about marriage for life called What Do I Do After I Do?, they split again. Sadly, Twyla was arrested and charged with a DUI in 2014, causing Ma$e to allegedly ban her from their church; their divorce was finalized later that year.
Churchgoers Were Scandalized By Ma$e's Behavior
Video: YouTube
Unfortunately for Ma$e, his parishioners didn't feel that their pastor was leading by example. Not long after leaving the hip-hop scene, he began dabbling in music again and hanging out with his fellow rap stars. TMZ reported that churchgoers felt Ma$e was a hypocrite, preaching renunciation of worldly goods while engaging with a genre that espoused material pleasures.
They claimed that he was spending more time with secular musicians than with the church and that he would go on and on about how great marriage was while he was getting a divorce in private.
