ATLANTA — Rapper Mase is speaking out against his former boss and partner in music Diddy. The “Welcome Back” songwriter went to social media to confront Diddy after he accepted the Icon Award at the Recording Academy’s Pre-Grammy Gala hosted by Clive Davis.
During his acceptance speech, Diddy called out the Recording Academy for lacking diversity. The clip resonated with fans and artists, but for former employees – they were met with a different reaction.
“I heard your #Grammy speech about how u are now for the artist and about how the artist must take back control. So I will be the first to take that initiative. Also, before we ask of other ethnicities to do us right we should do us as black people better. Especially the creators,” Mase wrote in a lengthy Instagram post.
Fans who are familiar with the Diddy’s musical anthology with Mase can recount a number of the duo’s biggest songs over the years including, “Mo Money Mo Problems,” “Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down,” and “Been Around The World.”
Following a string of collaborations with the mogul, Mase signed a recording contact under Diddy’s Bad Boy Record label. From there, he released is debut album “Harlem World,” and unleashed a string of successful hits including “Feel So Good,” and “What You Want,” which is currently on the charts with elements being used in Teyana Taylor’s “How You Want It” featuring Diddy’s son King Combs.
Mase claims he asked his former music partner for his publishing rights in a $2 million plea, and the mogul declined.
"So I offered u 2m in cash just a few days ago to sell me back my publishing(as his biggest artist alive) that always show u respect for u giving me an opportunity at 19 yrs old. Your response was if I can match what the EUROPEAN GUY OFFER him that would be the only way I can get it back. Or else I can wait until I’m 50 years old and it will revert back to me from when I was 19 years old. You bought it for about 20k & I offered you 2m in cash. This is not black excellence at all," Mase wrote.
“I heard u loud and clear when u said that u are now for the artist and to that my response is if u want to see change you can make a change today by starting with yourself. Your past business practices knowingly has continued purposely starved your artist and been extremely unfair to the very same artist that helped u obtain that Icon Award on the iconic Badboy label,” Mase continued.
Mase, whose real name is Mason Bethea, took a hiatus from music following the success of involvement with Bad Boy Records. For years, many fans have speculated his reason, and today’s rant give us insight on what happened from his perspective.
It appears that the 42-year-old tried to channel the encouragement that Diddy spoke of during his career achievement – artists having ownership to make more decisions with their music. In his post, Mase claims he doesn’t have rights to the publishing for his music.
“For example, u still got my publishing from 24 years ago in which u gave me $20k. Which makes me never want to work w/ u as any artist wouldn’t after u know someone is robbing you & tarnishing your name when u don’t want to comply w/ his horrendous business model,” he added.
Back in 2016, the duo joined forces again during the Bad Boy Reunion tour featuring a slew of artists on the label’s roster over years, including Faith Evans, Lil Kim, The Lox, and Total. Rumors circulated for years that Diddy was not paying artists proper royalties or having them under “slave contracts,” a term used in the industry when an artists is met with unfair demands and results.
“However, people would always ask what’s up w/ Mase? So I would be forced to still perform to not look crazy when I was getting peanuts and the robbery would continue. So many great moments and people lives in music were lost. But again, I rode with u in the face of death without flinching & u still wouldn’t do right. I never said anything because I wanted to wait until I was financially great so I can ensured that I was addressing this from a pure place and not out of spite,” Mase wrote.
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