Mase sweats tons of cool. Not just when he's spouting lyrics on your Hot 97 everyday that's his word, but also when it comes to conversation. Sitting inside a conference room at Arista Records in Midtown Manhattan, there is an air of serene in his demeanor that makes you swear he was a distant cousin of that white dude with the leather jackets, or better yet, Miles on a warm summer night at Blue Note. He speaks in almost hushed tones; somewhat methodically with an ever-so-slight lisp, yet putting you at ease with his ever-present savoir faire. Even today's attire, resembles that of a proud, yet laid-back B-boy, with the fitted Yankee cap placed backwards, a Nautica sweater and Nike kicks. In the midst of dialogue, he'll slowly sip from his bottle of Volvic water or give a slight wink to his female companion, who sits along with us. I forgot, quite a charmer this guy is and oh yeah, he's a Bad Boy too.
"You could hum all you want to/Cum all you want to/Money I'm a front you/Girl I wanna flaunt you/I'm a always want you/when nobody want you/If I die now, my love will still haunt you/Mase ain't the one that'll pay for your phone/Mase be the one that'll take you home …"
— "Only You" (remix)
Naw, it wasn't that I didn't like it [verse on "Only You"]. I just felt like it wasn't 100 percent me. Then I felt …I wanted to take a different approach to it. But then maybe the way I woulda went about it, wouldn't have been the right way. It probably wouldn't have sold the way it did, so at first I used to feel like 'no what am I doing?', but then I started thinking business-wise, that wouldn't have been a smart business move-the way I was trying to go about it. I wanted a more ghetto approach, then it wouldn't have been for everybody around the world. It woulda been more for only people in New York [that] woulda understood it.
I had to realize as a artist you not in music to please yourself. You trying to please a million fans or more than a million fans. If you only please half-a-million people, then you only get gold. If you could get more than a million people, then you a multi-platinum artist. So at the time, the way I was thinking was the wrong way to be thinking, 'cause I wasn't thinking on a business term. Like if you don't think on a business term, you not gonna make no money. I'm in it for the money.
Here's an opinion. The traditional link to a rapper's authenticity lies within the textures of his rhymes; in subtle references to his peeps, use of slang and his neighborhood. NWA may be the best example of this, when by blasting the gangster semantics of their neighborhood, Compton, to the homes of millions, they allowed the world to see a section of sunny California in their own eyes, unbeknownst to most of the general population. For the West coast, the newest fad of so-called "gangsta rap" was easy to grasp for the legions of wannabee and real gang members that were already making rumblings on the Left-side. Tho' gangsta themes were already present in Hip-Hop, from Schooly D's "P.S.K. (What Does It Mean)" to G. Rap's "Ill Street Blues," NWA's multiplatinum success revolutionized the industry and more importantly, sparked the genesis to West-coast dominance. NWA's tremendous commercial success also gave way to new laws in Hip-Hop. Words were no longer enough to prove one's authenticity, but now the likes of machismo, guns and narcotics also entered into the mix, thereby paralyzing 90's Hip-Hop.
At the same time, the once mighty status of the East-coast began to diminish as over-the-top trends of Black-consciousness and political-thought (represented by BDP, Public Enemy and X-Clan) began to lose steam and sales dwindled. As the 90's continued on, East-coast denizens became, perhaps, both jealous and worried about the amount of notes their West-side brethren were pulling in from the game they started. Struggling to gain back its respect, a new brand of sounds started emerging from the East side, consisting of the same themes in the West (drug-pushing, gun-toting and slang), yet Eastern-style. As heads such as Nas, Jay-Z and Wu-Tang started to bring courtesy back to the East side of things, another participant, Bad Boy Records, took it to another level.
Fueled by Sean "Puffy" Combs, Notorious B.I.G. and old R&B records, Bad Boy eclipsed many people's aspirations-selling millions of records, becoming East-coast No. 1 playa and one of the most powerful creative forces in all of Black music. However its quick prominence would ignite a battle with Death Row Records, the label that had by that time become the biggest powerhouse in all of Hip-Hop and soon enough a new kind of battle was being waged within the walls of the genre.
I'm like slowly bringing a lot of Harlem heads into the rap world. The way I wanted to do it was [to] scream "Harlemworld" so much like the world would know it so anybody could come from Harlem and get a deal.
Harlem really wasn't represented 'cause a lot of people stole our culture and made it they style. Like in various other boroughs, they took little elements from an average Harlem person and put it into they style. Like when you think of Harlem, you think of a lot of money, a lot of flamboyant people, a lot of fast cars. Harlem is what everybody think of when they think of New York, that don't know New York.
Harlem
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
—Langston Hughes
The best way to tap into the spirit of Harlem's legacy may be to look at it's cultural upheaval, when New York City's Black population produced an abundance of artist's, writers, musicians and entertainers. Dubbed the Harlem Renaissance, it was a period of self-awareness and assertiveness, opening the way for a new interpretation of Black reality grounded in historical and cultural values.
The era made for visionary rhetoric, as the voices of many Blacks were being heard for the first time and major publishing houses became eager to print the expressions of Black writers. This is especially important when you consider that literary dominion in the U.S., at the time, lied in the hands of whites whose tastes determined the authors who were to be published, promoted and praised. Books by authors such as Richard Wright (Native Son & Black Boy) and Zora Neale Hurston (Their Eyes Were Watching God & Jonah's Gourd Vine) expressed themselves in earthy, realistic terms, while at the same time protesting the white establishment. While Blacks in the publishing field endured their share of setbacks, so too did many in music. During the infamous jazz age of the Renaissance, band leaders such as Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Cab Calloway were overshadowed by their white contemporaries. Elvis Presley became a legend off of Black artists. Like other forms of Black music, rap has also been plagued by the manipulation of white America, necessitating the dire need for independent Black owned record companies.
Evidently, the Renaissance would also play a part in the beginnings of rap music as each decade starting with the 20's, brought with it a new form of Black dance music: from rhythm and blues in the 1940's to 70's funk and disco, it would happen that something new and extraordinary was bound to explode in the 80's. While the direct effect of the Renaissance on rap music may have been small, it is still the most blatant bridge of Harlem and Hip-Hop that exists. Especially ironic, when you consider that only it was only a few miles further north that the rumblings of rap began and that other boroughs such as Brooklyn and Queens are responsible for many of today's Hip-Hop stars.
Going back however, as the Renaissance continued throughout the sixties, the dawn of the Civil Rights Movement would spark the downfall of Harlem's prosperity. As racial housing barriers begun to be broken down and manufacturing jobs started to leave the inner-city, an exodus of uppity middle-class Blacks began to follow their white counterparts to the suburbs and Harlem would no longer have the ability to support the community's economic vitality as well as its psyche. What Harlem had in role-models, strivers and success stories, were soon replaced by the working-poor, welfare-dependent and drugs as necessary affirmative action and social programs were cleared away by the likes of the Reagan and Bush administrations.
Today, there are some signs of turning Harlem around. Big business' such as Disney, Sony and even Magic Johnson have gone on record stating that they are actively looking to invest uptown, while at the same time, giving broader recognition that inner-city communities may be viable markets. The promised injection of $300 million in Empowerment Zone funds into the Harlem economy ($100 million each from the federal government, the state, and the city) also serves as tremendous hope for a better tomorrow.
I wish I was playing basketball instead of rapping. 'Cause I feel like the music industry itself, it just contains so much, you know, so much shiesty-ness. So much of everybody just trying to step on everybody that gets to the top. That's not really me. I don't feel like I got here stepping on nobody. I just want what I deserve. I don't no more, no less. Just enough money [that] I could be comfortable with, to where if I don't feel like making a second album, I don't have to.
What happens to a dream deferred? There you are playing point-guard for the Manhattan Center Rams, at the time, one of the best high-school basketball teams in New York City, playing against the likes of Stephon Marbury ("ask Marbury, he couldn't score against me") and Richie Parker. Your team plays a championship game at the renowned Madison Square Garden, you lose, yet you're still considered one of the best players in all of the city. The NBA is inevitable.
What happens to a dream deferred? Your SAT score isn't good enough for the likes of Division I college basketball. But your "part-time" rapping skills have made for a pretty good back-up plan. As "Mase Murder" you're a member of a group called Children of the Corn with aspiring hopes to make it in the entertainment field. But one of the group members dies in a car accident and later, the group goes their separate ways.
What happens to a dream deferred? At come celebrity shindig, you have a chance encounter with Sean "Puffy" Combs, head of the premiere record label on your side of the universe. You bust some of your "party" raps to him and he likes it. Soon you're signed and you make your first appearance on wax alongside the Notorious B.I.G., considered by many to be the top lyricist in Hip-Hop. Your not "100%" behind your verses, but you sell over 3 million records in the process and you get to shout "HarlemWorld" to anyone within spitting distance. A year ago no one knew you. A few months later, your "family"-'s number one playa is shot to death. A dream deferred.
It's a hard topic. The thing that get me mad about people who interview and stuff like that … I don't like when they say like [pauses] how did Biggie death effect your life. With Bad Boy we more like a family, for real. Like you may see me and Super Mario hang out and he's the A&R and he don't have a lot of decisions in my life, but you may see us hang together [and] joke around with each other. At Bad Boy, we more like a family whereas other labels it's more like just business. Like I may do a song for the Lox and don't get a dime from it. Do a remix for Total and won't ask them for anything, 'cause that's how we roll with each other.
Like Biggie may be this big star and he helped ignite my career, so I'm a always have the most respect for Biggie. Like he's not here today and I take it upon myself to bring up [Lil'] Ceez like he woulda brought up Ceez. 'Cause a lot of people question like what Ceez and Kim was gonna do after Biggie death.
My way of showing Big how much love I have for him is to make sure his family is alright. 'Cause it's easy to love somebody while you benefiting also. What about when you not benefiting also? Biggie ain't on my album, but I'm a still make sure Ceez is alright like to the best of my ability. I probably can't do what Big wanted to do, but I'm a do the best that Mase could do. Biggie was like a brother to me. Biggie gave me my first check. Biggie gave me a check before Puff gave me a big check when it ain't have nothing to do with anything. He just wanted to see me out of the street and wanted to see me doing something for myself.
Carry a tune in a bucket and some might spill it. Yet, reduce the game to a money-making compromise and you may catch a glimpse of paradise.
The criticism runs a little something like this: they get over on repackaging, beat-jacking, re-looping, stripping, whatever it takes. Zapp, Ross, Flash, Winbush, Sting, whoever. It's become annoying. Ingrating. They make us mad. They make us irate. They make us nod. They make us dance. They make us buy their damn records.
HarlemWorld offers a perfect balance of taut beats, full strings and raucous bass-predictable Bad Boy manipulations with less sample-shoplifting ("3 out of 14 ain't bad"). "Jealous Guys" is a hilarious 'why u on my jock' tale featuring the soulful harmonics of 112 ("as my back-up singers") while cuts like "Tell Me What You Want From Me" & the thumping "Why You Over There Looking At Me" are splendid tunes of self-indulgent flurries.
Anybody that hate to see you do good is hating a playa. When I say 'playa-hater,' I don't mean you hate me 'cause I'm a playa. I mean you hate me 'cause I'm just playing a good game of life. All this is, is a game of life, Whoever play the hardest and do the most things is gonna win. They gonna win in life.
Make the best outta your situation, 'cause I'm a make the best outta my situation. I don't want [my album] to offend anybody or anything like that. But I just want them to know that whatever you don't want to do, it's somebody out there that wanna do it. And every time you get tired and you feel like you don't want to go to the studio, its somebody in Oklahoma that would love to be in the studio.
— Cleon Alert