Mase

Mason Durell Betha (born August 27, 1975), better known by his mononym Mase (formerly Murda Mase and stylized as Ma$e), is an American rapper.

Mason Durell Betha was born in Jacksonville, Florida, on August 27, 1975, as a fraternal twin born almost two months premature, to P. K. and Mason Betha.

He grew up with two brothers and three sisters, including his twin sister, Stason, born a few minutes after him.

Their father left the family when Mase was just three years old.

In 1980, his mother moved with her children to Harlem, New York, where Mase spent the majority of his childhood.

During his early teenage years, Betha began getting into trouble on the streets of Harlem, and when he was 13 his mother sent him back to Jacksonville to live with relatives.

It was while living in Jacksonville that Betha first began attending church.

Prior, Mase performed as a member of the hip hop group Children of the Corn, which he formed with New York City-based rappers Cam'ron and Big L in 1993.

After returning to live in Harlem at age 15, Betha began showing promise as a basketball player, becoming the leading point guard for his team at Manhattan Center High School during the 1993 season, where he played alongside Cameron Giles, who went on to be known as the rapper Cam'ron.

He had hopes of joining the National Basketball Association (NBA), but was unable to make it into a Division I College due to his poor academic scores.

He attended State University of New York at Purchase, where he grew to realize he was unlikely to make the NBA and instead began focusing more on writing music, producing demo tapes, and regularly performing at local nightclubs.

Betha eventually dropped out of college and focused on his music career full-time.

After Betha returned to Harlem, he and his childhood friend Cam'ron began rapping as a hobby under the names Murda Mase and Killa Cam, briefly forming a group known as the Children of the Corn ("corn" short for "corner") with fellow Harlem rappers Big L, Herb McGruff, Six Figga Digga and Bloodshed.

Damon Dash, a fellow Manhattan Center student, was the group's manager for a while.

Best known for his work with Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs' Bad Boy Records, he signed with the label in 1996 and quickly found mainstream recognition as Combs' hype man.

In 1996, Mase's sister Stason introduced him to Cudda Love, a road manager for the Notorious B.I.G.

Cudda took then 20-year-old Mase to Atlanta, Georgia, where Jermaine Dupri and Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs were attending a rap convention.

Shortly after meeting and rapping for Puff Daddy at the Hard Rock Café, Mase signed a $250,000 deal with Bad Boy Records.

Within a week of signing to the label, Betha had his stage name shortened from Murda Mase to simply Mase to make him more marketable and was featured on and in the video for 112's "Only You" with the Notorious B.I.G. He also appeared on numerous hit songs with other Bad Boy artists, including Puff Daddy's "Can't Nobody Hold Me Down" and "Been Around the World" and the Notorious B.I.G.'s "Mo' Money, Mo' Problems", which reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Mase's first studio album, Harlem World, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Pop and R&B LP charts, selling over 270,000 copies in the U.S. during its first week of release.

It has since achieved 4× Platinum status in the United States.

The album spawned hit singles such as "Feel So Good" and "Lookin' at Me", which both reached No. 1 on the Rap Billboard charts, as well as "What You Want", which peaked at No. 3 on both the Rap and R&B Billboard charts.

He guest appeared on Combs' 1997 single, "Can't Nobody Hold Me Down", which peaked atop the Billboard Hot 100, while his singles as a lead artist, "Feel So Good" (featuring Kelly Price) and "What You Want" (featuring Total) both peaked within the top ten of the chart.

Released in October of that year, his debut studio album, Harlem World (1997) peaked atop the Billboard 200 chart, received quadruple platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and spawned his third top ten single as a lead artist, "Lookin' at Me" (featuring Puff Daddy).

Furthermore, his guest performances on labelmate the Notorious B.I.G.'s single "Mo Money Mo Problems" and Puff Daddy's "Been Around the World" peaked at numbers one and two on the Billboard Hot 100, respectively, that same year.

During 1997, Mase also appeared on songs with Puff Daddy, Mariah Carey's "Honey", Brian McKnight's "You Should Be Mine (Don't Waste Your Time)", and Brandy's "Top of the World".

In 1998, Mase formed his own record label, All Out Records.

He signed his group Harlem World, which included his twin sister, Stason, to the label while they were also under So So Def Recordings.

He and Harlem World member Blinky Blink were featured on Blackstreet & Mýa's song "Take Me There", which appeared on the soundtrack of The Rugrats Movie.

Two years later, he formed the hip hop group Harlem World, who signed with Jermaine Dupri's So So Def Recordings to release the album, The Movement (1999) during Mase's mainstream peak.

Meanwhile, his second album, Double Up (1999) peaked at number 11 on the Billboard 200, followed by a five-year recording hiatus in favor of Christian ministry.

Mase's second album, Double Up, was released in 1999 on Bad Boy and sold 107,000 copies in its first week, debuting at No. 11 on the US Top 200 chart.

In Double Up Mase's lyrics became more aggressive.

On April 20, 1999, during an interview with Funkmaster Flex on New York radio station Hot 97, Mase announced his retirement from music to pursue a "calling from God".

He claimed he was "leading people, friends, kids and others down a path to hell", stating that he left to find God in his heart and follow him.

He said it was time for him to serve God in "his" way, saying rap was not real, and that he wanted to deal with reality and had become unhappy with what he did, no matter how much money it had made him.

The same year, Mase enrolled as a freshman at Clark Atlanta University, a historically black college, and began taking classes on August 19.

Unlike other freshmen, Mase was permitted to live off campus and commute, but he is said to have downplayed his past as a rapper and stayed fairly low-key while on campus.

His third album, Welcome Back (2004) peaked at number four on the chart and spawned the top 40 single(s) of the same name and "Breathe, Stretch, Shake" (featuring Puff Daddy).

Despite receiving gold certifications by the RIAA, both albums were met with largely mixed critical reception and he parted ways with Bad Boy after the latter; his subsequent releases have been few and far between, and each failed to chart.