Believe it or not, youngins, at one point in rap, Mase was leading the way. The rapper-turned-pastor-turned-podcaster was the poster child for Bad Boy Records. However, seemingly out of nowhere, on April 20, 1999, he formally announced his retirement from the game Funkmaster Flex’s radio show, citing religious reasons.
Shortly after, he made his widely embraced comeback in 2004 with the track “Welcome Back.” However, his passion for the game had dwindled. In the years following a nasty feud with his former label head, Diddy was all the public could talk about. On Friday, March 22, during a recent episode of his co-hosted podcast, It Is What It Is, he claimed his retirement from rap was ultimately to “escape” Diddy.
“Everything, now, that we see playing out was all the things that I escaped,” he said, seemly referring to the mountain of allegations Diddy is facing. “The car. The Shyne. The Loon. Puff Daddy. Craig Mack. Biggie Smalls. So, even though I made those decisions and it cost me money, that’s why [when] I got with [Cam’Ron], [God] gave me the money back. I didn’t [really] lose no money. Destiny.”
What started as a conversation about the start of Kobe (R.I.P.) and Vanessa Bryant’s relationship, life, and destiny led Mase to think about his past.
Watch the full episode above (however, the remarks start around the 1-minute and 4-second mark).