Kanye West on Mase:
Hands down, the best rapper of all time.
One-time Bad Boy Records flag-waver Mase is joining G-Unit.
You tell 'em, Ian from Great Neck!
"When I came back to Bad Boy, they didn't want me to go where I wanted to go [with the music]," he said about the content of his comeback LP, last year's Welcome Back. "They wanted me to do what was safe for them. I had to pretty much sabotage myself."
It's not often you hear someone associate the theme song to Welcome Back, Kotter with sabotage.
"Everybody knows who I am."
Yes, a pastor with his own ministry, the Saving a Nation Endangered Church International, which, coincidentally, is also the title of the next Coheed and Cambria album.
So he wanted to interpolate "Jesus Walks" instead of "La Isla Bonita" by Madonna. Fair enough. The public shalt not listen to false prophets, right?
Still…G-Unit?
I suppose if Chad Gilbert can successfully jump from Shai Hulud to New Found Glory, Mase can surely thrive in the company of predicate felons and other mismodified nouns.
"I ain't going to be 50," the Harlem native continued about what his new material is going to sound like. "I ain't gonna be Usher, but right in between."
Between 50 Cent and Usher — that's quite a broad spectrum.
However:
"Hedonistic thug" plus "dim-witted narcissist" divided by two equals, well, Puffy.