There’s a rift in the Bad Boy family.
Just days after Sean “Diddy” Combs slammed the Grammys for disrespecting black music, Mase took to Instagram to put his former label boss on blast for his “horrendous” business practices. In a lengthy Instagram post, Mase called out Puff for “robbing and tarnishing” him by taking his publishing in return for “peanuts” and not selling it back to him.
Mase posted a photo of Meek Mill who called out “different race men” for signing young black artists to “slave contracts” before taking Diddy to task for being a hypocrite and “enslaving” his own artists with unfair deals.
“@diddy 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,” he began. “Also, before we ask of other ethnicities to do us right we should do us as black people better. Especially the creators.”
He claims that Diddy still owns his publishing from 24 years ago, for which he paid him $20,000. “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. For example, u still got my publishing from 24 years ago in which u gave me $20k. Which makes me never want to work w/ u as any artist wouldn’t after u know someone is robbing you & tarnishing your name when u don’t want to comply w/ his horrendous business model.”
View this post on InstagramA post shared by MA$E (@rsvpmase) on Jan 31, 2020 at 9:08am PST
Despite his grievances, he said he was “forced” to perform with Diddy throughout the years. “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 says he offered Diddy $2 million to buy back his publishing, but Diddy refused unless he was willing to match a higher offer. “To add insult, u keep screaming black excellence and love but I know love isn’t free. 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.”
He added, “This is not black excellence at all. When our own race is enslaving us. If it’s about us owning, it can’t be about us owning each other. No More Hiding Behind ‘Love’. U CHANGED? GIVE THE ARTIST BACK THEIR $$$. So they can take care of their families.”
The post comes just days after Mase, along with Faith Evans, Carl Thomas, and Lil’ Kim, performed as part of a tribute to Diddy at The Recording Academy and Clive Davis’ Pre-Grammy Gala in Beverly Hills last weekend. Diddy thanked Mase, along with the rest of the Bad Boy roster, during his acceptance speech. He also put the Grammys on blast for not respecting hip-hop and black music. “Truth be told, hip-hop has never been respected by the Grammys. Black music has never been respected by the Grammys to the point that it should,” he said.
Mase is not the first Bad Boy signee to speak out against Diddy’s business practices. Aubrey O’Day also claimed that Danity Kane was never fairly compensated. “It wasn’t even money because we never make any,” she told MTV News in 2015. “We have two platinum albums [and] grossed over a million dollars on Christina Aguilera’s Back To Basics Tour…We came off that tour $15,000 in debt and grossed millions.”
