The divide between Mase and Diddy continues. The former friends and collaborators haven’t worked together in years, but their relationship was recently revisited when Mason Betha aired out alleged dirty laundry. According to a lengthy Instagram post made by the Harlem World rapper, he was disheartened by Diddy’s comments about “black love” and “black excellence” because the music mogul wouldn’t even sell him his publishing.
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Mase wrote that he approached Diddy with $2 million in hopes of purchasing his publishing, but the Bad Boy Records founder rejected him. “Your response was if I can match what the EUROPEAN GUY OFFER him that would be the only way I can get it back,” Mase said. “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. This is not black excellence at all.”
Later, Joe Budden came forward to say he agreed with Mase, and now, former 112 member Q Parker, too, says he sides with the Grammy-nominated rapper. TMZ caught up with Q and asked him about the disagreement, and the singer said that all artists should be keenly aware of their contracts. “I get where Mason’s coming from ’cause I’m in the same situation,” he said. “I want the other half of my publishing back, too.”
It’s not an easy feat. “However, there’s a contract that we signed when we were teenagers and legally he did nothing wrong,” Q added. He said they received the “industry standards for back in the ’90s. He’s asking Puffy to make a personal and emotional decision, and I don’t’ know if he’s gon’ do that.”
A Clive Davis’s pre-Grammy gala, Diddy gave a speech scolding the academy for its rejection of hip hop music throughout the years. “Now, where I do think he was wrong was asking the academy to do something that he’s not willing to do,” Q said, adding that you can’t celebrate black greatness and be a shrewd businessman because “they’re in conflict.” Watch his clip below.
