Last week, Sean “Diddy” Combs used his moment at the podium as a Grammys Industry Icon award-winner to call on the Recording Academy to treat hip-hop and Black music better. Now, his former Bad Boy music collaborator, Mason “Ma$e” Betha is asking the music mogul to take some of his own advice.
“Every year y’all be killing us, man,” Diddy said in his now viral call out. “The amount of time it takes to make these records, to pour your heart into it, and you just want an even playing field.”
While notables such as Beyonce were captured giving the moment a rousing response from the audience, Friday, Ma$e took to his Instagram to point out what he believes to be a glaring hypocrisy in Diddy’s stance.
“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,” M$se posted in his lengthy caption.
The former Bad Boy artist then goes on to make claims that 24 years ago, Diddy only gave him $20,000 for his publishing rights, which he added has made him “never want to work” with him again because, “any artist wouldn’t after u know someone is robbing you & tarnishing your name when u don’t want to comply w/ his horrendous business model.”
Ma$e signed with Bad Boy in 1996 entering the public eye with lyrics on Diddy’s “Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down” and his debut album the next year “Harlem World” went 4x platinum. But in 1999, he announced his retirement from music to pursue religious commitments, even becoming an ordained minister after enrolling at Clark Atlanta University.