Ma$e learned the lesson of shady managers early on when his first-ever business manager ran off with his money – along with cash belonging to some of his other clients.
The Harlem native recalled the story on an episode of his It Is What It Is sports talk show with Cam’ron that was released on Friday (February 23).
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“When I first got a deal with Bad Boy Records, right, I think it was my first business manager — he ran off not just with my money, he ran off with everybody money, so we ain’t have no money to pay taxes,” Ma$e said. “This n-gga ran off with everybody money. Like, we couldn’t find them, and it was so easy to just say, ‘Oh DMX, he ain’t got the money because of this,’ or, ‘This person ain’t got the money because of that.’
He continued: “And then when I look back, I think a bunch of us… I think it was, I don’t want to say nobody name, but it was a few rappers more than a handful of.”
The conversation begins around the 49:40 mark in the clip below:
Last year, another mismanaged moment from early in his career came full circle when Ma$e’s long-running battle with Diddy over the rights to his publishing finally came to an end.
In August, Cam’ron took to Instagram to congratulate his Harlem rap brethren for “[getting] his publishing back from Puff,” adding that he “just finished the paperwork” earlier this week and is now “getting his music back in order.”
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“My n-gga murder had to sit this one out. He just got his publishing back from Puff. Just finished the paper work for that yesterday,” he wrote in the caption. “Congrats @rsvpmase while he getting his music back in order, I’m dumping my hard drive pause. The lost files vol 1. Sept 8.”
Ma$e had long been vocal about his issues with Diddy, whose Bad Boy Records he was signed to in the late ’90s and early ‘2000s. But their dispute over his publishing came to a head in 2020 when the Harlem native put his former label boss on blast on social media.
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In a scathing Instagram post, Murda Ma$e claimed Puff took advantage of him by giving him just $20,000 for his publishing rights when he first joined Bad Boy and later turned down his $2million offer to buy back his catalog.
His outburst came after Diddy gave a lengthy speech at Clive Davis’ pre-Grammy gala, in which he scolded the Recording Academy for not “respecting” Black Hip Hop and R&B artists.
“I heard u loud and clear when u said that u are now for the artist and to that my response is if u want to see change you can make a change today by starting with yourself,” Ma$e wrote. “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.”
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He added: “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. This is not black excellence at all.”
