Ma$e Admits He Preferred 2Pac To Biggie When He Joined Bad Boy: ‘I Wasn’t [Bumping] Big’

Ma$e has revealed that back when he first signed to Bad Boy Records, he had a heretical opinion: he preferred listening to 2Pac, rather than the label’s star artist The Notorious B.I.G.

On the Wednesday (March 5) episode of his show with Cam’ron, It Is What It Is, the Harlem rapper and host looked back at his relationship with Biggie. He said in particular that Big bringing him onstage during a show at Harlem’s Apollo Theater was a key moment in his career.

Leading up to signing with Bad Boy, Ma$e mentioned that he spent time “working on my flow, working on my bars, working on my delivery.”

“I worked on it for like six months,” he explained. “I studied people like Method Man, I studied people like LL. I got my waves from Nas, I got my bounce from Method Man, I got my songwriting from LL.”

During this period, he laughed: “I wasn’t at first listening to Big. I was more like a 2Pac fan. So when I got signed to Bad Boy, it was like, now I’m with Bad Boy, but I was really a 2Pac fan.”

But, he continued: “Biggie was letting me hear his raps… And I learned so much about rap like that. And then one day, he was performing at the Apollo, and he brought me out, and that was the part that just changed everything.”

Check out the video below, beginning at around the six minute mark.

In other Ma$e news, he was recently the victim of some badmouthing from Jim Jones.

In a video conversation with XXL published on Tuesday (March 4) the Dipset capo resorted to “body-shaming” — his words.

Interviewer Joey Ech brought up Ma$e’s name early on in their conversation, asking for Jones’ thoughts on “where Ma$e is at in his career, and just his Hip Hop legacy in general.”

That was all it took for Jim to fire off a series of insults.

“He need to go on a diet,” Jones said of Ma$e. “He need to get his life together. He need to go to the doctor and get a physical. He look terrible.”

He continued: “N-gga look big around the neck, waist look crazy. I’m body-shaming this n-gga. He need to go get his shit together, get on the treadmill, do some push-ups, do something, especially if you’re playing with me. You gonna need it.”

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While Jim’s tirade about Ma$e may be tied to the “We Fly High” rapper’s current feud with Cam’ron, with whom Ma$e cohosts It Is What It Is, their differences go back much further.

Back in January, Jones explained why he has longstanding issues with Ma$e — and it’s all do with how he used to treat Cam.

Appearing on Justin Laboy’s Respectfully podcast, Respectfully, the Dipset rapper spoke about growing up around Killa Cam and allegedly seeing the Harlem World hitmaker treat him differently after his career blew up.

“I watched Ma$e shit on Cam and everybody around him. Like, all the time,” he said. “I was Cam’s man, you heard? Cam and Ma$e were so-called best friends, grew up together… I was there for everything. That’s one thing people can’t never say, is that I wasn’t there for every single thing.”