Mase

Mason "Mase" Betha was already being groomed for stardom by Sean "Puffy" Combs when the murder of Bad Boy Records star Notorious B.I.G. in 1997 pushed him into the center of the label's universe. On Harlem World, Mase played his position with cool, understated flair: "I'm the newest member of the Bad Boy team/And I'ma bring this nigga Puff mad more cream." But Mase's remarkably simple rhymes are filled with weak, unimaginative lines, and his monotone style is more lethargic than laid-back. Still, he epitomized the jiggy late '90s and glorified the luxe life like no rapper before him: "No problem gettin' cars/Whole entourage in the Mount Airy Lodge/When you very large, never spend cheddar, you charge/Get my daily ménage, Halle Berry massage."

Unlike the average hip-hop album, Harlem World features a bevy of singers -- 112, Monifah, Total, Billy Lawrence -- and superslick, highly danceable grooves that owe more to R&B than to hip-hop. Samples of Kool & the Gang, Teena Marie, Curtis Mayfield, and Michael Jackson inform "Feel So Good," "Love U So," "What You Want," and "Cheat on You." Mase frequently plays the tough-guy role ("Niggaz Wanna Act," "Take What's Yours," "Will They Die 4 You?"), claiming, "I was Murder/P. Diddy named me pretty," though there's really no bite in the dimpled playboy's bark.

Capitalizing on the massive success of Harlem World (more than 4 million copies sold in the U.S.), Mase formed his own record label and fronts the Harlem World collective on the utterly forgettable Mase Presents Harlem World: The Movement. A little more than a month after The Movement's release, Mase shocked the world when he announced his immediate retirement from hip-hop, eventually revealing that he'd decided to become a minister. Double Up, recorded before his announcement but released months later, copied Harlem World's formula with few variations. But Mase's rhymes, lazy at their best, seem wholly uninspired as his debut's nouveau riche bliss turns into angry disillusionment on tracks like "Make Me Cry," "Same Niggas," and "Fuck Me? Fuck You." In the summer of 2004, Mase returned with the single "Welcome Back," which sampled the theme from Welcome Back, Kotter. Now how did we know this was coming? (KRIS EX)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide