S. Samuel
G.O.O.D Music's Pusha T recently talked about his new My Name Is My Name solo album hitting store shelves this month and why he felt it was necessary to change up his flow in honor of former Bad Boy Records protégé Ma$e.
The Pusha Man credited his Kelly Rowland-featured “Street Life” track for inspiring him to go all R&B-meets-Ma$e.
“There’s a record I got on the album with Kelly Rowland and I sort of wanted people to understand that I got a love for R&B too,” Pusha explained in an interview. “People look at me like, ‘Man, it’s just street hip-hop raps.’ And I’m like, man, do you know that Teddy Riley moved to Virginia Beach and ruled my whole life? I just thought he was the greatest person ever. I wanted people to know that so I went ahead and I took the Ma$e flow because that’s something else people don’t know and I did this sort of in the same vain as B.I.G. would rhyme as Too $hort.” (NPR)
Pusha also acknowledged how learning about artists like B.I.G. being influenced by non-East Coast rappers inspired him to take more chances with his tunes.
“B.I.G. was like the greatest rapper to me,” Pusha added. “I didn’t know he liked Too $hort, man. When I heard [that], I was like, ‘Too $hort? B.I.G.? What are y’all doing?’ But it was amazing. That’s what I was sort of just trying to get across the people with this album. I feel like My Name Is My Name, the title, it’s all about me. The artwork, that’s why the artwork is so stripped down. It was about minimalism because we’re living off lyrics and beats and songs and that’s what we’re getting across. No filler.” (NPR)
Known for going ghost, Dipset’s Cam’ron recently revealed the last time he spoke to Mason Betha.
Before Cam founded the celebrated crew Dipset, he was best known as a member of the Harlem group Children of the Corn alongside Ma$e and a few other rap friends (R.I.P. Big L). Cam says they came up as brothers, but their friendship now isn’t what it used to be. “I haven’t spoken to Ma$e in about three or four years,” he says. “Ma$e just be up and down. Ma$e, he’ll do the church thing and then he’ll go on his Instagram and he’ll be like, ‘F it.'” (Complex)
A few weeks ago, Atlanta rapper 2 Chainz talked about snagging Ma$e for his latest solo effort.
“Murda Ma$e,” Chainz said referencing Ma$e’s appearance on the album. “I just think it’s truthful Ma$e. I ain’t heard him do this before so I gotta keep this. This was like a diary Ma$e. Like, he just let us read a page out of his diary, on this particular song. It’s called ‘Beautiful Pain,’ produced by C-Note, it’s kind of a feel-good record, it’s not ratchet as people would think most of my records are. … Me and Ma$e do have a record on the album, I’m definitely excited about people hearing that record.” (Power 106 FM)
Last month, Young Money’s Drake expressed an interest in inking the former Bad Boy.
“Funny enough, me and Ma$e have just been talking about what the future holds, about what he wants to do and anything is possible man. I told Ma$e, ‘You’re Ma$e, at the end of the day so I don’t think you should end up on anybody else’s label. … I would love to be involved. I know Kanye took an interest in Ma$e as well, because Ma$e is like the original fly guy that made it all look extremely fun, dancing. … There’s a lot of rappers who get out there and take themselves super serious and it’s not fun like that. They don’t laugh. Those guys got out there and proved why there are who they are. Two kings doing what they were born to do. I’d love to work with Ma$e to be honest. I told him, ‘man I hope tonight’s not our last conversation.’ It’s been cool, we kicked it and just went out and and got something to eat.” (RapFix)
