Throwback: '98 Mase

"I cant get mad that you look at me, cause on the real...look at me."

Mase's flow and delivery were underappreciated at the time, although I always considered him one of the illest. He was a definitive part of my favortie era of rap (1996-1999). He carried  the torch for Puffy's Biggie-less Bad Boy Records and became their franchise artist. Mase smiled, danced, and kept it gangsta all at the same time. Like he said, "I was Murda, P. Diddy made me pretty / Did it for the money, now can you get with me?" He made songs for the fellas - "Take What's Yours" featuring a relatively unknown DMX. He made songs for the ladies "Love U So" and he also made songs for the family "Feel So Good". What I cant ignore is the unfortunate fact that all these songs came from his first album, Harlem World, and that Mase officially falls into the one-album-wonder category. But instead of going in on him for his post Bad Boy slip-ups and his attempt to cash in on Christianity, or his stint with G-Unit, I'll just remember Mase for who he was back in 1998: jiggy-ass, cheesin-ass, half-retarted lookin' beast on the mic.