Ma$e Liked Tupac Over The Notorious B.I.G. When He Signed To Bad Boy

Ma$e may be a legendary Bad Boy artist but he was a bigger fan of Tupac than The Notorious B.I.G.

On the latest episode of It Is What It Is, Ma$e shared the events that led to him signing with Diddy’s label and his relationship with Biggie.

Upon his arrival to the Bad Boy scene, Ma$e said he spent significant time “working on my flow, working on my bars, working on my delivery.” He also studied the greats to refine his skills.

“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.”

He then admitted that he was playing Tupac’s music more than his tunes of his future label mate.

“I wasn’t at first listening to Big. I was more like a Tupac fan. So when I got signed to Bad Boy, it was like, now I’m with Bad Boy, but I was really a Tupac fan.”

Eventually, Biggie won him over and catapulted him to stardom by allowing him to rock on the historic Apollo stage.

“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.”

As time went on, Ma$e would perform several classic tracks with Biggie. His debut was on 112’s remix of “Only You” featuring him and Biggie. Ma$e was featured on Biggie’s “Mo Money, Mo Problems” which topped the Billboard 100 for two weeks. The same year, they also performed “Been Around the World” which peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100.