Mase Says All His Success “Was Puff’s Success” Prior To “Feel So Good”

Mase recalls feeling watered down as an artist upon first signing to Bad Boy Records.

In the latest episode of Complex TV’s Magnum Opus, Mase and a handful of other artists provided a breakdown of the Harlem, New York rapper’s debut single, “Feel So Good.”

Prior to the success of “Feel So Good,” Mase revealed that at that point in his career any success he had “was Puff’s success.” He then recalled hearing the record for the first time and being skeptical of the song’s beat.

According to Mase, the verse he ultimately ended up using on “Feel So Good” was a verse he created to another beat.

“Up until that point, all my success was Puff’s success,” Mase said. “So, when he got a Grammy or when he got a Billboard Award I would go up there and get it with him, but it wasn’t my award. So, once I had ‘Feel So Good’ it was like my first record that did really well for me…When I first heard the record I was thinking ‘This is different.’ Cause it was like ‘Dan-da-dun-dun-na-na’…I wrote two verses that Puff was like he didn’t like. And I was thinking ‘Well, I don’t really like the beat.’”

Prior to addressing his initial hesitancy towards “Feel So Good” and the song’s beat, Mase recalled rapping for Puff Daddy while at a club in Atlanta, Georgia. He says Puff was so impressed with his rhymes that the Bad Boy Records founder started dancing as he was rapping.

Shortly after their encounter in Atlanta, Mase revealed that he was invited to appear on 112 and The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Only You.” Despite appearing on “Only You” just weeks after meeting Puff, Mase says he was worried about being watered down as an artist.

“So, then I started rapping for Puff. Puff just started dancing. Everybody’s looking at Puff dancing while I’m rapping. And then Puff just told me ‘When you get back to New York don’t talk to nobody. You gonna be signed to Bad Boy.’ And I got back to New York and within like a week I was on ‘Only You’…At that time I’m Murda Mase. I’m not thinking no ‘Hum all you want to. Come all you want to.’ I’m like ‘They’re trying to water me down. They’re trying to make me soft’…At that time it was so much dark stuff. We did not need another record to come out that wasn’t party and fun.”

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