Harlem World: The 20th Anniversary

20 years ago, there was this skinny, fly guy from Harlem. His style was laid back and he always smiled. Growing up in the streets of New York, nobody likes a person whose always smiling because it didn’t reflect the lifestyle of the streets. The streets are rough and nothing to play with but this guy made it okay for rappers to come from that lifestyle, be fresh, dance a little in your music videos, especially if you’re signed to Diddy and the Bad Boy family, and still smile. This guy was close friends with Cam’ron, Damon Dash was his manager until Big L came into the picture but it wasn’t until his sister got him to meet a guy named Cudda Love. Cudda Love was a road manager for The Notorious B.I.G. and in 1996, Cudda took this guy with him to Atlanta to meet Jermaine Dupri and Diddy. After meeting with Diddy, he was signed to Bad Boy. This guy we speaking of here is Mason Betha aka Ma$e. On October 28th, 1997, Ma$e released his debut album “Harlem World.” A hip hop album that only focused on life in Harlem, the streets, partying, having a good time, looking good, and getting with every pretty woman who walks by with a cute face and a fat ass. With only three singles released and an appearance on the remix of 112’s “Only You”, Ma$e quickly became a superstar overnight and took hip hop to its “bling bling” and shiny suit era. True hip hop fans weren’t pleased with the extravagance of things being in hip hop. It’s supposed to strictly be about the hard knock life but Ma$e definitely had his fair share of telling those hood tales too. Who’s to say that hip hop didn’t already get a taste of that bling bling life when LL put out “Walking With a Panther”? The only difference is that LL got flack for it, Ma$e didn’t get the same flack LL got but let’s keep it on topic. That’s a whole ‘nother story. After the success of “Harlem World”, nothing after that was as successful. Mase did appear on other songs and eventually put out more music but nothing had the same magic as “Harlem World.” Mase is one of those guys where people would debate whether or not he’s a legend. He may have not had a long lasting career but his debut is definitely something to still enjoy from start to finish. It’s a classic only from it’s time when hip hop when fully “bling bling.”