For years, one of the most pernicious and prevalent narratives running through hip-hop for the past two decades has been that Diddy withheld royalties from his Bad Boy artists, especially Mase, who has repeatedly gone on record with complaints about his former label boss. However, Diddy decided to defend himself on The Breakfast Club, winding up not only challenging his longtime frenemy to “bring your receipts” but also calling him a “fake pastor” who “conned people.”
“I did one album with Mase,” he noted. One album. How much money do you think I owe this guy? And then he became a fake pastor and went and conned people. And y’all gon’ let him throw dirt on the god’s name. Anybody can come and step up. Bring your receipts. But I’m not playing. I’m back outside and I’m fighting back for us. And I’m also doing some fighting back for me.”
In fact, he says, the debtor situation between them is actually vice versa from how it’s been pitched over the years. “Mase owes me $3 million,” Diddy asserted. “That’s facts, I got the receipts. And I’m not gon’ go back-and-forth with Ma$e. I’m not going back and forth with nobody. I’m just gonna speak up for myself now. Anybody that thinks I owe them something, show me the receipt and you’ll get paid within 24 hours.”
'Anybody that thinks I owe them something, send the receipts you'll get paid in 24 hours.' – Diddy
Diddy is back outside 😅 pic.twitter.com/sN8lg3MY6R
— PRESENCE (@TazerBlack) October 5, 2022
Diddy isn’t the first or only music impresario to be accused of shady business practices but for what it’s worth, most of the time it seems these disagreements stem from young artists not understanding how their record contracts work. It could also be argued that the industry standard for contracts is what was shady from the start but at least there’s some semi-solid (albeit risk averse) reasoning behind it. Mase should have at least a little experience with this; he recently defended himself from Fivio Foreign’s claim that he only gave him a minuscule advance.
As far as Diddy’s assertion that he only did one album with Mase goes, that could be slightly inaccurate, considering Bad Boy put out three Mase albums, Harlem World, Double Up, and Welcome Back, all of which have gone at least Gold. Depending on Mase’s advance and the marketing budgets, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle between both men’s personal stories.
