Welcome back (again)? Four Thoughts on Ma$e's Return to Hip-Hop

Ma$e is back in the news again. 

The latest on the rapper-turned-pastor-turned-back-to-rapper is that Betha is leaving his pastor position for a full-fledged return to hip-hop.  

Full disclosure: I grew up a fan of Ma$e. 

Not just pop culture icon Ma$e that was P. Diddy's sidekick at the height of the Bad Boy era, but Murder Mase that rapped with Cam'Ron and Big L in a group called Children of the Corn. Back before he was even famous, I was a fan of his work on the mixtape scene coming out of New York.  

I watched Ma$e's story with great interest because I became a Christian at the same time that Ma$e left hip-hop for the first time to pursue his own spiritual journey.  I even went to a college in Baltimore to hear Ma$e speak at the Hell is Not Full Tour. 

 

With Ma$e's most recent return to hip-hop, here are four thoughts that I have. 


1. I hope the response of the church is to bend their knees in prayer for Ma$e and not just shake their fingers in judgment. 

Some people find it hard to have sympathy for millionaires. I don't. Unlike me, Ma$e's entire spiritual journey has been open to public scrutiny. 

Ma$e watched  label mate and close friend die Christopher "Notorious B.I.G." die violently. Ma$e recently went through a divorce.  Reportedly, he also lost the custody case for his kids. 

Regardless of what you think of Ma$e as a pastor, theologian or Christian  - and I am sure Ma$e and I would have some sharp theological differences - he is still a person made in the image of God still in need of the mercy of Christ. 

2. I wish Ma$e's path would have been more like No Malice and Jin. 

Ma$e isn't the only recognizable name to abandon his platform in hip-hop to follow Christ. Malice from the Clipse and former Ruff Ryder artist Jin also land in that category. There is a difference, however. In Ma$e's book, Revelations: There's Light after the Lime,  he spoke of distancing himself from hip-hop because of all of the evils associated with the genre. 

Jin and Malice (who is now No Malice) have taken a different approach: to engage hip-hop culture for Christ from the inside. Although Jin and No Malice are bold in their proclamation of being Christ-followers, they still rap and identify with hip-hop culture as a whole. They still make quality hip-hop music, but they have changed their content to be consistent with their beliefs and their worldview. 

In return, they have found a new audience of fans of hip-hop music who share their beliefs. The rappers and that fan base mutually encourage one another. I wish Ma$e would have have been a bigger part of that community, too. 


3. Church leadership is for the spiritually mature. 

In the New Testament, the apostle Paul lays out a list of church leadership qualifications in letters written to young church leaders named Timothy and Titus. 

The standard is super high. And, as the New Testament states, it is not a calling for those new to the Christian faith. The faithfulness and maturity that Christian leadership requires must be cooked on a crock pot on low, not in a frying pan on high. 

I don't know Ma$e personally. Never met him. In my own situation, I've had wise men of God look to see if I was ready to take steps into Christian leadership. I don't know if Ma$e had these type of men in his life or not, but I just sincerely hope that he wasn't rushed into the pulpit to leverage his influence without his maturity ever having been inspected. That would be unfair to both Ma$e and any congregation he led. 

 4. How Christians approach the arts (in this case hip-hop) really matters. 

There is one line of Christian thought that says Christ wants to be glorified in everything, so Christians should be active in the mainstream film, music and television industries. And not just active, but leading the way. 

There is another opposite line of thought that says that these things are so evil that Christians should retreat. Rather than influencing, this line of reasoning goes, we will only be influenced. 

At the first reading of Ma$e's book a decade ago, it seemed the people influencing him may have subscribed to the latter form of Christian thinking. It was almost like there was this line in the sand: choose between hip-hop or Jesus. 

To me, the dream scenario would have been for a group of godly men to entrust the truths of the gospel to Ma$e,  preparing him to go back into hip-hop with an understanding of how to use his mainstream hip-hop platform for Christ. Not by saying Jesus in every sentence, but by addressing the same subject matter as other rappers from a distinctly Christian viewpoint. 

Then the church could have cheered his return to hip-hop as a missionary. 

And not mourned his return as a musician. 

I write these blogs as conversation-starters. I would love to hear thoughts! What do you think about Ma$e's return for hip-hop? 

Chris Lassiter is a Christ-follower, a husband to Emily, and father of five kids. He has written articles for VIBE, The News Leader, Rapzilla.com, HipHopDX.com, JamTheHype.com and the Young Life Relationships Magazine. His first book, You're Grounded, was published by Moody Publications. You can read about it and purchase it here.