I thought this was a pretty good article, esp. since Ma$e turned pastor the media has pretty much ignored him:


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-Posted on Mon, Jul. 15, 2002

Rap star's revelation leads to a new lifestyle
RUBÉN ROSARIO
Pioneer Press Columnist

At the height of his popularity three years ago, star rapper Ma$e was wearing $150,000 bracelets on his wrists, bedding a daily smorgasbord of women, tooling around in Hummers and Benzes, and raking in the dough.

But, on the eve of signing a reported $10 million record deal with Sean "P-Diddy'' Combs' Bad Boys Entertainment record label, the 26-year-old Florida-born, Harlem-raised performer stunned the rap music industry by abruptly leaving it.

Most epiphanies come during the darkest of hours. Some come with the last drop from a bottle or syringe. Others come inside a prison cell, or from the imaginary ones we build ourselves. Mason Betha experienced his while making love to a woman at a ritzy hotel. He got sick to his stomach.

"Isn't this making you sick? Aren't you tired of the lifestyle?'' he recalls a voice saying in his recent autobiography, "Revelations: There's Light After the Lime.''

Now, as pastor of an Atlanta-based ministry, the baby-faced former rapper with the winsome smile is putting a hip-hop twist on the "money can't buy happiness'' refrain. The man who summarily dissed women and praised the almighty buck and the "player way'' in his lyrics will be in St. Paul on Friday to persuade at-risk young people to turn away from crime and self-destructive behavior.

Betha, who holds a doctorate in theology from St. Paul's Bible Institute, is scheduled to speak Friday at the St. Paul Armory as part of the Shiloh Temple International Ministries' Crusade 2002, a weeklong conference targeted at young people from Minnesota and the Midwest.

His message, based on previous sermons since his conversion, promises to be straight from the source — as raw, graphic and gritty as perhaps the music genre that made him rich and famous. There's loads of God-speak, but enough to also inspire the nonbeliever to chart a new life course.

"I told God the other day that I know what it's like to be with more than one woman at the same time, and God feels better than that," he told an audience a few months after his bombshell departure from the music industry. "I know what it's like to be standing there and having a man come up to you and say that this check with all these zeros is for you, and God feels better than that. I know what it's like to wake up in the morning and know that you can buy anything you want in this world and I'm here to tell you that God feels better than that.''

Betha, during his Ma$e days, once defined the word "contemporary'' in an interview as a temporary con of some kind. There are those who think his rapper-to-pastor transformation is one, though the motive remains unclear. Tyrone Maxwell doesn't believe so.

Maxwell, 32, a former St. Paul-based rapper and gang-banging drug dealer who similarly turned his life around, leads a youth ministry out of Shiloh Temple in Robbinsdale.

"Why would a multimillionaire walk away to found a ministry with a handful of members?'' Maxwell said. "Also, he destroyed his masters (recorded and unreleased songs). None of his old songs can be remixed. I had the pleasure recently of visiting his church and I believe he is 100 percent serious.''

As a drug-dealing member of the Black Gangster Disciples in the 1980s, Maxwell's product of choice was crack cocaine. Although Maxwell says he was successful at his illegal craft, the endeavor took a toll on his soul.

"I always knew what I was doing was wrong,'' said Maxwell, who added that his own revelation came after he was invited by a female friend and fan of his group, Def Noiz, to attend a church event.

Maxwell says Betha can reach youths who would otherwise ignore the same message from others.

"The general response from most young people who hear the message that you have to change your gang-banging, drug-dealing ways is that 'You already lived your life,' '' Maxwell said. "But Mason gets their attention and has a great impact because of his former fame and the fact that he was able to change his ways at an early age.''


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Rubén Rosario can be reached at rrosario@pioneerpress.com or (651) 228-5454.

It takes a strong person to be able to walk away from all the money, women, and fame for God. But like He said, God can make you feel better than all those things, and if you prove yourself worthy, he can give you SO MUCH MORE!!! I think we'll see more of this happening in the entertainment industry in up-comming years. The same thing happened to Lauryn Hill. Well, she's not a pastor now, but she had a major spiritual awakening.

that's beautiful..but the press won't give this the constant
headlines .it's good 2 c a brother can c somethin more than money and turn his life around without hitting the financial bottom.i always thought mase was an idiot now i have the utmost respect 4 him.