"A million people say, 'Go with the green.' You have to go with your gut, you know what I'm saying?"	MTV News: Will the new album, "Double Up," be affected by your decision to retire? Mase: You know, it's real crazy, 'cause it was done before I made this decision. So this decision had no effect on the music that's gonna be portrayed or already recorded. MTV: Why and when did this decision come about? Mase: This was more like a decision I was thinking about, but recently I finally got the heart to go through with it. It was a real hard decision to leave something that you love so much. It's almost like leaving your mother to go to college. And that's what it was more like to the fullest degree, 'cause music is what's paying me. Music is what's supporting my family, my friends, gave everybody jobs. But it's almost like you [can] become unhappy with something regardless of what it pays you. I'm just a man of more morals. MTV: Do you think people are skeptical of your decision? Mase: One thing that I want everybody to know about me is that I'm a leader and not a follower, and I lead by example instead of just a lot of talk. People say that they were going to leave music and never went public with it; it just was rumored. I just wanted to be the first one that actually stands on his word. MTV: Are you going to miss rap music once you're out of the game? Mase: I don't think I'm going to miss the whole business because it's like, music wasn't my first love. I grew up wanting to play basketball. Then I started making music. Then I started loving to do music. So the first day I started, I always told people that I don't plan to be in music forever. People don't pay attention to your words. If you've been listening to every interview I've ever done, I've always told you I'm not here to be here for thirty years. MTV: Puffy was a producer on this new album. Will you miss working with him? Mase: When I think of Puff, I think of someone who has given me a lot of chances to do something in this industry. But it's like, my work is done here. My blessings go out to him and everything he do. I just feel like there come a time in everyone's life when you have to do what you have to and you have to be a man, even if everybody don't agree with it. I look at it as though there is a bomb in the building and that there is five seconds left on the bomb. And there is a green and a red wire. Everybody is telling you to pull on the green. A million people are telling me to pull the green. But my gut is telling me to pull the red. So which one do I go with? The red. But a million people say, "Go with the green." You have to go with your gut, you know what I'm saying? MTV: What made you come to this decision? Mase: I just felt like I was receiving a lot of messages. And the messages I was hearing was clear. It wasn't like I was going crazy, or I was smoking or drinking. I don't want to be under the influence. So it's like, everybody know when God is talking to them; it's just that some people don't want to hear what he's got to say. When people get awards, they give it up to God. [But] as soon as they come off the podium, they forget all about God again until something good happens. Like when Biggie and all them people, Tupac and all of them, we acknowledge what happened to them, but what happened to them after that? It's almost like, we all know that the right thing to do is what we have to do. But we so many times don't do it, because our personal friend, what they gonna believe? How they gonna take it?