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Page 1
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Holier than thou? Mase's old friends think so ...
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Page 2
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The Diplomats and Foxy Brown attack; Kanye, Lil' Kim and Jadakiss defend ...
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Page 3
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"Leave your guns at home" ...
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Page 4
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"I'm real cool, I think that's why people come from everywhere to hear me speak" ...
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While the soon-to-be dad is lightening up his schedule a bit for family time, he's working from 8 a.m. till 8 p.m. on his music-business days, and the rest of the week, he's handling church business.
"Actually, I really don't even write sermons," he says about standing front-and-center every Sunday. "I just do a lot of studying, and then, what comes out of me on Sunday, that's what comes out. It's like writing a song. I don't write songs; I just listen to the music and allow the music to dictate. What the music says to me, that's what I write."
Pastor Betha is nothing like the stereotypical fire-and-brimstone holy men playing to a bunch of Shouting Johns like Richard Pryor's Reverend Lenox Thomas in "Which Way Is Up" or Arsenio Hall's Reverend Brown in "Coming to America."
"I wouldn't look right being like that," he said. "I'm real cool, I think that's why people come from everywhere to hear me speak. They're like, 'Yo, when he speaks, I understand him. He's clear, he speaks in modern language where everybody can understand.' I use a very fun approach. I make you laugh to the point where you get it, without being offended."
As a video of a service on his Web site shows, Mase is every bit as charming standing in front of the congregation as he was dancing with Chris Tucker in the "Feels So Good" video. He's funny, thought-provoking and in full control of the room as he talks about imagination and how it can be quashed by naysayers. He tells stories of how Martin Luther King had to use great imagination to write his "I Have a Dream" speech, and how God needed an even greater one to create heaven.
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"As long as you [have] that imagination for filth, nobody has a problem with it ..."
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"They don't mind you using imagination when you thinking about that girl," Mase preaches. " 'Wow, I could see myself with that girl, or I could see myself doing this to her or doing that to him or both of them.' "
The congregation bursts into laughter.
"As long as you [have] that imagination for filth, nobody has a problem with it," Mase says after a brief pause. "But as soon as you say, 'I could see myself wealthy, see myself healed today.' I could see people saying, 'Why you got to be talking about all of that?'
"At one time, people I loved had a problem with the things I imagined," Pastor Mase continues. "I saw this before I saw this. Everything that's happening in my life, I already saw it. I feel like Dr. King up here. I can relate when he said, 'I have been to the mountain top.' "
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Photo: Bad Boy
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