Ma$e has made a few notable guest appearances over the past year, but on Thursday (December 26), the former Bad Boy rapper and preacher dropped a rare solo single, "Why Can't We" featuring Her.

The upbeat R&B track comes about two months after Ma$e announced intentions to release a new album titled Now We Even in the near future, ideally with features from Drake, Diddy, Jay Z, Seal and Lauryn Hill. It would be his first solo release since 2004's Welcome Back, but there has been no potential release date as yet.

During an appearance on "RapFix Live" late last year, Pastor Ma$e entertained the idea of returning to rap, and mentioned a couple of artists he'd be open to working with. They just so happen to be two of the artists he shouts out at the beginning of "Why Can't We": Drake and Kanye West.

"There's only two people that I would work with, and it would have to be one of those two, but the second one is probably gonna surprise many of you," he said. "The only two that would make sense to me would be Kanye or Drake -- even though he doesn't have a label, those are the only two that I would entertain."

That was all theoretical talk, but Ma$e would later appear on Kanye West and G.O.O.D. Music's Cruel Summer compilation (Higher"), on 2 Chainz's Boats 2 album ("Beautiful Pain"), then there was Pusha's tribute with the "Ma$e flow" on My Name Is My Name's "Let Me Love You." Mason Betha also made a cameo at Drake's OVO Fest in August to perform with Diddy, and backstage Drizzy said that he'd be down to collaborate with the Harlem rapper.

"Funny enough, me and Ma$e have just been talking about what the future holds, about what he wants to do," Drake told MTV News. "And anything is possible, man. I told Ma$e, 'You're Ma$e at the end of the day, so I don't think you should end up on anybody else's label.' But I would love to be involved. I'd love to work with Ma$e to be honest."

"I know Kanye took an interest in Ma$e as well,"he added. "Because Ma$e is like the original fly guy that made it all look extremely fun, dancing [and everything You saw it at [OVO Fest], those guys can't get on stage and be stiff and overly serious...it's a party. There's a lot of rappers who get out there and take themselves super serious and it's not fun like that. They don't laugh. Those guys got out there and proved why there are who they are. Two kings doing what they were born to do."