What is going on here? In the summer of 2015, Harlem's jiggy bishop Ma$e has returned to call his listeners "faggots" over the "California Love" beat for a new song called (seriously) "#WhenNYWasNY." While jacking 2Pac's flow over a Dr. Dre beat, Ma$e raps, "When New York was New York, it sounded like this."
Don't ask me why Ma$e is outchea hashtagging his freestyle titles as if he weren't a social media pariah who deleted his Instagram as well as his Twitter within the past year. And don't knock the bravado of a post-peak, reportedly broke rapper who kicks it all off by rapping, "They got me back on the 2 train."
Still, one wonders: why is Ma$e, a 39-year-old clergyman from Harlem, shouting out Crenshaw and claiming to own a $400,000 skateboard? What happened to the eminently chill Ma$e resurgence that Timbaland promised us a year ago?
Listen to "#WhenNYWasNY" above, and then, below, listen to Jo'zzy's "Tryna Wife" featuring Ma$e and Timbaland immediately afterwards to rinse your palate.
