Cudda took the 20-year-old Mase to Atlanta, Georgia, where Jermaine Dupri and Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs were attending a rap convention. In 1996, Mase's sister Stason introduced him to Cudda Love, a road manager for The Notorious B.I.G. Damon Dash, a fellow Manhattan Center student, was the group's manager for a while. Career 1993-97: Children of the Corn and Bad Boy record deal Īfter Betha returned to Harlem, he and his childhood friend Cam'ron began rapping as a hobby under the names Murda Mase and Killa Cam, briefly forming a group known as the Children of the Corn ("corn" short for "corner") with fellow Harlem rappers Big L, Herb McGruff and Bloodshed.
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Betha eventually dropped out of college and focused on his music career full time. He attended State University of New York at Purchase, where he grew to realize he was unlikely to make the NBA and instead began focusing more on writing music, producing demo tapes and regularly performing at local nightclubs. He had hopes of joining the National Basketball Association (NBA), but was unable to make it into a Division I College due to his poor academic scores. After returning to live in Harlem at age 15, Betha began showing promise as a basketball player, becoming the leading point guard for his team at Manhattan Center high school during the 1993 season, where he played alongside Cameron Giles, who went on to be the rapper known as Cam'ron. While living in Jacksonville, Betha first began attending church. During his early teenage years, Betha began getting into trouble on the streets of Harlem, and when he was 13 his mother sent him back to Jacksonville to live with relatives. In 1980, his mother moved with her children to Harlem, New York, where Mase spent the majority of his childhood.
The father left the family when Mase was just three years old. He grew up with two brothers and three sisters, including his twin sister, Stason, born a few minutes after him. Mase was born Mason Durell Betha in Jacksonville, Florida, on August 27, 1975, as a fraternal twin born almost two months premature, to P. 2.1 1993-97: Children of the Corn and Bad Boy record deal.