Ma$e: Welcome Back

P. Diddy's great gift as a hype man is to make other people sound better, to play the mirror-toting Jerome Benton to preening, charismatic Morris Day. Conversely, when P. Diddy introduced Harlem rapper Ma$e, Ma$e's role seemed to be to make Diddy's old-school flow, monosyllabic lyrics, and elementary rhyme schemes all seem dynamic by comparison. Ma$e's unthreatening good looks, feel-good anthems, powerful connections, and Diddy-like penchant for borrowed, instantly recognizable hooks eased the way to pop stardom. But by the time of 1999's Double Up, Ma$e sounded bored and dispirited. Then again, his lazy, stumbling flow seems innately incapable of conveying anything approximating joy.

Following Double Up, Ma$e shocked hip-hop by denouncing rap's spiritual emptiness and becoming a minister; five years later, he's returned from his self-imposed exile and reconnected with P. Diddy and Bad Boy Records. Ma$e's strange journey from shiny-suited pop star to man of God should give him credibility when fighting for the hearts and minds of young hip-hop fans. After all, he lived the fantasies of every teenybopper glaring glassy-eyed at MTV's Cribs, but nevertheless dedicated his life to spirituality. His evolution from jiggy to godly is as fascinating as it is unlikely, but it's given short shrift on Welcome Back, his much-ballyhooed comeback album. Where the old, morally adrift Ma$e once put out shiny, whirring pop records about cars, money, and girls, the new Ma$e has crafted a shiny, whirring pop record about cars, money, and girls on which he occasionally mumbles something about Jesus, tithing, or the virtues of modesty and sobriety.

Ma$e is all about spreading the good news, but the album's glossy beats and unabashed materialism point the way to the dance floor rather than the church. "God 1st Get Money And Don't Stop!!!" screams an advertising insert for the Bad Boy clothing and apparel accompanying Welcome Back. That succinctly, though inelegantly, sums up the curious capitalist gospel of prophet P. Diddy and minister Ma$e. That might seem a little cynical, but it's nice to know they've at least got their priorities straight. Ma$e big-ups Jesus throughout his sometimes infectious but often empty comeback opus, but he seems to have forgotten Jesus' inconvenient teaching about the rich man, the camel, and the eye of the needle.