Ma$e Gave Up a Career as Puff Daddy’s Protégé to Rap for God – the Weird Thing Is He Stuck with It

Now, Betha tries to keep his message direct. As a preacher, Betha is upbeat, preaching a Good News gospel of health and wealth, like a black Joel Osteen. "You don't need to hear more bad news; you can get bad news anywhere. Where do you go when you want good news?" he asks. "Tell me something about me I didn't know. That's what a preacher is supposed to do: come to you and tell you something that widens your comprehension of Christ."

For now, Betha's church in Phoenix is small. About 40 people packed into the first five rows of Carl Hayden High School's auditorium on a recent Thursday as a four-piece rock band warmed them up for Betha's sermon. He took the stage wearing the same clothes he wore at Quiznos, Bible in hand. He delivered the Good News in a calm, steady drawl, not unlike the way he delivered his rhymes. His words, though, were all about renouncing the comforts he once celebrated, comforts aplenty here in Phoenix, a city with problems, but a city that's seen back east as a giant resort, built around sunshine and shopping. It's the people here, not the people in Atlanta, Florida, or Harlem (the other places he's called home) he wants to reach.

Mason Betha: From Puff Daddy protégé to pastor.

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Want to know what other musicians gave up the life for the way? Check out this slide show of the Top Ten Musicians Turned to Religion.

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"When you're dealing with people who are comfortable, they're sometimes the hardest people to talk to because they're comfortable where they are, even if where they are is not where the Lord wants them," he tells the parishioners. "Every time I fly into a city, I like to feel the spiritual temperature of that place, and when I was landing in Phoenix, that was the word I heard: comfortable. And what that means is that even though you might not be where you want to be, there is not a fire to get out of where you are."

For that mission, Betha makes a lot of sense. Here's a man who gave up his life as a rapper at the height of his popularity — just as he was about to release the follow-up to his debut, an album that hit number one on the Billboard 200 — to share the word of the Lord. Whatever you think about his goal, that gives Betha some street cred. Much more than Ma$e ever had, anyway.