Ya Heard: Mase resurfaces after time away from spotlight

"Be not the slave of your own past. Plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep and swim far, so you shall come back with self-respect, with new power, with an advanced experience that shall explain and overlook the old."

According to allhiphop.com, Mason "Mase" Betha has resurfaced and, no, he's not wearing a G-Unit chain. The former Bad Boy Records megastar retired from hip hop back in 1999 following his becoming a born-again Christian. He would later go on to be a minister in Atlanta. After suddenly reappearing in 2004 to release his third solo album, "Welcome Back," Mase vanished from the spotlight just as quickly, and has not been publicly heard from until now.

It seems the former Diddy sidekick has returned to doing the Lord's work. He is currently in the process of expanding his El Elyon International Church to Phoenix, Ariz.

Of his ministry, Mase told the Web site, "It just makes sense that we (the ministry) are on both coasts. Our vision has always been to plant churches all over the world, and Phoenix is the first of many. We love the city of Phoenix and look forward to making a tremendous im-pact."

Many may have wondered about Mason's whereabouts due to the fact that his "Welcome Back" album gave the impression the Harlem emcee was trying to get his seat in hip hop back. Let's not forget he was even making rounds with 50 Cent and the G-Unit cronies.

Rumor has it, Diddy wouldn't let Mase out of his contract with Bad Boy, thus making it impossible for him to sign with 50's G-Unit imprint.

If I'm not mistaken, Mase even tried to put the "Murda" back in front of his name to fit in with the Unit a little more tightly. Whatever the case, I'm glad to hear his relationship with God is still in tact; the whole "Welcome Back" movement left many of us scratching our heads.

DefJam VP Takes Own Life

OK, I can't let this one slide by so quietly.

Def Jam Records Vice President Shakir Stewart was laid to rest last week after an apparent sui-cide inside the master bedroom of his Atlanta home. Now, with all the news as of late being dominated by first, the Hudson family crisis, and second, the historical election of President-elect Barack Obama, the Stewart story has been swept aside.

The 34-year-old Stewart was promoted to VP at Def Jam following the departure of Jay Z from the same position. At the time, Stewart's promotion was praised by many artists on the label and Stewart, himself, seemed just as excited about his new responsibilities.

In June, Stewart told sohh.com, "I'm up for the task. I'm up for the challenge of it. I'm not caught up in, 'I'm replacing Jay-Z.' I'm here to de-liver and work for my artists and build and expand on the brand. That's my goal. Jay-Z's shoes would be hard to fill in any fashion. So, my focus is really to come in and do my job and help build and create my legacy as well expand the legacy that's already there."

Shortly after the story broke about his untimely death, Stewart's fiancé released a state-ment that read, "Over the past several weeks, Shakir's behavior was inconsistent with the man we all know and love. As much as we all tried to help him, Shakir was in deep pain and largely suffering in silence."

Man, it's hard to believe a young man that seemed to have the world in his hands could take his own life so suddenly. I guess you never truly know what someone else is dealing with in their life; it's just crazy. Shakir Stewart has been credited with being a key player in bring-ing Young Jeezy and Rick Ross to the Def Jam Label. He leaves behind a young son and will be thoroughly missed…R.I.P. to another young talent.

'Blueprint 3' Not Expected Until '09

While we're on the Def Jam tip, are you waiting on Jay-Z's "Blueprint 3" to drop late this year? Don't!

The rapper formerly known as Iceberg Slim appeared on Hot 97's Angie Martinez show to premiere his latest cut, "History."

The track is another hit and further enhances the anticipation of Jay's latest effort. When asked about the album being released this year, as speculated, Jay responded by saying he never stated the album would be released this year. As of now, it looks like the album won't see the light of day until at least February.

Kanye West, who is said to have produced the bulk of the album, recently spoke to MTV about the "Blueprint 3" and had this to say: "I mean, it's phenomenal. We went in and we done the whole album.

He wanted to do a few more joints, so he kinda pushed it back. Now we're gonna go in and just work on some more records. So I got some more stuff to kill it with! I think [Jay pushed the album back because] "Swagger" just did so incredible. We wanted to go up [and make sure] everything was on that level."

OK, so I'm curious, how many of you are really anticipating another Jay-Z album, honestly? Don't get me wrong, the guy is arguably the most important emcee of our time and I ap-preciate his hustle tremendously.

With that being said, how many albums can we take from this guy? Nobody appreciates his con-tribution to hip hop more than me, but come on.

I'm not saying I won't listen to the album, but I'm not going out of my way to hear it either. So let me know what you think. Jay-Z: washed up or still relevant to hip hop?

Ya Heard Trivia

In 1996 this New Jersey-born emcee released his third album. Hits on the album included "Case Closed," "Do What Ya Feel" and "Creepin," among others. Name the emcee as well as the album title.

Be the third person to e-mail me the correct answers to the trivia question and receive two free AMC movie tickets courtesy of the News & Messenger. …'Til next week, peace!

Dennis Winn can be reached at 703-200-4928 or YaHeard40@gmail.com.