Saying ‘pause’ is like a rite of passage in early Black New York slang. Any time anyone said something even vaguely sexual without proper context, it required a pause. This was specifically the case around men, that something sexually suggestive around other men was a bit uncouth. Typically, it’s the center of a lot of jokes, and it’s become a national phrase for so many people accordingly. However, Ghostface Killah hates that the phrase captured so many imaginations. Consequently, he mocked the term with the “Pause (Skit)” on Supreme Clientele 2. Now, he’s elaborating on why he can’t stand it anymore.
Recently, Ghostface spoke on the Rory & Mal Podcast. There, they discussed the origins of ‘pause’ after Mal made a joke about how he’d usually say it but didn’t out of respect. Rory recalls the phrase really taking prominence during the golden age of Roc-a-Fella Records. Even before Cam’ron and the rest of Dipset were aggressive in saying ‘pause,’ Rory credits it to Jay-Z, Dame Dash, and Kareem ‘Biggs’ Burke. Meanwhile, Ghostface Killah shrugged, assuming it had to have been traced there. Then, he says Cam “blew it out the frame” and radically changed how people spoke ever since.
Ghostface Killah Explains His Disdain for the Word ‘Pause’
“I’m like damn, I can’t even speak no more,” Ghostface sighs. “All my s**t is paused all day. But it’s paused to y’all, not to me. We can’t talk no more.” Then, the “Nutmeg” rapper recalls the days when certain phrases coined in the streets weren’t nearly as scrutinized as they were in the past. Moreover, they were never intended as sexual, but rather a play on words from prison culture and street talk.
“Our minds ain’t thinking on no no-homo s**t,” Ghostface Killah says. “What’s on your mind that making you think like that? Like what put you in a sexual s**t every time you got to talk now? That’s not my era. These are the new n***as. Yo, everything is a f***ing pause. It’s like, it’s like, yo, I got paused out the game.”
This tension doesn’t just exist with Ghostface Killah. People have fervently argued that saying ‘pause’ is merely a means to maintain homophobic thinking. As a result, it maintains a nagging prejudice and an unnecessary paranoia towards gay people. For Ghostface on the “Pause (Skit),” he just wants to establish a boundary between old phrases. Not everything mildly suggestive warrants a ‘pause.’ The language can mean different things.
The post ‘We Can’t Talk No More’: Ghostface Killah Explains Why He Hates When People Say ‘Pause’ appeared first on VICE.
