Ghostface Killah is making it clear he's never been a fan of the word "pause," a slang term commonly used to flag statements that sound unintentionally sexual, and he put that frustration front and center on his new album.
During a recent appearance on the Rory & Mal Podcast, the Wu-Tang legend explained why the phrase has always rubbed him the wrong way while breaking down tracks from Supreme Clientele 2. The topic came up organically after Ghost made a comment about where songs would fit after pulling them out, prompting Mal to joke that he would normally say "pause," but hesitated out of respect.
That moment opened the door for Ghostface to unpack his long-standing issue with the term, which he openly mocks on the album's "Pause (Skit)." On the podcast, Rory said the phrase didn't originate with newer generations or internet culture, but traces back to Roc-A-Fella Records.
While many fans associate "pause" with Cam'ron and the Diplomats, who popularized it widely, Rory credited Kareem "Biggs" Burke and early Roc-A-Fella members, including Jay-Z and Dame Dash, as some of the earliest voices he remembers using it.
"I know it had to be somebody from Rock-A-Fella," said Ghost while explaining he first heard it used by Dame Dash and others connected to the label. Ghostface then said once Cam'ron "blew it out the frame," the phrase became unavoidable and limiting.
"I'm like damn, I can't even speak no more," he said. "All my shit is paused all day. But it's paused to y'all, not to me. We can't talk no more."
The rapper went on to explain that in his era, language wasn't filtered through constant sexual subtext. Using examples from street slang and prison culture, Ghost argued that phrases people now flag as "pause" were never intended that way.
"Our minds ain't thinking on no no-homo shit," he said. "What's on your mind that making you think like that? Like what put you in a sexual shit every time you got to talk now? That's not my era. These are the new n***as. Yo, everything is a fucking pause. It's like, it's like, yo, I got paused out the game."
That tension is exactly what Ghost leans into on "Pause (Skit)," using humor and exaggeration to call out how far the phrase has gone. Rather than rejecting slang altogether, Ghostface frames the skit as a reminder of a time when words didn't need constant disclaimers.