Fat Joe has defended himself against the barrage of jokes he received for his comments during the 2023 NBA Draft, saying he’s “too old” to play the “pause” game.
The Terror Squad rapper appeared as a guest on ESPN during the draft earlier this month, where he unfortunately went viral for saying he “like[s] Dick from Kansas,” referring to the Kansas Jayhawks star Gradey Dick who was picked up by the Toronto Raptors with the 13th pick.
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During an Instagram Live broadcast on Thursday (June 29), Joey Crack didn’t shy away from the roasting he’s received and said the jokes have barely left a dent as he’s “confident” in both his own skin and his sexuality.
“Shoutout to Cam’ron and Ma$e for not roasting me yet,” Fat Joe said. “Everywhere I been going, they been like, ‘Yo, you like Dick from Kansas?’ His name is Gradey Dick, a white boy who’s dead nice in Kansas. But it’s okay.”
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He added: “And I’m too old to play the pause game. I’m for everybody. Hey, you take it how you want to. I’m very confident in who I am. I’m Joe Crack Da Don. I don’t play the pause game. That’s years ago. And aye, I don’t think nothing of it.”
“When I say stuff, I mean it. I don’t know how to explain it to you. I don’t have a problem. I didn’t think twice when I was talking to Stephen A. [Smith] at the draft. I didn’t think twice of what I said.
“People were like, ‘Yo, you’re trending right now.’ ‘Yo, you said Dick from Kansas.’ Yo bro, we go viral and we don’t even try.”
Although Fat Joe thanked Cam’ron and Ma$e for not piling on the jokes, the Instagram account of their sports talk show, It Is What It Is, did fuel the fire by posting a video of Joe’s “Dick from Kansas” comments along with humorous sound effects.
“HEY #JOEYCRACK YOU KNOW WE FU*KS WIT YOU OVER HERE AT #ITISWHATITISTALK BUT THE SLOGAN OVER HERE IS #NOBODYSAFE SO WITH THAT BEING SAID ‘AYOOOO’ #PAUSE #THATWASCRAZY #NBADRAFT,” the post’s caption read.
In a follow-up post, It Is What It Is defended its use of “pause” — a term used when someone says something that could be interpreted as homoerotic — denying that it’s “childish or homophobic.”
“The ‘Pause’ game is not childish or Homophobic,” the message read. “In fact… It keeps the individual aware and conscious about his thoughts and choice of words. It also preserves masculinity. Even it hardships, a good ol ‘pause’ can lighten the mood and bring a good laugh to the soul… -Harlem.”
In related news regarding the use of words, Fat Joe recently defended his use the n-word during a recent appearance on the Brooklyn rapper’s People’s Party podcast.
“For those of us that grew up in New York City, Latino people who grew up in Black neighborhoods, they say n-gga just like Black people do,” Kweli noted.
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Fat Joe responded: “Explaining it to people at this point is like, mind boggling to me ’cause it’s been like, ‘What’s up Fat Joe? You my n-gga!’ since I’m two years old. You taking it offensive, then what do I look like a slave owner to you? Or I look like the cop who killed George Floyd?
“I gotta think about you. ‘Cause you obviously know that you just said I’m the most important piece of Hip Hop. You obviously know I’m wit Black people all day. I fight for Black people, I fight for Latinos every day of my life.”
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He continued: “I don’t try to let people make me second guess what I do because that’s not what Hip Hop was founded on. The origin of the word is foul anyway. I don’t know how we made it cool.
“If I’m driving right down the block and somebody’s doing something to the blackest lady in the world — I’m jumping out. I’m dying! So it’s offensive to me when people say, ‘Yo, why do you even say that?’ Like, don’t you know?!”
