Ghostface Killah Divulges On Writing "Cuban Linx" Verses During Schizophrenic Episode

BYGabriel Bras Nevares4.1K Views
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Ghostface Killah "Set The Tone" Album Release Party
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 09: Ghostface Killah attends the "Set The Tone" Album Release Party on May 09, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Johnny Nunez/WireImage/Getty Images)
As one of the best pens of all time, hearing this perspective from Ghostface Killah is a bizarre but compelling tale.

During a recent interview, Ghostface Killah opened up about how he wrote some of his verses through a schizophrenic episode he experienced, which he detailed. "Matter of fact, it might've started when I was in Ohio," his remarks began. "You know, gun wars, we doing all this, I got shot, this and that and the third. One day... I don't know, I just smoked some s**t, some weed, whatever. Like I told you, I'm standing in the kitchen, and everything just got light to me. I just dropped the water on the floor 'cause I couldn't hold it. I ain't pass out. But it was just like... I told my mans, 'Yo, I got to go lay down. S**t, I'm bugging right now.' But he said, 'I'm bugging right now, too.' In my mind, I'm like, 'You ain't bugging like this bugging right here.'

"So I lay down, and that's when the s**t just... started whispering," Ghostface Killah continued. "'I'm gonna get you, I'm gonna get you.' Just started going to those worlds. And I'm trying to fight it. Next morning, when I woke up, it was blurry. My vision was just kind of, like, you know how you... static-y on the TV? That's how I was looking out of my f***ing eyes and s**t. Everything was just, 'Damn, I got to fix the channel on this motherf***er.'

Ghostface Killah Speaks On Schizophrenia

"And it was lasting like that for, like, a minute and s**t," Ghostface Killah went on. "Everything was just off. I don't know, s**t made me depressed, I didn't know what it was, I couldn't figure it out and s**t. It had to go. Yeah, s**t was telling me to do s**t. 'Jump off the train, n***a, jump out the car,' all that s**t. Like, I'm going through all that s**t.

"And the only one that I could tell -– 'cause it was s**ts telling me, 'Yo, punch him in his face' and s**t," Ghostface Killah concluded. "I wouldn't tell everybody, I would just tell RZA. 'Yo, s**t's telling me to snuff you right now, n***a.' But he's so smart that he'd bring me back by, like, breaking down the brain on me. Like, he'd just talk to me about the brain and tell me what works and how this is connected."

About The Author
Gabriel Bras Nevares is a staff writer for HotNewHipHop. He joined HNHH while completing his B.A. in Journalism & Mass Communication at The George Washington University in the summer of 2022. Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Gabriel treasures the crossover between his native reggaetón and hip-hop news coverage, such as his review for Bad Bunny’s hometown concert in 2024. But more specifically, he digs for the deeper side of hip-hop conversations, whether that’s the “death” of the genre in 2023, the lyrical and parasocial intricacies of the Kendrick Lamar and Drake battle, or the many moving parts of the Young Thug and YSL RICO case. Beyond engaging and breaking news coverage, Gabriel makes the most out of his concert obsessions, reviewing and recapping festivals like Rolling Loud Miami and Camp Flog Gnaw. He’s also developed a strong editorial voice through album reviews, think-pieces, and interviews with some of the genre’s brightest upstarts and most enduring obscured gems like Homeboy Sandman, Bktherula, Bas, and Devin Malik.
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