Megan Thee Stallion's debut album, Good News, has solidified that the wildly empowering and sex-positive rapper is here to stay.
Amid a number of accolades attained in her breakout era, including being deemed one of TIME Magazine's most influential people, the year saw the Houston native embroiled in a legal battle with her record label, the victim of an alleged shooting, a metaphoric punching bag for pervasive misogynoir and the subject of an obsessive, subpar diss album by Tory Lanez. The star could’ve easily stepped out of the character to defend herself amid the melee of drama. But in true hot girl fashion, she took to the booth instead and issued the ultimate clapback in the form of Good News.
Spitting a series of fierce bars over The Notorious B.I.G.’s "Who Shot Ya," with the cleverly titled intro track "Shots Fired," Megan brilliantly took aim at Lanez, reminding him she could've easily ruined his life.
"And if it weren't for me, same week, you would have been indicted/Should've let them lock your ass up/You offered M's not to talk/I guess that made my friend excited, hmm," the 25-year-old raps.
A wave of misogynoir reared its ugly head in Megan's direction following the Lanez incident and her use of her Saturday Night Live performance to demand justice for Breonna Taylor.
In the "Go Crazy" track, she seemingly fires her lyrical canon at subtweeters — those who criticize without naming names.
"A shot can't hit me if it's sent indirectly," she raps.
Trolls must take note.
When Lanez released Daystar, he did so on the day the nation learned Taylor's killers would face no repercussions for the death of the young EMT. Lanez threw salt on that wound. Megan voiced the collective rage and grief felt over it.
"Now here we are, 2020, eight months later and we still ain't got no f**kin' justice for Breonna Taylor" the rapper continues.
The album goes on to give us 16 additional tracks inundated in body and sex positivity as well as women's empowerment, Megan sampled a variety of iconic hits to bring this to life. From Adina Howard’s "Freak Like Me" to Jazmine Sullivan’s "Holding You Down," the Houston native showcased her vocal versatility by switching up her flows in more ways than one.
This album is also representative of her musical evolution throughout the last few years with her introducing us to hooks and cadences that are clear and direct results of someone who strives to get better and better at her craft.
It would have been enough for us to simply be blessed with this monstrous culmination of talent, work ethic and bars but Megan released a visual component as well by way of the "Body" music video.
Any opportunity to witness Taraji P. Henson and Megan exhibiting their expert twerking skills like the goddesses they are should be lauded. The visual for "Body" contained cameos from Henson, Blac Chyna and an army of Black women celebrities and backup dancers of all shapes and sizes, celebrating body positivity. Megan used this opportunity to affirm women in being proud of their curves and turned it into an anthem that is worthy of both twerking and celebration.
When she had a dispute with her label earlier this year that could've stopped her from releasing her Suga mixtape, she decided to fight back in court which eventually won her a temporary restraining order against 1501 Entertainment and its CEO Carl Crawford. When dusty conservatives and hypocritical men decided to confab among each other over their shared disgust of WAP, Cardi B's hit song that Megan is featured on, she clapped back at that too. How? By demystifying any and all confusion on who has a say over her body, which she again made clear when she released her debut album filled to the brim with body positive anthems celebrating ownership and agency over her sexuality.
With the multi-layered lyric, "The category is Body," she subtly nods to her crossover appeal as one of the hosts of Legendary, a web series centered on the world of ball culture. It shouldn't be lost upon us that this stunning aesthetic showcasing Black women of various shades and body types sauntering around, mirroring the manifestation of #BlackGirlMagic has elevated our self-esteem since it was born out of such. During an interview to promote the music video, the "Savage" rapper revealed that the inspiration came from self-love as she appreciated the extra curves she picked up during quarantine. In a world that does not value Black women and subverts them at every chance, Megan will go down in history as someone who used her artistry to fight back.
Whether that’s fighting for justice for Breonna Taylor or fighting the patriarchy through her music, Megan is here to stay and that’s some real hot girl s**t.
