Megan Thee Stallion’s third studio album and sixth body of work, Megan, is ripe for a Hot Girl Summer of feeling yourself (literally — more on that in a second), brushing off haters, and living your best life. After the more experimental debut of Good News and the grave tone of its followup, Traumazine, she leans deeper into her Southern identity, sexuality, and status as one of rap’s hottest commodities (her current arena tour with GloRilla has sold more than 280,000 tickets, according to her team). “I’m really not focused on the negativity on my album,” she told L’Officiel about this one. “I started feeling really happy. So you have songs on the album that are about the positive times that I’m starting to have.” It does in fact sound like the good times are rolling. Here’s what else we’re hearing.
Megan may have more choice words for Tory Lanez and Drake: After Tory Lanez shot Megan in 2020, her friendship with former assistant and close friend Kelsey Nicole ended in hostility. However, Drake and Tory Lanez, who had formerly beefed, seemed to strengthen their bond in the wake of the shooting, with Drake rapping a crude allusion to Megan having lied about the violence, in his song “Circo Loco,” and posting a photo of Lanez on Instagram with a caption advocating for his release from the 10-year prison sentence he earned after being found guilty. On the combative “Rattle,” Megan raps, “Only time y’all niggas in agreement is when all y’all tryna go against me,” as well as, “Hate for the Stallion turn opps into homeboys.” While this may be true more widely, the Canadian duo come to mind.
Her ex-best friend Kelsey Nicole and Nicki Minaj may be catching heat, too: In the same song, Megan also raps, “Damn bitch, it’s been four years/Worry about your man and your kid/Your life must be boring as fuck if you still reminiscing about shit that we did,” which brings to mind Nicole, who spent a lot of time rehashing her relationship with Megan earlier this year as a podcast guest (and also described motherhood and her romantic relationship). However, some speculate that this bar also applies to Minaj, with whom Megan collaborated with on her song “Hot Girl Summer” in 2020. As they traded disses earlier this year, Minaj fans rehashed claims around their time together then.
‘Brat’ hype isn’t dying down anytime soon: In what may be another Minaj diss, Megan spits “I’m a motherfuckin’ brat, not a Barbie,” evoking Minaj’s branding around the classic doll to put its edgier, more modern counterpart, the Bratz doll, above it. Yet, this ends up working on another level, as the summer so far has also been dominated by adoration for Charli XCX’s album Brat, released June 7. Fans are already drawing connections and making memes to illustrate them.
Megan isn’t playing it straight: On “Broke His Heart,” Megan lets that pink-purple-blue flag fly with the line “I like girls and I like niggas, both of ’em gettin’ ate.” This isn’t her first allusion to bisexuality, but this one comes just in time for pride! (There’s also a great ode to self-love in the form of masturbation in “Down Stairs DJ,” too)
That trip to Japan is paying off: There are a host of dope features on the album, including Victoria Monet, Kyle Richh of Brooklyn drill group 41, GloRilla, Big K.R.I.T., and a posthumous verse from her rap hero Pimp C of UGK. However, one featured act, Japanese rapper Yuki Chiba, helps crystallize the album’s several plays on Japanese language and culture. (You might remember “It G Ma,” the Japanese rap track by Keith Ape playing off Atlanta MC OG Maco that Chiba was featured on as KOHH.) He raps mostly in Japanese, with Megan dabbling in the language as well on “Mamushi.” Megan documented her trip to Japan this spring, where she presented the Anime of the Year to the manga series Jujutsu Kaisen at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards in Tokyo.
