Megan Thee Stallion’s “Good News”

Under the persona of “Megan Thee Stallion,” twenty-six-year-old Megan Pete has evolved into one of the most successful female rappers of all time. While facing difficult adversity such as the death of her mother, becoming a victim of gun violence, and balancing her busy career while still being a college student, Megan has managed to become the modern-day epitome of “The Black Femme.” The phrases “Hot Girl Summer” and “Real Hot Girl Shit” have infiltrated popular culture and serve as strong recognizing features of her many radio hits. Megan Thee Stallion’s debut album, Good News, is a woman’s ideal feel-good playlist, equipped with catchy beats and confrontational lyrics. Although sensuality and sexual liberation is an underlying theme in every song, Megan also seamlessly includes more melancholy issues in this album, interweaving topics such as intergenerational trauma, rap beef, and her personal struggles  with self-esteem and inadequacy. While this album was released before the pandemic, Megan Thee Stallion’s Good News has strong social implications related to the tragedies of 2020, while still providing fans with solace and an escape through her lyrics.

While Megan Thee Stallion is previously known for summer anthems with catchy rhythms, Good News is an album that subtly incorporates the rapper’s insecurities and personal struggles. For the first time, Megan has allowed fans to peek into some of the “lows” of her career. Although some songs showcase Megan’s vulnerability, she has a talent of masking these melancholy lyrics behind upbeat rhythms and radio-friendly choruses. In the third track, “Circles,” Megan raps, “Bullet wounds, backstabs, mama died, still sad,” over a peppy beat with a mesmerizing female voice singing softly in the background. Because of hard work and pre-established notoriety, Megan has become more comfortable expressing deeper feelings in her music. However, she does it in a fashion that would be unrecognizable to the untrained ear, perhaps to still remain in her comfort zone.

Additionally, in this album, Megan bypasses her typical arms’ length approach to music in songs such as “Shots Fired,” which is a direct response to the shooting altercation between her and Tory Lanez. Unlike pieces from her previous albums, this track is confrontational, combative and calls for a response. Megan mocks Lanez with punchy lyrics, including, “You shot a 5’10” bitch with a .22… A pussy N***** with a pussy gun in his feelings.” She also eloquently reminds Lanez that although he attempted to damage her reputation by calling her story untruthful, it was ultimately Megan who kept him out of jail; rapping, “And if it weren’t for me, same week, you would have been indicted. Should’ve let them lock your ass up.” The Megan Thee Stallion of previous albums would not have included such an intimate and traumatic life experience into her music. However, Megan chose to start her album with this response to acknowledge the beef, while also informing fans that Good News will include more than light-hearted positive topics, which is a new style for the rapper.

In Good News, many of Meg Thee Stallion’s songs elude to a feeling of female dominance and emasculation. The second track, “Crybaby,” featuring DaBaby, is a typical Megan Thee Stallion song, and one that that she would call a “Hot Girl Anthem”: sexually confident lyrics with a club-style beat. Both Megan and DaBaby emphasize that they are not interested in a serious relationship, and instead are being intimate with so many individuals, that they jokingly forget the names of their sexual partners. (“Jordan, Tommy, Daniel (Which one?”) Additionally, Megan The Stallion uses a similar sexually explicit style as DaBaby, her male counterpart in the song. It is usually frowned upon for a woman to not only be sexually promiscuous, but to talk about it vocally. Megan’s x-rated cadence serves to break gender stereotypes, and she is making it known that her sensuality is not something that shames her.

Similar to “Crybaby,” “Do it on the Tip,” featuring The City Girls, is another song with explicit sexual references and a strong beat. This is the third song in a row that Megan has begun with the phrase “Real Hot Girl Shit.” As with her male counterparts, such as Big Sean’s use of “Oh God,” or rappers such as DJ Khalad and 21 Savage, who simply begin all their songs by bellowing out their own names, Megan has coined phrases such as “Hot Girl Summer” and “Real Hot Girl Shit.” Because of social platforms such as TikTok, these phrases have entered mainstream popular culture and have become synonymous to Megan and her identity. If you hear either of these phrases in a song, fans automatically recognize that it is either Megan’s song, or she is heavily featured on it. Megan’s incorporation of The City Girls in her album and the relationship she has with this female rap group is interesting, because similar to Megan, The City Girls have also coined a popular phrase, “City Girl,” which is highly recognizable and indicative of their music. In Nicole Fleetwood’s book On Racial Icons, Fleetwood mentions that “becoming a celebrity icon is a labor-intensive choice that involves… developing public recognition, building identification, and turning one’s self into a vehicle of desirability and adoration.” (35) The worldwide popularity that Megan’s key phrases have achieved, has helped catapult the rapper into the esteemed and highly coveted level of “Racial Icon.”

Megan is a southern rapper from Houston, and often pays homage to hip hop artists who have come before her. “Savage Remix,” featuring Beyonce, is a highly anticipated collaboration between two of Houston’s royalty. Between mentions of popular topics, such as TikTok and OnlyFans, Megan and Bey brag about being “a savage. Classy, bougie, ratchet. Sassy, moody, nasty,” which are all typically negative characteristics, usually applied to Black women, to make them appear as cold and unapproachable. Megan Thee Stallion and Beyonce, two of the most influential Black women in the music space, reclaiming these stereotypes and showcasing these aptitudes in a positive light, is a breath of fresh air to every woman of color who has been on the receiving end of insults meant to diminish our existence. In Omise’eke Tinsley’s Beyonce in Formation, Tinsley reminds readers that “Yes, femmes of color are real, and we need our own models of femme-initity to reflect that back on us.” (97) As Tinsley mentions, it is imperative for popular culture to showcase women like Beyonce and Megan Thee Stallion, who encompass the ideas of Black Femme perfectly; being unapologetically Black and proud of it.

Through zappy lyrics, catchy rhythms, and witty phrases, Megan Thee Stallion’s Good News is an album that radiates the complexities that exist for Black women. Through sexual innuendos, sneakily hidden ideas of melancholy, and guest features, Megan has created a Black feminist playlist that I and many others will continue to play on repeat.

Works Cited

Fleetwood, N., 2014, On Racial Icons: Blackness and the Public Imagination

James, R., 2015., Resilience & Melancholy. Winchester: Zero Books.

Tinsley, O., 2018. Beyonce in Formation. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press