Megan Thee Stallion has achieved a number of milestones in time for the year that has marked her quarter of a century. Thus, at twenty-five, it makes sense that Megan would see fit to finally release her first full-length album, Good News. At the same time, she’s been in our cultural consciousness since 2017 when she dropped her debut EP, Make It Hot. Of course, it wasn’t until 2018’s follow-up EP, Tina Snow, that she started to gain more traction. With the non-album single that was 2019’s “Hot Girl Summer,” Thee Stallion became a bona fide (boner fide?) sensation. Not one to relent, she continued to keep her name in the spotlight with even more fury in 2020, starting with the slew of singles from the Suga EP, “B.I.T.C.H.,” “Savage,” “Savage Remix” featuring Beyoncé and “Captain Hook.” With the release of “WAP,” on which she added her signature style to Cardi B’s opus, you might say her pop culture immortalization was hardened forever.
So how could she do anything other than strike while the iron is piping hot by finally gracing us with her long-anticipated debut, Good News? The title of the album is a pointed effort on Megan’s part, well-aware that 2020 has been a year filled with nothing but bad news for most (unless you’re part of the cabal of billionaires who managed to get richer–ahem, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Mark Fuckerberg, et. al.). So yes, she wanted to give you some positive headlines (a.k.a. Good News–not to be confused with the Nicole Richie-starring show of the same name), namely the cheeky raps of her seventeen-track record, three singles of which were previously released.
Ready to ramp things up from the outset and address one of her biggest personal controversies of the year, Megan commences with “Shots Fired.” This, naturally, references not only the July “incident” during which Tory Lanez shot her, but the “shots fired” nature of her barbs in the song as she raps, “Still the brightest star and not just the ones that’s up in this Rolls/Keep it pimpin’ always, actions do the talkin’/I know you want the clout, so I ain’t sayin’ y’all names/Oh, you out here ballin’, huh?/Who you get that money from?/Ten toes down for whoever get the Patek, huh?/I be so content ’cause I know I’m a real bitch/And anything I say, I’m never scared to repeat it.” There’s also a très Mariah Carey à la “Obsessed” moment when Megan mocks, “I’m a steak, you a side plate/Shrimp, stay in your place” instead of, “You a mom and pop, I’m a corporation/I’m the press conference, you a conversation.”
Speaking of a “press conference,” of sorts, Thee Stallion’s October op-ed piece, “Why I Speak Up For Black Women,” in The New York Times iterated her advocacy for black women everywhere on the heels of an SNL performance of “Savage” in which she interwove Malcolm X’s famous quote, “The most disrespected, unprotected, neglected person in America is the black woman,” and in between used audio of activist Tamika Mallory calling the Kentucky Attorney General, Daniel Cameron (who ruled not to give the grand jury in Breonna Taylor’s case the option to consider murder charges), a “sellout Negro.” Megan Thee Stallion’s rage during this performance remains present on the record, yet it’s tempered with her brand of fun-loving braggadocio at a time when it’s difficult for people to have the hope to embody such a persona themselves.
As Thee Stallion commented in the aforementioned op-ed, “Black women are still constantly disrespected and disregarded in so many areas of life. I was recently the victim of an act of violence by a man. After a party, I was shot twice as I walked away from him. We were not in a relationship. Truthfully, I was shocked that I ended up in that place.” So it is that for “Shots Fired,” she samples the Notorious B.I.G.’s “Who Shot Ya?”–speculated to be about another rapper Megan has sampled from, 2Pac. Taking no prisoners and making no apologies for her success, this is the perfect track to set the tone for an album characterized by fearlessness.
The uptempo, less “serious” “Circles” borrows from Jazmine Sullivan’s 2010 song, “Holding You Down (Goin’ in Circles),” and speaks to Megan’s constant insistence that she doesn’t need to be at the mercy of any one man. She is the one who is in control–and has plenty of other dick options to choose from as she instructs in her own sort of “Ten Crack Commandments” way, “One, never let a nigga see you sweat/Two, never let these niggas come between a check/Three, never let a nigga turn you ‘gainst me/’Cause the dick come and go, but I’m ridin’ past E/Keep that shit player, I don’t like gettin’ personal.” And, according to Megan, maybe it’s just the blessing of being a calm, cool, collected Aquarius.
DaBaby, on the other hand, is a Capricorn, the sign that comes right before Aquario. Maybe their closeness in birthday month proximity is what helps to make “Cry Baby” such a seamless collab (better than the one he most recently did for Dua Lipa’s remix of “Levitating”). With a sort of blubbering sound effect present throughout the track, it does bear a certain vague similarity to Madonna’s “Cry Baby” from the oft under appreciated I’m Breathless album. Elsewhere, DaBaby’s naming of names like, “Keisha? (Kei), Jasmine? (Jas), Kiera?, Megan? (go), Lisa?, Ashley?, Sierra?, Sarah?” remind one of Petey Pablo’s seminal 2003 hit, “Freek-a-Leek” (sampled last year by Saweetie for “My Type”). The track also alludes to the “cry baby” dance craze of the 90s, hence Megan rapping in a double entendre-laden fashion with, “Lay on my stomach, toot it up, do the cry baby.”
Speaking of telling people to “do things,” “Do It On the Tip” is next. In what seems like a long overdue collaboration, City Girls (who already worked with Cardi B on 2019’s “Twerk”) join forces with Megan for a raunchy description of, you know, riding a dick. In other words, “Put this ass on that dick, I’ma spazz on that dick/Go to sleep, take a nap, I’ma crash on that dick/I won’t beg for no dick, I won’t cry for no dick/If your dick broke, nigga, put a cast on that dick.” And yes, Megan and City Girls are well-aware there’s plenty of dick in the sea (that is, if you’re not looking for one that “has it all”). So it is that Megan asserts what Blair Waldorf already told us long ago (“You have to be cold to be queen”) with, “I would never trip about any old dick/If my heart broke, it’s nothin’ that my jeweler won’t fix/Put some ice on my chest just to cool my shit/And I keep me a fur, ’cause I’m a real cold bitch, ayy/I’m a cold bitch, yes, I’m a cold piece.” Almost like cold, hard, shiny plastic–Barbie style. In point of fact, the album cover for Good News is very reminiscent of Nicki Minaj’s own beloved Barbie flavor. But she isn’t an outright packaged doll–for she could also double as a display in a museum encasement. Either way, it makes plenty of sense when she alludes to the cover’s image with, “Ayy, real bitch, but that body built like a doll/I ain’t in no competition with these hoes at all.”
That kind of self-confidence persists on “Sugar Baby.” As anyone with a sugar daddy knows, said “sugar” alludes to the cash/monetary goods funneled in exchange for some sexual favors on the regular. But Megan is too independent to be in need of that precise type of arrangement, arrogantly jibing, “Oh, he want a bad bitch?/Well, I want a nigga with some money and a long dick/Buy me everything in my cart if you my boyfriend/Invest in this pussy, boy, support Black business.” Once again referring to the events surrounding the racial reckoning of 2020, Thee Stallion finds a humorous way to seriously remark upon the economic reparations black people are still owed in America (and most other places as well).
The sexually charged “Movie” featuring Lil Durk follows, highlighting a theme Cardi B would surely approve of: strip club dynamics. With Lil Durk speaking from the perspective of the one getting the lap dance in the VIP room and Megan wielding her lascivious arrogance, the result is one of the more “erotic” offerings on the record (apart from, obviously, “Intercourse” featuring Popcaan and Mustard). Riffing off one another’s lines, Durk urges, “Tell her shake it, drop her friends off, and take her pants off” while Megan ripostes, “Tell him spend it, you ain’t got no money, keep your hands off,” in addition to assuring, “I’m a boss, I could buy the same thing my man bought.”
Perhaps that’s why she prefers to go back to keeping the company of another bad bitch on “Freaky Girls” featuring SZA. Fittingly, SZA was the only other artist this year to place emphasis on the importance of choreography in her video for “Hit Different.” Megan subsequently brought choreographed brilliance to her video for “Body.” With its infectious rhythm, it bears noting that the track is produced by Juicy J, who deftly incorporates Adina Howard’s 1995 hit, “Freak Like Me.” Accordingly, the vibe of the song is noticeably 90s R&B-tinged (something Ariana Grande also exhibited an affinity for on her recently released album, Positions). Providing a one-two punch of freakdom together, SZA offers the chorus, “I’ma be your freak any time or place, any day of the week/Said I’ma let you hit it, I ain’t scared, I ain’t shy, it’s cool with me/I’m lookin’ for a thug who ain’t scared of the pussy with a gangster lean.” In between, Megan Thee Stallion takes the unrestrained naughtiness to the next level with such brags as, “Freaky bitch, I do this, suck it like I’m toothless/Your old bitch can’t fuck with me, you ain’t teachin’ me no new shit/Do you know who you dealin’ with?/Ain’t convicted, but killin’ shit.”
What follows is the song most likely to get in your head from the record (apart from “Savage Remix”), the lead single, “Body” (complete with its choreography-heavy video). In many ways, it’s similar to Rihanna’s monosyllabic hit, “Work.” For not only does Megan repeat the same word over and over again, but it also ends up sounding like an entirely different word when she manipulates it with this repetition. Where Rihanna makes “work work work work work work” come across as a quacking duck, Megan makes “body” repeated sound like Seinfeld’s wet dream in the form of “yadda yadda yadda yadda.” But scoff if you will, this form of “brainless” redundancy is precisely what makes a hit. But that doesn’t mean she ceases to include her usual brand of sauciness in another rap featured in the song that rather reminds one again of Nicki Minaj’s Barbie love as Megan sings, “The category is body, look at the way it’s sittin’/That ratio so out of control, that waist, that ass, them titties.” Because yes, Barbie has a likenable body ratio of absurdity.
Like Billie Eilish coming out with her own “fuck you, haters” song, “Therefore I Am,” so it is also Megan’s time to shine with a clapback at the critics cut called “What’s New.” In a nutshell, she describes how she’s too rich and fly to be bothered by any commentary (and yet, if that were the case, she probably wouldn’t need to make a song about being unbothered). As one of her strongest solo songs on Good News, Megan brandishes her bravado with dexterity as she spits, “Middle finger out the roof, tell a hater, ‘Fuck you’/They keep comin’, tellin’ me these bitches mad, what’s new?/All this ice around my neck got me feelin’ too cool.”
“Work That” (not to be confused with “Work It”) is another song palpably produced by Juicy J (in conjunction with Z3N) with its exuberant beat luring us in as Megan parades her Texan ways by declaring, “He like it when I lick that, sit down, look back/When I ride him like a rodeo.” As the shortest “ditty” on the album, Megan is sure to cram as much ribald flair in as possible, so we can actually picture Megan riding a dick with a cowboy hat and boots on as she sticks her tongue out with her “just don’t care” aura. Other lyrical (and body positive) standouts on this track include, “Bitch, touch them toes, ayy, bitch, get that dough/If you in love with your body, bitch, take off your clothes/I’ma ride him like a pro ’cause I ain’t new to this shit/And I ain’t never been a clown, but I’ma fool on the dick.” Such boasts, however, make one think that Megan might be a part of Nicki and Cardi’s camp in terms of gloating a little too much about their pussy’s value (if it is that great, maybe only reference that fact once in a while like Beyoncé–who has maybe only ever mentioned once that she has the “most bomb pussy”).
All this talk of her wet ass pussy leads in, naturally, to “Intercourse.” With a reggaeton tinge thanks to Popcaan (who has also collaborated with Lily Allen on a remix of “What You Waiting For?,” as well Gorillaz for “Saturnz Barz” from 2017’s Humanz), Mustard also lends his signature flair to the song’s slow seduction.
This “nothing but chill vibes” tempo is abruptly negated by “Go Crazy” featuring Big Sean and 2 Chainz. Arguably the most memorable for its lyrical content and standout backing beat (moody and frenetic to match the sentiments of the song), Megan speaks to one of the most vexing stereotypes about black women–that they’re “angry,” therefore “crazy”–while choosing to embrace it as she quite simply doesn’t give a fuck what people call her. Plus, she has the clout by now to not care–ergo, “Bitch, you know I’m fire, you can’t drag a dragon/I used to be patient/Now I’m on some ski mask shit, bitch, I’m anxious/Hoes talkin’ cash shit, but can’t make a payment/Carnivore, I’ma eat up any bitch who play me/Forty-inch long black weave like Morticia.” Regarding the last reference, Megan does that rare thing black female rappers do in referring to “white people shit.” Something she also breaks the mold for via the video for “Don’t Stop” featuring Young Thug (which serves as the final already released track on Good News).
Her most “tranquil” song (by sheer virtue of the fact that she’s actually singing instead of rapping), “Don’t Rock Me To Sleep,” finds Megan urging honesty and straightforwardness in any relationship, no matter what stage it might be in. Like Nicki and Cardi before her with tracks such as “Right Thru Me” and “Thru Your Phone” respectively, Megan’s softer side comes out despite still possessing a protective shell as she demands, “Don’t rock me to sleep/Skip to the part that you really mean/If you wanna leave, then bye, bye, bye/I’m a big girl, so I won’t cry/Don’t sing me a lullaby-by-by/Blah, blah, blah, la-la-la.” On a side note, Kesha has a song called “Blah Blah Blah” that might make a good mashup with this.
The somewhat ironically titled for 2020 “Outside” opens with the taunting line, “We outside!” (sorry Bhad Bhabie, you’re not the only one who can assert, “Cash me outside”). Of course, in this sense, being “outside” refers to Megan being a free agent, not tied to any one dick. And even if she does manage to briefly settle down for a minute, she cheekily reminds, “Baby, can you tell me have you ever heard of polygamy?/It’s only me and you, but I got many personalities.” If a guy can’t get on board with that kind of diversity Megan has a reminder for him: “I’ma be outside ’til I don’t wanna be/And I’ma show this ass ’cause it’s what they wanna see, look I ain’t for the streets, ’cause bitch, I am the street.”
As the last song on the album that we haven’t heard before (with the three song tack-on of “Savage Remix,” “Girls In the Hood” and “Don’t Stop”), Megan does, in fact, prove that she brought some Good News to us during this bleak year that has possibly kicked off our entry into an even bleaker decade. After all, 2020 seems to be the cultural moment that has the “shots fired” for what’s to come next. With Megan as part of our soundtrack, maybe taking on a Mad Max: Fury Road existence will be even easier.
