While one might automatically assume that a song called “Cobra,” coming from Megan Thee Stallion, would be inherently innuendo-laden (it was, after all, in “WAP” that Cardi B declared, “I need a king cobra”), in the end, the rapper’s latest single is more spiritual than sexual. Because, lest anyone forget, the cobra is known just as much for being able to shed its skin as it is for its phallic nature.
So it is that the Douglas Bernardt-directed video begins with a circular close-up on Megan Thee Stallion’s mouth (with the entire rest of the screen in black) as she informs us, “Just as a snake sheds its skin, we must shed our past over and over again.” Amen. Soon after, the camera zooms out to show Thee Stallion with snake eyes. Bernardt then cuts to a very birth-like scene (you know, think: emerging from ya ma’s vaginal canal) of Megan, practically in her birthday suit, crawling out of the snake’s mouth. After making her way out into the wilderness-y milieu, another snake awaits as the rock-oriented (by rap standards) beat drops and Thee Stallion commences her tale of woe and overcoming it with the lyrics, “Breakin’ down and I had the whole world watchin’/But the worst part is really who watched me/Every night I cried, I almost died/And nobody close tried to stop it/Long as everybody gettin’ paid, right?/Everything’ll be okay, right?”
Surely, these are lines that Britney Spears can relate to. In addition to, “I’m winnin’, so nobody trippin’/Bet if I ever fall off, everybody go missin’.” Indeed, part of Spears’ big “fuck you” to the many who wronged her, particularly her family, is to shirk the music industry altogether at this point (with rumors still swirling that she’s due to “return” any day now). So if Megan ever wants to take the same approach, she knows who to look to for inspiration. At the same time, Spears has shown her cobra-like strength by shedding the trauma of her own past and still “daring” to interface with the public at all (mostly on Instagram). And, besides, this is the same girl who iconically draped a snake around her shoulders while shimmying to “I’m A Slave 4 U” at the 2001 VMAs. The snake metaphor has long been in her wheelhouse (much to Taylor Swift’s dismay).
As for the moody guitar rhythm of “Cobra,” brought to listeners by Bankroll Got It, Shawn “Source” Jarrett and Derrick Milano, it reminds one of ANTI-era Rihanna—namely the sixth track on the album, “Woo” (co-produced by Hit-Boy, Kuk Harrell and, yes, Travis Scott). But the visuals themselves are pure Nicki Minaj (complete with a similar state of undress) in the video for 2018’s “Ganja Burn,” off the Queen album. And, like “Cobra,” “Ganja Burn” also offers a prologue, this one written (instead of spoken) as follows:
Once upon a time, in a world unknown… there lived a queen. The generous queen. One day, her enemies all came together to hold a secret meeting and concocted a plan to take the generous queen down. They conspired with someone who was once very close to her & struck like a thief in the night. Though the queen could hear & see them in her mind, she decided to allow them an easy victory. She advised her army to do & say nothing. They slaughtered her village. What they perceived as death was a deep sleep. Once the generous queen had enough of her rest, she began to arise as she blew life back into her army. They all assembled, stronger & better than ever. They became more protective of the queen than ever before. She made a command. One command. ‘Kill everything in sight.’ With those words, her enemies were all put to death. The queen’s empire celebrated. They asked her, ‘Why did you allow us to be defeated?’ She responded, ‘So that generations for years & years to come would know, that even in the grave, he is lord.
Megan Thee Stallion wants to convey a similar message to her own enemies, with especial focus on the man who caused so much of her suicide ideation for the past few years, Tory Lanez. It is he that The Stallion refers to when she provides the aforementioned rap, “Breakin’ down and I had the whole world watchin’/But the worst part is really who watched me/Every night I cried, I almost died.” And yet, despite understanding the preciousness of life after her near-death experience, Megan still can’t help feeling “very depressed.” We’re talking wrist-slittingly depressed.
Addressing the conundrum of being rich and successful, yet still feeling empty inside (to bring up Britney again, she already explored that pain with 2000’s “Lucky”), Megan sings, “How can somebody so blessed wanna slit they wrist?/Shit, I’d probably bleed out some Pinot/When they find me, I’m in Valentino, ayy.” Needless to say, the expensive wines and the designer labels aren’t enough to fill an emotional and spiritual void. Which means, like Britney in 2003, maybe it’s time for Megan to seek Kabbalah counsel from Madonna, who once told her dancers that after their tour (2004’s Reinvention Tour, to be exact), she hoped they had become “more compassionate to other human beings and more responsible for your actions and your words, because without those two things your gifts and your talents mean nothing.”
Perhaps Thee Stallion is starting to pick up on that message, even if still allowing herself to wallow in her melancholia just a little bit longer. During the chorus, she speaks to that sadness on a new level, channeling Charlotte York (Kristin Davis) in the vulvodynia episode of Sex and the City (“The Real Me”) when she says, “This pussy deprеssed, hmm/I’m about to stress him, yeah.” This is said while Megan is in a human-sized tank meant to mirror the kind that “pet” cobras and other snakes are usually kept in, all while strangers watch her and take her picture. Thus, she takes Taylor Swift’s “fishbowl” metaphor from the “Lover” video and remakes it with a snake tank. For that’s what it is to be famous: trapped inside a glass prison with everyone on the outside examining and dissecting your every move. Inside the tank, Megan peels off another layer of skin from her face.
Intercut scenes in black and white then start to show up, featuring Megan in her most Nicki-looking aesthetic yet. A smattering of heads contained inside a sea of snakes also serves to highlight Thee Stallion’s overarching message that she will always triumph over her enemies, hitting back when they least expect it with her own set of venomous fangs. Dancing in the middle of a spiral jetty during the mercurial guitar solo (at its most “80s rock” yet), Thee Stallion again gives off major “Ganja Burn” video vibes. Soon, a montage of images that we’ve seen throughout the video play at a rapid-fire pace before the camera finally pauses on Thee Stallion’s face looking back at us, her back arched and her breathing visible. It is in this moment that the viewer can understand the full weight of her focus on the cobra as a spirit animal. For it is she who posted an image relating to the cobra’s symbolic meaning that stated, “Cobras exemplify courage and self-reliance. They stand tall and fierce in the face of challenges, teaching one to tap into their inner strength and rely on oneself to conquer their threats. Emulating the cobra helps one be more confident in the person they are within.”
How fitting, then, that “Cobra” should serve as the first single from Megan’s Hot Girl label. Part of a larger company called Hot Girl Productions LLC—and secured after years of legal battles with 1501 Certified Entertainment—it’s no coincidence that her first release since 2022’s Traumazine is a marked departure from the sound of previous music. Not just the melding of rap and rock (of the variety perhaps not seen since Run DMC and Aerosmith joined forces), but with the amplification of her deeply personal lyrics. The kind of lyrics that are generally not associated with being “rap topics” (because that can only extend to repetitive mentions of bands and booties, n’est-ce pas?).
This includes exposing further vulnerability by alluding to her breakup with Pardison Fontaine, as she refers to his infidelity via the lines, “Pulled up, caught him cheatin’/Gettin’ his dick sucked in the same spot I’m sleepin’.” Here, again, it’s worth remarking that Minaj was the mainstream’s progenitor of these kinds of deeply personal lyrics in her rap music, with notable examples including The Pinkprint’s “I Lied,” “The Crying Game” and “Pills n Potions.” With “Cobra,” Megan Thee Stallion is amplifying the “vulnerability in rap” trend that Minaj started a decade ago and making it all her own.
