Seemingly not one to ever stop–even after getting shot–Megan Thee Stallion has decided also not to lose the momentum of her collaboration with Cardi B on “WAP” by bringing us yet another single called, what else, “Don’t Stop.” While Cardi B might have been swapped out for Young Thug, Thee Stallion chose to keep her grasp on Colin Tilley (who directed “WAP”) to execute the vision for the video for her newest song, one that heavily favors Lewis Carroll and Tim Burton references (and since Burton directed his own version of Alice in Wonderland, the combination makes plenty of sense).
While certainly not the first to take inspiration from the psychedelic world of Alice (see also: Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit,” Gwen Stefani’s “What You Waiting For?” video and Damon Albarn’s wonder.land, to name a few), Megan Thee Stallion is the first mainstream female rapper to de-whiteify usage of this pop culture reference. Indeed, Tim Burton, too, is an auteur decidedly steeped in the notion of being “some white people shit” (kind of like Wes Anderson). Considering the present moment, this feels like a highly deliberate selection on Megan Thee Stallion’s part, as though some ultimate statement on the subversive ways in which racism creeps into even the most seemingly “innocent” of entities (like pop culture, which ain’t innocent at all). In claiming these tropes as her own, Thee Stallion is effectively making some major strides in how we think about what constitutes “white pop culture.”
Opening with her version of the Cheshire Cat in a cloud of smoke as he stares at a giant, glittering rocking horse in front of him (an undoubted homage to The Rocking-Horse-Fly in Alice in Wonderland), Tilley cuts to Megan riding the horse (meta, no?) in her own shimmering, sheer number that seems pulled out of one of Beyoncé or Nicki Minaj’s lookbooks. We then see Megan dressed in her own Cheshire Cat costume with a pink pigtail wig as she raps against a surreal black and white checkered backdrop. This is interwoven with Megan continuing to hold court on her Rocking-Horse-Fly as her backup dancers twirl, twerk and generally preen for her viewing pleasure. She, too, joins in–of course, for she is, after all, the Queen of Hearts in this scenario.
Rapping the chorus, “Don’t stop, pop that cat/Mmm, mmm, just like that/Mmm, mmm, shake that shit,” we see that the double entendre of “cat” in this case might have been the genesis of inspiration for the video concept. Around the one minute mark, Young Thug shows up as the requisite Edward Scissorhands in an outdoor garden setting that is equal parts reminiscent of the suburban neighborhood Edward (Johnny Depp) found himself in and the one containing the Queen’s white roses where Alice was accused of painting them red (this, too, feels subliminally subversive, for Megan is painting over “white roses” in her own way as well). As Young Thug trims the bushes (innuendo) and, later, Megan’s hair, the two soon appear in an attic setting similar to the one where Edward spent his days before being unearthed by Peg (Dianne Wiest). While among this set, Megan displays the same Joyce (Kathy Baker)-inspired hairstyle that Edward graced her with, thanks to a red wig–rounded out by a coordinating red gown.
Reverting back to Wonderland, Megan then rolls out in a blue corseted number as she sashays toward a house like the one Alice famously grew too large for as she got trapped inside, her arms and legs sticking out of the windows. Here, Megan’s backup dancers are bedecked in harlequin-print bodysuits with matching knee-high socks. For the big finish of this dance sequence, Megan lets the Cheshire Cat spank her as she shakes her ass for it while again singing, “Don’t stop, pop that cat.” The pussycat, of course, eventually settles in between her legs in case you couldn’t get the message. The final frame concludes where we left the Cheshire Cat: smoking as he watches Megan on the stage. And so we’re taken what feels like too soon out of Megan’s version of a Lewis Carroll/Tim Burton cocktail.
