Megan Thee Stallion was already one of the most popular up-and-coming rappers of 2019, but 2020 has shot her to another level of fame. 2019 made her a household name among hip hop fans, but 2020 has made her a household name to anyone under the age of 25. Her song “Savage” became one of the most popular songs ever on TikTok, and even got a remix from Beyonce that made it one of the best songs of 2020 and a Billboard chart topper. Her brand of cocky, sex-driven, rap has made her a target for a plethora of criticism from many people.
Her new feature on Cardi B's new track “WAP”, was the latest song to get criticized by many conservative officials for being too sexually explicit. But the craziest thing that she’s received criticism for is being shot by another artist, Tory Lanez. Even though Megan posted pictures of her feet, said that he shot her, Tory having a gun on him at the time, and him being charged with shooting her, there is still a surprisingly large amount of people that think she’s lying and constantly harassed her about it. There have been thousands of memes and jokes at her own expense, which is crazy to imagine that one of the biggest new names in music can be shot, but still made fun of by hundreds of thousands of people.
This is the part of Megan that doesn’t usually come across in her music, the loss and criticism that she constantly faces. That criticism alone would be enough to change artists, but Megan has had a lot more hardships than that. Her father was in and out of prison when she was young, and passed away before she made it to high school. In 2019, her mother and grandmother, who also helped raise her, both passed away in the same month. Even her best friend who was in the car with her during the shooting, who could’ve stepped up in Megan’s favor, is rumoured to be being paid in order to stay quiet. And even throughout all that loss and being an incredibly popular and talented rapper, she’s still currently finishing her degree at TSU for health administration so she can make assisted living facilities in her hometown of Houston.
The personal losses are something she hasn’t really explored in her music, and that still stands with this new album, Good News. But what she does set straight on here is people making light of her being shot. She comes out the gate with the all-telling “Shots Fired”, which perfectly uses the same sample as Biggie’s “Who Shot Ya”. The song feels like her wanting to get this out of the way and end the talking about her being shot. She throws plenty of shots at Tory including a personal favorite, “You’re not poppin, you just on the remix”, as well as references to other Black women that aren’t getting justice.
“Shots Fired” is the outlier on the tracklist, not just because this is the only time she addresses the Tory Lanez incident, but also that she doesn’t waver outside her comfort zone the rest of the project. Every other song is right in Megan’s brand of empowerment, sex-driven hip hop that is highly reminiscent of Pimp C and Three 6 Mafia. While everything is extremely similar to what she’s done before, some of her best songs ever fall over these 17 songs.
“Circles” would’ve been a huge party song if there was no global pandemic. I’m a sucker for a sample-laced beat, and this song features a great sample from the Jazmine Sullivan track “Holding You Down”. The chorus is immediately ear grabbing and just as catchy as the sample itself. It’s also the best example of Megan being able to write a quality song in under three minutes. “Freaky Girls” with SZA is another quality example of a catchy, hooky song that immediately hits. While the production could be better or more hard hitting, but the song itself is too good to be bogged down by this.
There are some songs on here that just prove how great of rapper Megan is. “What’s New” is Megan shrugging off her haters once again, and it’s one of the more simple tracks on the project, but there’s not many mainstream rappers that can rap this well and make it sound this fun. All of the singles hit super hard as well, including the Eazy-E sampled “Girls in the Hood”. “Don’t Stop” has an incredible beat that sounds almost like something a PC music act would make, and Megan somehow still flows perfectly over it. The huge “Savage Remix” with Beyonce is still one of the best songs of the year, even though a large part of that is due to Beyonce’s incredible contributions. Even “Go Crazy” with 2 Chainz and Big Sean lives up the hype that people had before the album dropped.
As with previous Megan albums, she tries out some singing towards the back of the album, and while these are arguably better, it’s definitely not good yet. “Don’t Rock Me To Sleep” is the biggest example of this offense, as it’s a full on electro-pop song. While the production feels almost like something off of Future Nostalgia, Megan’s singing isn’t even average yet and the lyrics are extremely cringy. “Outside” is a better example of her using melody in her music, but it also shows one of the biggest insights to her on the album. During the chorus, she exclaims, “And I’ma be outside until I don’t wanna be. And I’ma show this ass ‘cause it’s what they wanna see.”
That quote shows both the positives and negatives of the album. Megan is the best at the type of hip hop that she makes, but it seems like she feels trapped, to the point where she feels she can’t do anything else. It’s why while Good News is a very good debut album, there’s still a feeling that she’s holding back her potential with this project. While I’m sure she can make a great album in this style too, it still won’t be up to the potential that many people think she has. So while I’ll definitely be listening to a good deal of Good News for the foreseeable future, I hope that Megan starts to experiment with her sound and subject matter a bit more.
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