Megan Thee Stallion is popping out of her shell and she or he’s doing simply nice. Not that the rapper born Megan Pete has ever been a shrinking violet: the Houstonian’s 2017 breakout ‘Stalli Freestyle’ already radiated the preternatural confidence that may launch her to stardom through sensational singles ‘WAP’ and ‘Sizzling Lady Summer season’. However ‘Megan’, her third studio album, flows with a palpably increased stage of inventive boldness. It’s probably the most vibrant and well-rounded portrait of Megan Thee Stallion we’ve seen but.
It’s not too shocking that ‘Megan’ is the rapper’s sharpest full-length assertion. Her final two albums, ‘Good Information’ and ‘Traumazine’, have been shadowed by deaths in Megan’s household, in addition to a traumatic capturing and the ensuing, protracted court docket trial. They have been additionally launched by 1501 Licensed Leisure, the label Megan lastly break up from final October after a three-year authorized battle. Not solely is ‘Megan’ her first independently launched album (in a distribution cope with Warner that provides her management over her masters and publishing), she apparently even funded its recording. The result’s an album that showcases Megan The Stallion in all her multifaceted glory: Tina Snow, the Sizzling Lady Coach, the H-City Hottie and far more.
One of the apparent personas ‘Megan’ embraces is the snake – a motif that she likes, she’s defined, as a result of it implies an “anti-hero”. Megan revels on this, bookending the album with steely singles ‘Hiss’ and ‘Cobra’. Although Kendrick Lamar turned issues as much as 11, Megan was the primary rapper to fireside pictures at Drake this 12 months when she mocked “cosplay gangsters, faux ass accents” on ‘Hiss’ in January. She continues to let fly at her enemies on the pointed ‘Rattle’, sneering: “I ain’t fear ’bout the bitter-bitch link-up / Y’all hoes earned them seats within the fanclub.” On her final two albums, Megan was typically lashing out; right here, she stings with venomous precision.
The earth-scorching disses on ‘Hiss’ dominated prior discourse about Megan’s new music, however now web ink is being feverishly spilled about ‘Otaku Sizzling Lady’ and ‘Mamushi’ – the place the vocal anime fanatic flies her freak flag excessive. Pulling collectively an earworm of a hook and blithe references to Jujutsu Kaisen and Naruto, ‘Otaku Sizzling Lady’ sounds just like the shonen-spirited flex she was destined to write down.
Megan has revealed that she jumped via “eight million hoops” to get the pattern in ‘Otaku Sizzling Lady’ cleared, however the music doesn’t bear any indicators of hurried rewriting. (Its enchantment to anime agnostics might be restricted – although the pattern associated to Jujutsu Kaisen, and an iconic intro from one of many collection’ voice-actors, make the music virtually fanservice for fellow otakus.) Although not as easy, ‘Mamushi’ is a change of tempo for Megan, who over an icy, skeletal beat follows the swaggering lead of Yuki Chiba, the Japanese rapper previously generally known as Kohh who made a viral comeback with ‘Workforce Tomodachi’ in February.
Over the album’s 52 minutes, Megan sprawls out, mining completely different elements of her id and persona at her leisure. It’s thrilling when she enters new territory – ‘Paper Collectively’ proudly options her heroes and Southern rap forebears UGK, and begins with a beforehand vaulted verse by the late Pimp C. Listeners coming to a Megan Thee Stallion album know to anticipate raunchy rapping, however may also agree she nonetheless outdoes herself with masturbation and self-love anthem ‘Down Stairs DJ’. And there’s a enjoyable twist on ‘B.A.S.’, the place Megan owns as much as some poisonous behaviour, too, however not earlier than unleashing one other bonkers Stallion opener: “That ain’t my bae, he actually extra like my bidet / He prefer to get up with ass in his face.”
All of those sides of Megan Thee Stallion have been on show all through her profession, from freestyles to mixtapes to studio albums. However they’ve not sounded this cohesive collectively until now (sure, even ‘Worthy’, with its self-empowerment mantra of a refrain and peppy pop-guitar beat). When the scorching guitar solo rings out on ‘Cobra’, it escorts us out of the album – and heralds a fearless new period for Megan Thee Stallion.
Particulars
- Launch date: June 28, 2024
- File label: Sizzling Lady Productions LLC