FEATURE:
Good News Only
PHOTO CREDIT: Adrienne Raquel for Elle
After a Traumatising and Challenging 2022, how 2023 Has Seen Megan Thee Stallion Enter Her ‘Healing Girl Era’
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I think that one of the most important albums…
IN THIS PHOTO: Megan Thee Stallion at the GQ Awards Men of the Year Awards on 16th November, 2023/PHOTO CREDIT: Gilbert Flores
of last year came from the mighty Megan Thee Stallion. Traumazine received huge acclaim and, with it, a new wave of interest in the Texan-born rapper. One of the modern Rap queens, born Megan Jovon Ruth Pete, this modern-day superstar is someone not to be questioned or messed with. An outstanding talent who is going to influence a generation of women in Hip-Hop, I wanted to react to an article that The Cut published recently. It is paywalled - so many people might not have the chance to read it. Someone who has received a lot of scrutiny and attack from those within and without the music industry, especially of late, there seemed like this defiance and self-love this year. A year that could not break the incredible Megan Thee Stallion! I wanted to bring in some sections of the feature by Tirhakah Love:
“Mainstream artists hardly take breaks from dropping new joints, and, even rarer, they don’t usually come out the other side of a hiatus shittin’ on their opps. In 2023, Megan Thee Stallion was able to do both with a level of grace and savoir faire that we’ve come to expect from the bubbly, confident, hellaciously fun rap superstar. With the release of her single “Cobra” earlier this month, over its slithering, synth-y guitar riffs, she has compelled our eyes and ears to consider what happens when an artist retrieves joy for themselves after an immense amount of public suffering.
If this new song sounds like testimony, that’s because it is. Eight months ago, when asked by Entertainment Tonight about new music — a rather impatient question, seeing as she had released her second studio album, Traumazine, only seven months prior — she answered with the prickly brevity of a public face aware that insatiable audiences, who love her or hate her, seem to always fiend for a piece of her, and that this is the imbalanced social contract she signed her name to when she first started this whole rappity-rap thing: “Oh, I am. New album. Fuck y’all hoes. Bye!”
Of course, this well-deserved sabbatical and standoffish posture came after years of receiving floods of hatred from folks within, outside, and adjacent to the music industry that only a few years ago seemed to fully embrace her energy with wide-open Henny-filled mouths. The turn on her wasn’t entirely unexpected; there were always jokes about her size, the shape of her face, the bop she liked to hit when she freestyled in those early days, her ’fits (before the high-end designers got ahold of her) — all of which spoke to the depth of anti-Blackness, misogynoir, anti-transness, and sex negativity internalized by music fans. But it wasn’t until Tory Lanez shot her in mid-2020 that rap blogs and commentators — egged on by that nebbish Canadian artist — began to spread lies around the incident, compelling her to betray her initial decision to handle the matter privately and take him to court. He was convicted to ten years in prison, but before, during, and after the case, tweets, blog posts, and dusty-ass rappers came out of the woodwork to gaslight her. She lost her best friend in that incident out of jealousy and lies, and earlier that year, her mother and her great-grandmother had passed away. We also learned that she had been stuck in an exploitative deal with a record label hardly anyone outside of Houston would even know if it weren’t for her.
But that was a primordial era when Megan, in her own words, “naïvely believed that everyone came with pure intentions and wanted to be my friend.” It’s fascinating to go back and watch those videos of Meg at the club pouring shots down the tubes of folks who would eventually abandon her in her time of need. Discerning hearts could feel how unsustainable it all was, that the entertainment industry is nowhere near as lighthearted and jovial as it appears. That the drinking, the Instagram love, the flings, the attempts at twerking alongside thee twerk empress would eventually fall by the wayside once the high subsided. Once she was rendered vulnerable, the vultures and leeches did the only thing they know: steal and consume. Her narrative became twisted. And if those years were about naïveté, 2023 was about taking her things back.
At the beginning of this year, Meg’s silence was louder than ever. After releasing Traumazine in August 2022, launching mental-health resource site Bad Bitches Have Bad Days Too (a reference to a bar in her elegy “Anxiety”), and being featured in Forbes’ top rap earners of the year, she had stepped away from the public eye to focus on recovering, spending time with pets and her small circle of remaining friends. By March, she had reemerged with the announcement of not only a new album, but that she was in talks to star in the next Safdie brothers film and would be performing at the March Madness Music Festival in her hometown. In May, she addressed the shooting for the very last time with a heartfelt column in Elle magazine.
She continued with a string of performances that showcased her growing talent and continued marketability among a diverse set of stages: at L.A. Pride, where she surprisingly reunited with a queer friend, Carlos Ruvalcaba from middle school (who later Instagrammed that Meg “stepped in and defended” them when they were “talked down being called Gay when I wasn’t out yet”); at the Essence Fest in New Orleans; and eventually the release and performance of “Bongos” at the VMAs with Cardi B (one of the only celebrities who has stuck beside Meg during her troubles), a second chapter to “WAP” that, naturally, moved from gooch to ass in the duo’s traversal across the taint. (Maybe they’ll co-write a final chapter on the tatas just to complete the holy trinity? One can only hope.).
Perhaps Megan’s biggest moment onstage this year came when she stood alongside her idol Beyoncé during her exalted Renaissance world tour. In hindsight, we should’ve known something more massive was coming, because October had been a banner month for the Hot Girl: The first Friday of the month, she starred in Dicks: The Musical; a week later, she announced that she’d be independently financing her next album; and six days after that, she and her label, 1501, finally parted ways. The very next day, the seventh season of Netflix’s horny animated hit Big Mouth premiered, wherein audiences were delightfully surprised to hear her deep verveful voicework as Megan, (thee) hormone monster. By the time we reached November, around 448 days since the release of Traumazine, Meg switched on the Snake Signal to let her rabid fans know new tunes would be rattling out November 3. She started with “Cobra,” a song conceptualized from the very public trauma that everyone witnessed her experience, anime nerdom (she references the Naruto character Orochimaru, a slippery snake-based villain known for reinvention, renewal, and chasing immortality), and a streaking guitar chord that immediately told us that she was trying something completely new here. (And the bars? Whew, the bars.)”.
I was affected by that feature and the realisation of what Megan Thee Stallion has gone through. As a women in Hip-Hop, a genre that still has an issue with misogyny and inequality, she has to fight and shout harder and louder than her male peers. There was this toxicity and backlash that came out of the shooting and court battle. Perhaps, as PBS noted, there is this misogyny that impacts Black women where Megan Thee Stallion was questioned and attacked. This misogynoir was highlighted by Associated Press. This prejudice where racism and sexism meet; this unique discrimination that is also present in the music industry, it is testament to Megan Thee Stallion’s strength and conviction that she stood up to artists like Drake – who questioned her version of events and felt she lied about being shot. Earlier this year, writing for Elle, Megan Thee Stallion looked back on a turbulent and horrific time:
“I could have let the adversity break me, but I persevered, even as people treated my trauma like a running joke. First, there were conspiracy theories that I was never shot. Then came the false narratives that my former best friend shot me. Even some of my peers in the music industry piled on with memes, jokes, and sneak disses, and completely ignored the fact that I could have lost my life. Instead of condemning any form of violence against a woman, these individuals tried to justify my attacker’s actions.
I wish I could have handled this situation privately. That was my intention, but once my attacker made it public, everything changed. By the time I identified my attacker, I was completely drained. Many thought I was inexplicably healed because I was still smiling through the pain, still posting on social media, still performing, still dancing, and still releasing music.
PHOTO CREDIT: Adrienne Raquel for Elle
The truth is that I started falling into a depression. I didn’t feel like making music. I was in such a low place that I didn’t even know what I wanted to rap about. I wondered if people even cared anymore. There would be times that I’d literally be backstage or in my hotel, crying my eyes out, and then I’d have to pull Megan Pete together and be Megan Thee Stallion.
It never crossed my mind that people wouldn’t believe me. Still, I knew the truth and the indisputable facts would prevail. I had worked way too hard to reach this point in my career to let taunts deter me. When the guilty verdict came on Dec. 23, 2022, it was more than just vindication for me, it was a victory for every woman who has ever been shamed, dismissed, and blamed for a violent crime committed against them.
But my heart hurts for all the women around the world who are suffering in silence, especially if you’re a Black woman who doesn’t appear as if she needs help. So many times, people looked at me and thought, “You look strong. You’re outspoken. You’re tall. You don’t look like somebody who needs to be saved.” They assumed that, per preconceived stigmas, “I didn’t fit the profile of a victim,” and that I didn’t need support or protection.
PHOTO CREDIT: Adrienne Raquel for Elle
Time after time, women are bullied with backlash for speaking out against their attackers, especially when they’re accusing someone who is famous and wealthy. They’re often accused of lying or attempting to make money from their trauma. From firsthand experience, I know why a lot of women don’t come forward. Any support and empathy that I received was drowned out by overwhelming doubt and criticism from so many others”.
An artist who is being name-checked by so many as influence, this year has been one where she has almost had to rebuild a reputation destroyed by some in the industry.
For anyone who has survived violence, please know your feelings are valid. You matter. You are not at fault. You are important. You are loved. You are not defined by your trauma. You can continue to write beautiful, new chapters to your life story. Just because you are in a bad situation doesn’t mean you are a bad person. Our value doesn’t come from the opinions of other people. As long as you stand your ground and live in your truth, nobody can take your power.
We can’t control what others think, especially when the lies are juicier than the truth. But as a society, we must create safer environments for women to come forward about violent behavior without fear of retaliation. We must provide stronger resources for women to recover from these tragedies physically and emotionally, without fear of judgment. We must do more than say her name. We must protect all women who have survived the unimaginable”.
She has had hot girl moments on the red carpet, released new music, and is looking ahead to 2024. A year where many would love to see her follow her 2022 masterpiece, Traumazine. A modern fashion icon, hugely respected and loved by fellow artists, and an icon who is inspiring women across multiple genres, this year has been a very different one for Megan Thee Stallion. I look back at articles like this from 2020, where she had released her debut, Good News. Many people unaware of what would come and how many would reframe her in light of the Tory Lanez shooting revelation and subsequent trial. It is shocking and completely reprehensible what she had to face; how she battled to be believed and supported. It opens up questions around Black women; not just in music and the industry but right across the world. That discrimination and misogyny that is aimed at them. An artist who should have got justice sooner had to fight to be believed. 2023 has been a year for rebuilding, reflection and new ambition. Someone who, whilst not recovered and clear of the trauma sha faced, can at least look at a more positive and less turbulent 2024. After legal issues with the record label 1501 were settled recently, we all hope of brighter and more carefree days for Megan Thee Stallion!
Cobra sees Megan Thee Stallion rap about mental health. This inspiring and defiant song that was matched with an extraordinary video, it amazes me how this hugely important artist has survived! Someone who deserved a lot of support and understanding when she went through such a horrible and tough time was often met with criticism and prejudice. Misogynoir and prejudice. This year has been, as The Cut, brilliantly wrote, one that could not break Megan Thee Stallion. I feel next year is one where there will be new music, big touring and some wonderful and happy times for her – someone who deserves it more than anyone I feel. She is closing old chapters and, with it, embarking on a brighter future. There will be a lot of excitement regarding new music from one of Rap’s most powerful and inspiring names. Such a fighter and incredible brave woman, let’s hope that 2024 offers up…
NOTHING but good news!