by Diamond Brown
Image Credit: Kevin Winter | Getty Images
What makes female hip-hop great or even memorable is the ability to mix raw experiences with hyper-femininity in a catchy song or tune. Rappers such as Lauryn Hill and Nicki Minaj have excelled at this, allowing fans to access their lives through their music by creating a body of work around this theme. Rapper Cardi B can be seen as another example, with her hit song, "Bodak Yellow," changing the trajectory of her career.
Fans are known for pushing and falling in love with an underdog story—unfortunately, many of the female rappers today don’t seem to have one. Female rap has now become a sector in the industry for women to showcase their bodies instead of their talent. Many of the female rappers we hear today are not lyrically inclined, nor do they have the ability to tell a story through song. We can think of male rappers such as Nas, Tupac, Biggie Smalls, Jay-Z, and even Eminem as some of the greats who can tell a story through lyrics that are easy to follow, catchy, and make us root for them as the underdogs.
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Megan Thee Stallion’s new album, "Megan," hypersexualizes the artist and is a hot mess that should be considered a soft launch into the adult film industry. When listening to the album, I kept wondering, “Who is this album for?” Is it for women who enjoy partying and hanging out during the summer? Is it for men who enjoy hearing women rap about sex and how skilled they are in bed? Could it be that Megan Thee Stallion is hoping to increase her fan base by sharing sexually explicit lyrics to garner more male listeners?
Or is this album for anime lovers? I mean, I can’t tell, and sure enough, I don’t want to. I feel like this album could have had so much potential, but the ball was dropped. We hear Megan Thee Stallion rapping in Japanese, which was great! But the features weren’t memorable, and none of the songs have any replay value. We can listen to this album once and forget it. No one is going to be talking about this album a month from now, let alone ten years.
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While her visuals are great, the flows, cadences, and lyrics are not. Megan Thee Stallion is excellent at freestyle rap—which begs the question, does she rap better when there are little to no restrictions placed on her? And if that’s the case, then was this even a Megan album at all? She is not signed to a record label, so where could the restrictions have come from? And by restrictions, I mean, keeping the songs sexual and sprinkling in two sad songs to placate the audience.
We want Megan Thee Stallion to shine as we all know she can, but when will she stop selling sex and start selling art through a body of work? I believe that is when Megan will excel and be catapulted to the next phase of her career because right now, it’s all soft-core porn, and this will only leave her stunted as an artist. Once you are seen as the artist who can only sell sex, respect is no longer warranted, as that is what the fans and spectators will only come to expect from you.
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Not only that, but if Megan wishes to venture off into other areas such as acting and maybe even business ventures, who is to say that her audience will have enough respect for her to support anything she does outside of music?
It's sad to say, but this album had such a good build-up, and the snake theme was immaculate, only to be let down by the finished product. A snake shedding its skin, I believe, could have brought about lyrics on growth, her struggles growing up, family problems, relationship problems, overcoming drug abuse… I mean… something to depict growth. Where did the growth happen outside of the bedroom, and why should fans root for you?
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SSM Score: 3/10 Unattached