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Tag: Megan Thee Stallion music videos

  • Megan Thee Stallion Keeps Up Her Snake Motif With “BOA,” A Pro-Gwen Stefani, Anti-TikTok Single

    Megan Thee Stallion Keeps Up Her Snake Motif With “BOA,” A Pro-Gwen Stefani, Anti-TikTok Single

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    Either Megan Thee Stallion is in bed with the U.S. government, or she’s genuinely sick of TikTok and the low-grade “talent” it furnishes. Whatever the case, a noticeable portion of her latest snake-themed single (following “Cobra” and “Hiss”), “BOA,” takes aim at the app with lines like, “Bitch, your time up, why is you not clockin’ out?/Doin’ shit for TikTok (yeah), bitch, I’m really hip hop” and “I ain’t need to make no TikTok/Bitch, your time up.” Alas, those quick to write people (or things) off as being practically “over” expose themselves to what Megan’s frequent cohort, Cardi B, once said on “Champagne Rosé”: “They say my time is tickin’/These hoes is optimistic.”

    What’s more, considering that Megan recently trolled the likes of Nicki Minaj on “Hiss” for, among other things (like having a sex offender husband), being the sort of territorial rapper who insists there’s no space for other women in the rap game, these lyrics feel a bit hypocritical. But who can blame Megan, really, for attacking the upstarts on TikTok who have no polish whatsoever, let alone anything resembling freestyle prowess? Thus, as though to remind “TikTokers” what the real meaning of “tick tock” is, Thee Stallion samples from Gwen Stefani’s lead single (and her first as a solo artist) from 2004’s Love. Angel. Music. Baby., “What You Waiting For?” 

    Throughout the original version of this signature song, Stefani famously chants, “Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock” in between saying such self-deprecating things as, “Take a chance you stupid ho” (a pretty standard part of any woman’s internal dialogue in a society that places all emphasis on looks and money). That’s essentially what Megan, as a devious video game character in The Curse of the Serpent Woman, is daring three teenage friends to do as they embark upon the task of (as Lana commands) playing a video game. And take a chance they do—on ignoring the very clear disclaimer at the beginning of the game that reads: “The way you die in the game is how you die in real life.” 

    Unfazed by the warning, Jayden (the player who got the game from the “dark web” in the first place) carries on, his two other friends joining him with mostly blasé interest…until the game actually gets started and the stakes are suddenly very high. Various intercut scenes of Megan in “alternate dimension”-style (a.k.a. video game-y) settings then ensue—you know, so as to be able to showcase her body-ody-ody in varying scantily-clad degrees. The most scantily-clad being perhaps when she’s wearing next to nothing…apart from a plug-looking hookup in her back while she’s set against, appropriately, a The Matrix-inspired backdrop.

    When she’s not doing that, she’s playing the “Serpent Woman” in question, killing these teenagers willy-nilly ‘cause, like Taylor said, “Don’t say I didn’t, say I didn’t warn ya.” Within the video game universe, Megan’s alter ego rides around on a giant boa constrictor, and also uses a Jafar-esque snake staff to vaporize one of the teens, searing a hole right into his stomach that almost compares to the one Helen Sharp (Godie Hawn) gets in Death Becomes Her. 

    As established at the beginning of the video, the narrative takes place in a late 90s/early 00s era (ergo, The Matrix-alluding visual), not just evidenced by the gaming equipment, but the set design of each teen’s room. The only thing missing from the girl’s room, perhaps, is a poster of someone like Enrique Iglesias. And, speaking of that last name, director Daniel Iglesias Jr. is sure to imbue the “BOA” video with plenty of slick POV shots to make the viewer occasionally feel like they’re playing the game too. Except with the benefit of not having to die the same way that these unfortunate teenage souls do. Though Jayden could have been finished off in a worse way than getting his face sat on by Megan. 

    As for the only female player/last woman standing of the trio, she’s already stopped playing the game, having grown bored enough to move on to tinkering with Snake (which was first released in 1997) on her Nokia. That doesn’t stop “Serpent Woman” from once again leaving her 0s and 1s realm long enough to approach the girl in her room and wield her boa to do what it does best: constrict. Coiling all the way around the girl’s torso and squeezing her until she explodes into bloody oblivion. 

    In short, Megan clearly isn’t hiding how much contempt she has for youths right now—particularly “TikTok teens.” But then, perhaps the underlying message is that some form of brain-draining, time-sucking apparatus—whether smartphones or video games—has existed in every era since the invention of the screen came to roost. Even so, Megan makes it apparent that TikTok appears to be the most nefarious and eye-rolling iteration to date. So it is that she directs her comment, “Bitch, your time up” not just, presumably, at Minaj (along with the lyric, “Post a picture, bitches call me mother/Now who’s sonnin’ who?,” which could be a reference to Minaj announcing, “All these bitches is my sons”), but at the app that has captured so many American hearts of a certain generation. Until now, as it faces an imminent ban.

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    Genna Rivieccio

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  • Nicki Minaj Is All Over Megan Thee Stallion’s Latest Song…Without Being an Actual Feature, Or: Megan Thee Stallion Continues Her Cobra Motif With “Hiss”

    Nicki Minaj Is All Over Megan Thee Stallion’s Latest Song…Without Being an Actual Feature, Or: Megan Thee Stallion Continues Her Cobra Motif With “Hiss”

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    After joining in for a feature on “new queen bee” (not) Reneé Rapp’s “Not My Fault,” some listeners might have been misled into thinking Megan Thee Stallion had gone soft. But her new pattern of single releases seems to be “hard, soft, hard,” if we’re going by “Cobra,” “Not My Fault” and, now, “Hiss.” The latter obviously being thematically  in line with “Cobra” based on the title alone. And yet, the “snake” Megan Thee Stallion has in mind as inspiration for this song is one, Nicki Minaj. While some might have been foolish enough to believe that there was harmony between the two rappers after they collaborated on 2019’s hit of the summer, “Hot Girl Summer,” there is often a pattern with Nicki when it comes to alienating the female rappers who have come up after her. Especially the ones she’s willing to collaborate with at the outset of their careers. Once upon a time, that was Cardi B, who quickly turned from “friend” to foe after 2017’s “MotorSport.” A song that Cardi was added to later in the creation process, and that Minaj felt she should have been more grateful for. 

    By 2018, the two famously got into a scuffle at an event for New York Fashion Week, prompting Cardi to release a series of videos in the aftermath defending herself and more fully speaking on their beef with comments like, “You lie so much you can’t even keep up with lies.” It seems Megan Thee Stallion, who collaborated with Cardi one year after “Hot Girl Summer” on “WAP” (and then again on 2023’s “Bongos”), would tend to agree. Along with the many venomous (snake pun intended) outcries about how Minaj is both enabling and defending a sexual predator. Which brings us to the most scandalizing (for Nicki and beef-lovers alike) line of all from “Hiss”: “These hoes don’t be mad at Megan, these hoes mad at Megan’s Law.” A direct aim and hit at Nicki for her husband, Kenneth Petty, not registering as a sex offender upon moving to California in order to be with her. This deliberate failure on his part was considered a federal offense. Thus, he was sentenced with three years of probation and one year of house arrest. Plus a $55,000 fine that Minaj undoubtedly paid.

    Thee Stallion’s shade-throwing might seem like a non sequitur to some, but hints of contention have been publicly brewing at least since Minaj’s 2023 single, “Red Ruby Da Sleeze,” on which she raps, “I don’t fuck with horses since Christopher Reeve.” Stallion, horses…you get it. To cinch the allusion, Minaj also added, “Dorito bitches mad that they not chose.” Megan, as it happens, has an endorsement deal with Doritos (and all the other Flamin’ Hot products in the Frito Lay stable). So, not exactly subtle. Thus, Megan meets that “subtlety” and raises it on “Hiss.” Which is why she comes for Minaj’s “okayness” with sex offenders (including her brother, Jelani Maraj). She makes no mention, however, of Minaj’s beef with her stemming from, per Minaj’s account, the time Megan told her to drink alcohol while pregnant and get an abortion so she could really have a good time. It seems Minaj sat on that for a while and decided it was wildly inappropriate, even if said in jest (and probably because Thee Stallion didn’t want her to have a sex offender’s baby…so, if you think about it, it was coming from an inherently good place). Hence, “Red Ruby Da Sleeze.” But Minaj didn’t seem to bargain for Megan Thee Stallion actually lying in wait (like a cobra) to pounce when the time was right. And oh, how it was right for poking the bear that is Minaj’s furor on social media once she gets started. But all of that attention she gave Megan only worked to the latter’s advantage, with the video for “Hiss” becoming the number one trending video on YouTube the day after its release. Having warned us that she’s the “Black Regina George,” Thee Stallion dropped the equivalent of every page (photocopied ad infinitum) in the Burn Book into the public space with this song and video. 

    Directed by Douglas Bernardt (who also did “Cobra”), the video opens on a snake’s egg hatching (just as the video for “Cobra” ended on the image of one hatching). And who else should be inside of it but Megan herself? As we see her float inside the amniotic fluid, Megan paints the picture, “I feel like Mariah Carey/Got these niggas so obsessed/My pussy so famous, might get managed by Kris Jenner next/He can’t move on, can’t let it go/He hooked nose full of that Tina Snow/And since niggas need Megan help to make money/Bitch, come be my ho.” Invoking Mariah’s name from the outset was already an immediate dig at Nicki, who famously had beef with Mariah during the filming of American Idol starting in 2012. Though, just two years before, the sparring duo came together for a remix of a Mariah song called “Up Out My Face.” Released even before Minaj’s debut album, Pink Friday, it established the fact that “Barbie” was rising to the top as fast as some of her current competitors are now. This includes Ice Spice, who is theoretically “Team Nicki” after collaborating on “Princess Diana” and “Barbie World” with her. Though she might find herself eventually in a war with Nicki too, if we’re to go by the pattern of Cardi and Megan, both of whom Nicki collab’d with at the beginning of their mainstream musical journeys as well. But back to Mariah, who is strategically mentioned by Megan as an allusion to another feud and to make a callback to Carey’s 2009 single, “Obsessed,” which took shots at Eminem (both in the song and its accompanying music video). A rapper who would appear alongside Nicki on Pink Friday with “Roman’s Revenge.” How…circular. At least when it comes to making correlations based on “Hiss.”

    And Thee Stallion also wants the correlation to be made that she’s still talking about Nicki (by referencing “Hot Girl Summer”) during one of the final verses when she raps, “Ever since I claimed the summer, all you bitches want a season/Ask a ho why she don’t like me, bet she can’t give you a reason.” But if Minaj didn’t have one before, she certainly has one now…and will no doubt be using this as cannon fodder in the future. Not just for attacking her, but also her “known associates.” Namely, Drake. Who gets majorly trolled by Megan in the verse, “All these lil’ rap niggas so fraud [perhaps a nod to the Nicki/Drake song “No Frauds”]/Xanax be they hardest bars/These niggas hate on BBLs and be walkin’ ’round with the same scars…/Cosplay gangsters, fake-ass accents/Posted in another nigga hood like a bad bitch (where are you from?).” So, essentially, she came for most of the Young Money alumni (except Lil’ Wayne). As per usual, Thee Stallion also talks about how the more people speak negatively about her, the richer she’ll get. This was addressed on Traumazine’s “Her” with, “The more hoes hating, more money I’ma make/And the more niggas talk, more niggas want a taste.” On “Hiss,” it becomes, “Bottom line is I’m still rich” and “Every time I get mentioned, one of y’all bitch-ass niggas get twenty-four hours of attention.”

    This includes Minaj, who is currently getting more than just twenty-four hours of it as she keeps going off on social media while Thee Stallion has let the work do all the talking. Though one imagines Minaj won’t wait too long to deliver a better rebuttal than the one she gave with, “Bad bitch, she like six foot/I call her Big Foot/ The bitch fell off, I said get up on your good foot.” And maybe part of Minaj’s response will also be to the Cardi-delivered line on “Bongos” that goes, “My BD is a Migo/Bitch, your BD is a zero.” Which, yes, could even be interpreted as a dig at Minaj’s baby daddy (turned husband) selection.

    As for Thee Stallion, she concludes “Hiss” by strutting down a stark white catwalk with a pit of snakes slithering on either side. By now, though, she’s prepared to bite back with her own distinct venom. Though there are some very specific moments during the video when she channels the Minaj aesthetic while doing it. Particularly just before opening an Alice in Wonderland-type door into a hall of mirrors where she can say to one version of herself, “Y’all goofy-ass niggas look so dumb after y’all celebrate fake news/Usin’ my name for likes and views/I don’t give a fuck what y’all make trend/Bitch, I still win.” It seems that’s the case for this round of the biftek between the two rap powerhouses (because if anyone knows Minaj, this isn’t going to stop now). So maybe Thee Stallion might be the first to prove that imitation isn’t the sincerest form of flattery…not when the person doing it also happens to be dragging your name through the mud in the process.

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    Genna Rivieccio

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  • “Bongos”: The Bombastic Reunion of Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion

    “Bongos”: The Bombastic Reunion of Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion

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    After just over three years of letting the dust settle on their wet ass pussies, Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion have decided that the world is ready again to see them join (oh so powerful) forces. Enter the still sexual innuendo-laden (and just plain sexual) “Bongos.” Which picks up the tempo from “WAP” thanks to production from We Good, Breyan Isaac and DJ SwanQo, all of whom assist Cardi B in putting trap-rap, tropical influences (of both the Afro and Latin variety) and electro-hop into a blender and coming up with something that can best be described as “Thug Carmen Miranda” (which lives up to its implications far more than one of Lana Del Rey’s early nicknames: “Gangster Nancy Sinatra”). 

    To help cultivate that sound and image, Megan Thee Stallion, who Cardi B has officially described as her “work wife,” layers her own verses into the mix. Something Cardi B realized needed to happen after deeming the single “like a long ass song” (at a mere two minutes and fifty-five seconds; in other words: this is your perception of time on TikTok). Too long for “just” her verses alone. So it was that Cardi invited Megan to team up with her once more. And the result isn’t just a track that gets in your head perhaps even more than “WAP,” but also a video that greatly upstages it. That’s likely because the duo opted to replace Colin Tilley with Tanu Muino (who has also worked with Cardi on the video for Normani’s “Wild Side”) for the sumptuous, “resort-chic” visuals that pop out as much for their colors as the rampant booty-shaking. To match the chaotic rhythm of whoever’s chanting “bong-bong-bong-bong” (this being a parallel to the sample from Frank Ski’s “Whores in This House” in “WAP”), the video seems determined to be equally as frenetic. 

    In order to create that effect, Muino plays with sharp cuts and plenty of alternating angles to capture different vantage points of the over-the-top choreography set against a “tropical” (a.k.a. Malibu) backdrop. Considering Muino just directed the far more muted and staid “Attention” video for Doja Cat, “Bongos” must have felt like a feast for the eyes in comparison as Muino amplifies the color palettes (as she also did in the video for Elton John and Britney Spears’ “Hold Me Closer”) with her unique directorial prowess. This also materializes when one of the scenes cuts to Cardi in a new Magic Eye-inspired room wearing an ensemble that matches the background. In truth, it seems to be a slight homage to the scenes in the “WAP” video when Cardi and Megan appear in their own separate animal-print rooms to writhe around and deliver their verses with a leopard and white tiger respectively overseeing them. 

    Meanwhile, Cardi has found plenty of (non sequitur) opportunities for product placement by this time, already plugging Minute Maid Aguas Frescas and Smart Sweets Peach Rings to prove that, “Bitch, I look like money/You could print my face on a dollar.” After all, it’s as the internet says, “You’re not ugly, you’re just poor.” And lining up plenty of endorsement deals to stack more piles of cash is certain to help Cardi continue to cultivate “real hot girl shit” (to borrow Megan Thee Stallion’s catchphrase, which needless to say, is tossed around in the song). Surrounding herself with the same peacocking ilk in the video that Vibe has rightly called a “risqué Fanta commercial” (not to mention how it gives Miley Cyrus some competition on offering “endless summer vacation” motifs), the women in vibrant, multi-toned bathing suits parade themselves against an oceanic setting. Though, sadly, at no point does any image of a plum or nun appear to complement the lyrical gold that is, “Eat this ass like a plum/This pussy tight like a nun.”

    Repeating “beat it up” (another nod to Cardi inisiting, “Beat it up, nigga/Catch a charge” in “WAP”) during the refrain as the words “​​bong-bong-bong-bong” keep swelling in the background, Cardi’s sassy bravado is matched by Megan coming in on her verse to rap, “This ass sit like the stallion/All these wannabes my lil’ ponies/These hoes camped out in the comments/Always talkin’ like they know me/Thick bitches in the black truck, packed in/Eat whoever in my way, Ms. Pacman/Hermès, made a real big purchase/Purse so big, had to treat it like a person.”

    She keeps going after that, but it’s mostly about the usual flexes: having a fat ass and a lot of money. Indeed, what would any rap song be without some reinforcement of capitalism’s many glories? Thus, the reason why Cardi derides, “At least I’m gettin’ my money/Y’all hoes broke, pussy took more turns than a keyhole.” This after asserting, “I ain’t scared to admit I’m a freak ho” in honor of similar “WAP” language that goes, “Certified freak/Seven days a week.” With Thee Stallion also noting in their first collab together, “Your honor, I’m a freak bitch.” So yes, it’s comforting to know that, even after the passing of a few years, their freakdom appears to be going even stronger. Complete with their usual enjoyment of engaging in lascivious poses with one another to tease the notion of lesbianism that all cliche men (non-binary or otherwise) still get off on. 

    As the scenes start to escalate in their nonsensicality—presumably, for the sake of serving haute couture against decadent backdrops (as evident in a “Remember the Time”-esque moment Cardi and Megan have in an “Egyptian-themed” room together)—it starts to add up, cost-wise. Which is why viewers can take Cardi at her word when she says she spent two million dollars to produce it (still chump change compared to what Michael Jackson spent on “Remember the Time”). With many of those expenses spent on the security required to keep a lid on the collaboration (“‘…we hired about twenty guards, fifteen guards just guarding the whole area,’ she said. Cardi also explained they deployed geofencing which issues an alert when a mobile device enters a mapped, pre-established location. They also used special in-ears to avoid having to play the music out loud while Cardi, Megan and their crew of dancers filmed the scenes that incorporated choreography”). 

    Although the duo might have been able to keep the filming of their second single together a secret had they shot outside of the U.S., apparently hurricane season (now 24/7) made them “settle” for Malibu instead. But if it was good enough for Britney Spears’ “Sometimes” video, then surely it ought to be good enough for them. And, from the vibrant looks of it, it clearly is. Maybe even eye-catching enough to make people forget all about “WAP” (for a while anyway).

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    Genna Rivieccio

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