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Tag: Megan Thee Stallion Not My Fault

  • 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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  • Reneé Rapp and Megan Thee Stallion’s “Not My Fault” Seeks to Vindicate Regina George For Being a Bitch

    Reneé Rapp and Megan Thee Stallion’s “Not My Fault” Seeks to Vindicate Regina George For Being a Bitch

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    Just as Regina George likely would have been praised for her burgeoning badonkadonk had the original been made in the present, so, too, would she have also been praised for being a bitch. Or what Latrice Royale calls, “Being In Total Control of Herself.” In fact, that’s exactly what Reneé Rapp (who plays Regina in both the musical version and latest film edition of Mean Girls) and Megan Thee Stallion seek to achieve with their single, “Not My Fault.” A line, of course, taken directly from Lindsay Lohan as Cady Heron’s mouth when she tells Janis Ian (Lizzy Caplan), “It’s not my fault you’re, like, in love with me or something.” This narcissistic dig itself borrowed from Regina (Rachel McAdams) when she told Cady that Janis was, like, “obsessed” with her when they were friends back in junior high. Proving that, in the art of “mean girl’ing,” the student surpassed the teacher as Cady came up with a better way to phrase it.

    Alas, back in 2004, it was frowned upon to be an outright bitch. To be sure, it was really only the gays—ahead of the curve on trends as usual—who revered the cunty women of this world (see: that scene in Truth or Dare when one of Madonna’s dancers gushes, “I love it when she’s mean”). As time has gone on, and views/attitudes about how a girl should “be” have evolved, it’s now actually become more frowned upon to be “nice” as a woman than it is to be a so-called bitch (a.k.a. acting the way men do without consequence all the time). To that point, when a woman is “nice”—better known as “meek”—she’s presently more likely to be accused of perpetuating the vicious cycle of (white) silence that has allowed patriarchy to thrive unchecked for so long. 

    So it is that with the “upgrade” of Mean Girls into the later twenty-first century (which hardly means that it can ever compare to the original), an according soundtrack upgrade has come with it. Thus, aligning the “woke” messaging of the “new” movie with the new music. Enter Megan Thee Stallion (no stranger to Mean Girls homages after her 2021 Coach ad campaign) to assist the “new queen bee” (but, honestly, there is no replacement for Rachel McAdams), Reneé Rapp, on the rather flaccid “Not My Fault.” Indeed, it sounds like something from the Meghan Trainor reject pile, and far beneath Megan Thee Stallion’s usual collaborations. And, speaking of far beneath someone, the recent appalling Mean Girls x Wal-Mart commercial featuring the original cast was noticeably missing the presence of McAdams as Regina (because, really, what sensible person would want to be part of such grim fan fiction?). Soon after the release of the none too subtle Trojan horse for capitalism via millennial nostalgia, McAdams had no problem explaining her absence by remarking, “I guess I wasn’t that excited about doing a commercial if I’m being totally honest. A movie sounded awesome, but I’ve never done commercials, and it just didn’t feel like my bag.” Translation: “that’s the ugliest f-ing commercial concept I’ve ever seen.” 

    The same goes for the first single to represent the latest Mean Girls Soundtrack, with Rapp seeming to have taken overt inspiration from Britney Spears’ anachronistic “Mind Your Business.” While Britney sing-chants, “Where she at? Where she at? Where she at? Where she at? Where she at?/There she go, there she go, there she go, there she go, there she go/What she do? What she do? What she do?” Rapp simplifies it down to, “Where she at? (where she at?)/What she doin’? (what she doin’?)/Who she with and where she from?” Just another vexing manner in which Gen Z feels obliged to copy millennials (despite constantly branding them as cringe) while seeming to genuinely believe they’ve come up with something “unique.” However, the accompanying video, directed by Mia Barnes, doesn’t bother pretending to be anything innovative, mostly stealing its costuming from the Barbie-meets-Pam-Anderson-in-the-90s playbook. 

    With the majority of the “narrative” flashing to scenes from the movie in between Rapp and Thee Stallion parading around in their aforementioned Barbie/Pamela pink stylings (complete with furry hats), there’s also a long scene of Rapp getting “Regina George” tattooed in various fonts on various parts of her body. Another moment shows Megan and Reneé standing between two rows of Regina-inspired mannequins before taking baseball bats to them. Almost as if, in some faux “poetic” way, they’re trying to tell us that they’re destroying the “old” Regina George (“Sorry, the old Regina can’t come to the phone right now. Why? Because she’s dead”). The one who was lambasted for being a “bitch” and then decided to amend her ways at the end of the film by channeling her rage into lacrosse. 

    Rapp confirms this “rebranding” with the lyrics, “I’m not on the same shit from before/I can’t take this pettiness, now I’m bored, uh-huh/We can share, babe, there’s enough for us all [an obvious nod to Cady sharing the pieces of her seemingly endless tiara]/Told you who I am and what it is, that’s not my fault.” In other words, she won’t be apologizing for simply being her undiluted self. Then again, no one is much interested in that self when she’s standing next to Megan Thee Stallion, who viewers have to wait a full one minute and forty-four seconds to hear deliver her verse (making it somewhat awkward to see her dance and prance around next to Rapp for that entire time). Rising to the occasion of embodying her “Black Regina George” status, she appears in a tank top with holes cut out at the nipples to reveal a purple bra à la 2004 Regina after Janis, Damian (Daniel Franzese) and Cady fail to sabotage her outfit because she ends up “making it fashion.”

    Megan then carries the song out of the bowels it began in by rapping, “I’m a mood, borin’ whores gotta Pinterest me.” This being the crux of the song’s statement about how “bitches” are really just women who express themselves without fear of reprisal (including the usual “comeuppance” of being called a bitch, especially by men). So it is that Thee Stallion also adds, “It’s funny how the mean girl open all the doors” and “I got influence, they do anything I endorse/I run shit, to be a bad bitch is a sport.” And an art. One that, to Tina Fey’s chagrin, cannot be topped by the original gangster of mean girl’ing that is Rachel McAdams’ Regina. Who Megan and Reneé once again pay tribute to at the end of the video by sipping from matching teacups, with Megan’s reading, “Boo You” and Rapp’s reading, of course, “Whore.” 

    But, like “bitch,” “whore” now has a much more positive connotation than it did in 2004. That wasn’t the case when Regina was using it in a more “SWERF”-sounding than sex-positive manner when directing it at Karen (Amanda Seyfried). But then, this is also the girl who didn’t want to invite a potential lesbian to her birthday party. So yeah, it’s much harder for Regina to be mean in the same way in the present as she was in the past. Which, in the end, invites the question: how much of a bitch can she really be amid post-woke culture?

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    Genna Rivieccio

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