Thee Stallion: Plan B
If rap is dying, black women have made notable efforts to save it. As present as they make themselves, Hip-hop’s white hats haven’t been only men. Since its conception, rap has been silently breathing by dint of the breath of women.
Megan Thee Stallion recently teased a new song via her Twitter page. Before her appearance at Coachella, the Houston artist innocently tweeted, as though she were sharing this news in a group chat with her closest friends;
“I got this song that I recorded and every time I play it for a woman they start jumping and clapping. I think I wanna perform it at Coachella for the first time before I actually drop it.”
She performed the song and released the single Friday of the same week.
Black women have occasionally shown that their tastes and opinions have become the touchstone of what is good and memorable music. A DJ will likely measure the success of her set at any function by whether or not the women in the room would sway their bodies or lose themselves in her abilities to mix and blend their favorite songs.
When my lady friends told me Megan Thee Stallion was good, I knew then that she was good. Similar to Cardi B, Latto, City Girls, and other rap Sheroes that are asked to bound, tenaciously, through hip-hop hurdles. The summer is usually carried by songs either made or loved by women.
“Plan B” borrows from Jodeci and Wu-Tang Clan’s “Freak n’ You” remix. With production that is not forced or layered with an over-abundance of drum sounds or compounded instruments— it seems similar to a rendition rather than a sample. Forcing listeners to sit with the words rather than instrumental.
Good Hip-hop is the offspring of students of the art. I can tell when an artist has studied the greats and familiarized themselves with their strides and footprints. I am slightly reminded of Lil Kim’s “Queen B@#$H.”
With an opening that likely, but unintentionally, takes after the violent, legendary afterword following 1996’s “hit em up,” Megan enters the track with an aggressive verbal assault— echoing a hate-filled voicemail or voice message to an ex-partner;
“Who the F* you think you talkin’ to n*?! F* me!?? Nahh nigga, F* YOU N*”
Presence and delivery are arguably as cutting as lyricism in rap. Rapping with certitude delivered in her Texas drawl, Thee Stallion laces this song with an aggressive lyrical delivery as well as OG womanly wisdom, indicating in her lyrics who her target audience is;
“Ladies, love yourself cause this sh* can get ugly. That’s why it’s f* n*s get money.”
Women have faintly kept their hands on rap’s pulse and their ear to its mouth and told us whether or not it was breathing. When we deny the voice and opinions of them on what a good record is; and their take on the state or nature of rap music, we are, in this act, denying treatment to something that is sickly. Women have proven themselves, to be a breath of fresh air in a sport that is growing tired.
