Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know there’s been a flood of discourse on Megan Thee Stallions’s new single “Hiss” and Nicki Minaj’s response to it. On Hiss, Megan refers to Megan’s Law (Public Law 104-145) the name for a federal law that, “require(s) the release of relevant information to protect the public from sexually violent offenders.”
Minaj was not pleased. She released several disparaging tweets targeting the Houston native, ranging from jabs about her speculated sexual promiscuity to her mother’s death in 2019. Minaj also responded with the response track “Big Foot”, containing lyrics where she makes fun of Megan’s height and assault by Tory Lanez in 2020.
Minaj’s husband and brother are both registered sex offenders. Megan’s Law (Public Law 104-145) is the name for a federal law that “require(s) the release of relevant information to protect the public from sexually violent offenders.”
Minaj’s response is saddening and disappointing. But it’s not surprising. The rapper has adamantly defended her brother and husband in the past and is known for past feuds with other female rappers and figures in the limelight. Her fans, coined the Barbz, have taken to their trusty strategy of “doxxing” social media users in her defense. They appear under tweets about Megan Thee Stallion in ways that have made me put my phone down in disbelief, in deep shame that I am sharing oxygen with people who think the way they do. However, their response is also not surprising. I’ve been on the internet long enough to know the lengths stans will go for their faves.
But it is alarming. Both intra-industry and within fandom. It’s alarming to see that post-Tory Lanez’s guilty verdict, industry members not only continue to make judgments about Megan The Stallions’ violent assault but that these judgments will be praised by fans in blind support of an artist. It is alarming that her story is questioned to the level that it has been after the #MeToo movement and the current developments in the Jeffrey Epstein case. It is alarming that a woman who lost both her mother and grandmother within two weeks would be attacked by another female rapper about it for a bar that could have just as easily been about people like Epstein and not Minaj. Nicki Minaj was never named. She named herself. She didn’t show her true colors, she underlined them.
But all is not lost. For as many people that don’t support Megan Thee Stallion, there’s people in equal measure if not more that do. Hiss charted at number 1 in its first week. Megan’s just signed a distribution deal with Warner Music Group that still allows her to own her masters and remain independent.
Hopefully, in time, her detractors will get off the internet and make something of themselves too.