Megan Thee Stallion, much like Beyoncé, DJ Screw, Solange, and if I quit playing and stop being so humble, me, is a gift from the city of Houston to the world.
Sadly, like many good things bestowed upon the public writ large, a lot of you goofy people are unappreciative. To her credit, Megan Thee Stallion has amassed a huge following in a relatively short amount of time (I’ve been singing her praises since at least her 2017 mixtape Make It Hot) and that’s a testament to her talent and the audiences having taste. However, no matter the strength of her bars or knees, the internet is where insufferable people go to basically force their burn books to have an orgy.
For example, select people “dragging” Megan Thee Stallion for having a 2.7 GPA as a senior at Texas Southern University. For the record, unless you’re going to grad school or working in some very specific field that cares about that sort of thing, most people could give not a solitary damn about your GPA. Meanwhile, maintaining a 2.7 GPA while touring, recording music, shooting music videos, and launching what has been essentially the biggest launch for a southern female rapper in quite some time (or ever, arguably) is pretty damn impressive.
Unfortunately, when select jackasses aren’t harassing Megan about her grades, they are trying to argue that with regard to her current legal trouble with independent record label 1501 Certified Entertainment, it’s her fault. This upsets me more than perhaps it should, but for the life of me, I will never understand why people – particularly other marginalized people – root for people’s alleged vultures.
I won’t quote the tweets or messages on Instagram and Facebook, but you’ve seen them.
The ones that say Megan Thee Stallion should have known what she was getting herself into. That she should have read her contract. Some have even tried to fault her mom, Holly Thomas, who used to manage her daughter’s career before losing her battle with brain cancer. That is especially despicable, but it all recalls the arguments made about other people in similar situations. People tell me this all the time when I talk about my plight with private student loans. They tell me that I brought this on myself. That I, at the age of 17, should have known how a single decision was going to impact the entire trajectory of my adult life.
That, like Megan, it is my fault for daring to dream and allowing myself to be taken advantage of. They say this to your mama, auntie, and whomever else took on a subprime mortgage several years ago that preceded the financial crisis. Never mind that those vultures were allowed to prey upon those folks’ desires to be homeowners – which we are all encouraged to become – and take advantage of them for no other reason than they can. Bluntly, it was a lot of white folks saying that while curiously evading the aforementioned discriminatory practices of the banks.
Why would any of you Negroes want to mirror such behavior?
True enough Megan Thee Stallion had a lawyer, but it was one provided by the lawyer. True enough Megan Thee Stallion should always be careful about entering any business arrangement — especially a record label, of all entities. Even so, she is yet another artist who has talked about being exploited. We know of acts like TLC and Toni Braxton that have complained of bad biz practices of the recording industry. We have heard of artists as big as Rihanna having to sue the very people hired to help protect her from that industry.
So if we know there is a pattern, why align with the alleged exploiter? To me, it just speaks to how a lot of broke-ass people – most Americans are broke or two checks away from being so – wanting to align with the rich folks because they one day aspire to be the same greedy jackass. I thought to aim for more eloquence in expressing my disappointment and disdain for this attitude, but why bother? If you read of Megan Thee Stallion’s lawsuit against her label and immediately thought to fault her, you’re probably a horrible person.
Now, if we want to come together as a community and demand that the Fever movie is released in full, I’m with it. Otherwise, leave her alone. She is doing the right thing and only fools fault her for it.
I may sound like Bernie Sanders for rapper baddies with bars throughout this, but so be it. I’d much rather stand for the artist and for the worker. The rich and powerful don’t need our help.