Naive as it sounds, I can’t believe how mean some people can still be to Megan Thee Stallion.
After performing at a presidential campaign rally for Vice President Kamala Harris on July 30, conservative pundits took to social media to claim she was trying to rally “hoes for Harris.” And while walking the streets of London in mid-July, the rapper was greeted by the cheers of “Free Tory” from a couple of incel-like bystanders as she exited an establishment. Megan Thee Stallion had a minimal reaction to their attention-seeking stunt: covering her nose and looking at the chanters with disgust.
Sadly, by now, she is used to such trolling.
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“In some kind of way I became the villain. And I don’t know if people don’t take it seriously because I seem strong,” she told Rolling Stone in 2022. “I wonder if it’s because of the way I look. Is it because I’m not light enough? Is it that I’m not white enough? Am I not the shape? The height? Because I’m not petite? Do I not seem like I’m worth being treated like a woman?”
And as she told Elle in August 2023, that level of cruelty extended to “even some of my peers in the music industry.”
Megan Thee Stallion may always be a villain to a subset of misogynists devoted to rapper Tory Lanez, who is serving a 10-year prison sentence after he was convicted of felony assault for shooting and injuring her in 2020. But I hope she knows how much of an example she is to many of her supporters — notably the tens of thousands of fans attending her Hot Girl Summer Tour.
Before the tour started, some questioned whether Megan Thee Stallion had the ability to successfully launch an arena tour — the most famous skeptics being the hosts of the radio show, The Breakfast Club — though the question was quickly answered when her shows sold out nationwide and she added more dates in multiple markets, confirming that she is an “arena artist.”
When you see Megan Thee Stallion live, it is clear why so many people arrived excited at her show and left even more enthralled with her.
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Writer Shamira Ibrahim best summed up the tour in her review for The Cut, noting she used the show to make the statement that she “was emerging from the ashes, shedding the skin of the trauma that had encased her, and declaring an era of dominance for the rest of this Hot Girl Summer, one stage at a time.”
Even as her detractors try to make her life harder once again.
During her performance in Tampa, Florida, in June, she seemed on the verge of tears as she rapped, with most assuming she might’ve been emotional about an explicit deepfake video that initially circulated online that same day.
“It’s really sick how yall go out of the way to hurt me when you see me winning. Yall going too far, Fake a– s—. Just know today was your last day playing with me and I mean it,” she later posted on X.
Megan rapped without issue when I saw her in June in Los Angeles. And I mean it in earnest when I say that before going to that show, I had never found an arena full of ass-shaking so inspiring.
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Actor Taraji P. Henson, who attended the same show, recently told People: “That was my first time seeing her perform live on her stage, headlining. She’s amazing. She has been able to withstand all of the adversity and rise above it. She’s incredible.
“I’m like auntie, you know,” Henson added. “I’m the cheerleader. I’m the loudest one in the front cheering them on, and that’s what you should be as an elder.”
I guess you can call me her play uncle because Megan Thee Stallion deserves more cheerleaders; she has enough critics and trolls. I say that not just as a fan of hers since 2017 but as someone who understands why Henson is not being hyperbolic when she speaks of her ability to rise above all the adversity.
Much of the discourse about the sentiment surrounding Megan has been relegated to the 2020 shooting, but I think about it more in the context of all the losses she’s suffered in recent years.
Megan Thee Stallion lost her father when she was 15, and in 2019, she lost her mother and grandmother just weeks apart. The loss of her mother to brain cancer was especially hard because she was also her manager and her biggest champion.
Three years after her mom’s death, Megan said, she still hasn’t recovered. “I feel like by now, I would have been able to get my s— together when I talk about my mama. But every time I talk about my mama I cannot hold it together,” she said in an interview with Apple Music.
Like her, I lost my mom to cancer some months ago, and I relate intimately to the struggle with being able to talk about my mama and hold it together. I fear it may be a lifelong battle. When I revisited Megan’s interview, I felt comforted, knowing that I was not alone in such feelings. That it’s OK to take your time to work through them.
Megan Thee Stallion has been so open and honest about the pain she’s experienced in recent years — which is why I wish she would get more compassion.
In November 2023, on “Cobra,” the first single from her latest album Megan, she rapped: “Yes, I’m very depressed / How can somebody so blessed wanna slit they wrist?” and “Damn, I got problems / Never thought a b—- like me would ever hit rock bottom / Man, I miss my parents, way too anxious, always cancel my plans.”
In February, she produced a No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100, a new album released in June that debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart on her independent label, and a majority sold-out arena tour.
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There is also the new viral hit “Mamushi” featuring Japanese rapper Yuki Chiba, which Megan just released an anime-inspired music video for, and “Squeeze” a new collaboration with fellow rapper Latto.
Megan Thee Stallion has credited therapy with a new commitment to health and wellness for a change in both spirit and appearance, but it is also undoubtedly her inner strength and resilience that have guided her from some of her darker moments in recent years to where she stands now personally and professionally.
Her ability to turn what life has thrown at her in recent years and return like this warrants more praise than criticism — especially from other men.
Until then, I’ll be in my lil’ cheerleading section, boosting The H-Town Hottie to let her know that no matter what some say or throw at her, we couldn’t be prouder or more inspired by each new achievement.
Michael Arceneaux is a Houston-bred, Howard-educated writer living in Harlem. He praises Beyoncé’s name wherever he goes.
