One Liner: Cocky, Nasty, Freaky Lady Rapper from Houston
Wikipedia Genre: Hip Hop
Home: Houston, Texas
Poster Position: 2
Both Weekends.
Home: Houston, Texas
Poster Position: 2
Both Weekends.
Friday at 6pm on the Honda Stage.
Thoughts: So, do you recall when she was supposed to come to the last Fest? Yeah, she was on the lineup, in a smooth grab by the C3 people, because at the time she had yet to really blow up. Weekend Two only. But a big crowd collected in front of her stage, ready to hear her raunchy rap get blasted out over the park, only to have her straight up stand us up. She claimed online that she didn't make it to town in time after a show in another state the night before, later saying that she "didn't make it exactly on time" and so ACL cancelled her set. BUT, sleuth internet weirdos noticed that this story was complete bullhonkey, because Megan had posted a video to Instagram, from Austin, an hour before her set, of her working on makeup. Afterwards, ACL put out a statement that Megan hadn't even left her hotel by the time of her set time, and didn't arrive in time to perform. I'm sure it is no big deal to be late to a regular show, but when you only get an hour and the festival needs to keep the stages running on time, they can't just let an inconsiderate artist blow through the set times. Which sucks, but also makes sense.
Luckily for me, that means that most of my review is already written, because I just did this for last time. Although, she's blown up even bigger since then, so we'll tack on some new stuff at the end. Here is what I had to say in 2019:
"Damn, man. Weekend Two only? That is the first one that bums me out. This lady is absolutely bad ass. Without researching anything, some of her beats call back to Too $hort beats, and it makes me think of her as a female Too $hort, dropping raunchy rhymes and funny put downs for everyone else. Hell, her second most streamed track is named "Freak Nasty," and Too Short has songs like "I Need a Freak," "You Nasty," "Freaky Tales," and "Nasty Rhymes." If she's not trying for homage, then she's crazy. Here's that second-most streamed tune - "Freak Nasty," with 4.1 million streams. [now at 37.9 million in 2021]
"I look better than that ho that's why she made you block me." "I walk and I talk like a pimp 'cause I am." "You know I ain't come boy, if you has to ask me." This is some shit talking, bold and bragging good times.
A festival with this one, Cardi B, and Lizzo? If they put all three of those at the same stage for an afternoon the paramedics would need to just wait right there at the base of the stage to treat all of the twerk-exhaustion and dehydration for six straight hours.
You can tell from her lyrics that she's from Houston, she reps it several times. Real name is Megan Pete - and I'm kind of entertained that she kept that relatively generic 70's name as part of her stage name. "Thee Stallion" part comes from people referring to her as a stallion during childhood because she was tall (5'10"). Interesting tidbit from Wikipedia - her mother rapped under the name Holly-Wood and would bring young Megan to the studio as a kid to watch her recording sessions. Her mom called Megan's eventual lyrics "too suggestive and ratchet," which is a pretty clear "no shit, Sherlock" for old mom there. Megan went to Prairie View A&M and went viral after battling some male opponents in a video rap battle, although Wikipedia says she is still a student right now, at Texas Southern. [update: she claims to be graduating in the Fall, despite her career exploding].
Two albums - 2017's relatively generic Make It Hot, and then 2018's ridiculously entertaining Tina Snow. Tina Snow is her alter ego who is confident and sexually dominant. She also apparently has another alter ego who is a college party girl, named Hot Girl Meg. That shit is confusing and weird, but whatever. Ghostface can call himself Tony Stark all the time, she can go with her weird aliases too.
No song from her first album shows up in her top ten most popular tracks, and I agree. Her top song overall is "Big Ole Freak," with just over 7 million streams. [up to 73.9 million in 2021]
A few observations - (1) that beat uses a slice of the same beat LL Cool J used on "Loungin'" and I am very down with it (that apparently came from an Al B. Sure song, which I didn't know before); (2) I feel like someone important is just about to walk into my office as I watch these videos and I'm super gonna get fired on the spot for watching all these girls grind as Megan talks about liking to fuck in the mirror; and (3) I think if I actually tried to twerk for any appreciable amount of time, my thighs would cry for mercy and I would die, and as such, I actually respect the difficulty of the dancing here.
Other tracks on this album are also good - "Hot Girl," in which I'm pretty sure she calls her boobs "leches," and I love it. That one also uses a Too $hort patented sound like a steel drum being hit. Also, "Cocky AF," where the beat is slow and low, the boasts fly like lazy paper airplanes swirling through a boxing ring, and she talks about sucking something like a Capri Sun. [which, whhaaaaat!?!] But I'm not especially into R&B stuff like "Cognac Queen." I won't be there second weekend, so I know I won't see her, but what the hell, this would be a fun time.
[EDIT 5/22/19] - she threw out a new album last week, Fever, and its more of the same fun stuff. I still think "Freak Nasty" is the gem of this catalog, but "W.A.B." and "Hood Rat Shit" work. My only beef here is that several of the beats start to bleed together and seem too similar, but the beats are still pretty solidly little trap bangers. Also a good Juicy J cameo on one of these tracks. "
"I look better than that ho that's why she made you block me." "I walk and I talk like a pimp 'cause I am." "You know I ain't come boy, if you has to ask me." This is some shit talking, bold and bragging good times.
A festival with this one, Cardi B, and Lizzo? If they put all three of those at the same stage for an afternoon the paramedics would need to just wait right there at the base of the stage to treat all of the twerk-exhaustion and dehydration for six straight hours.
You can tell from her lyrics that she's from Houston, she reps it several times. Real name is Megan Pete - and I'm kind of entertained that she kept that relatively generic 70's name as part of her stage name. "Thee Stallion" part comes from people referring to her as a stallion during childhood because she was tall (5'10"). Interesting tidbit from Wikipedia - her mother rapped under the name Holly-Wood and would bring young Megan to the studio as a kid to watch her recording sessions. Her mom called Megan's eventual lyrics "too suggestive and ratchet," which is a pretty clear "no shit, Sherlock" for old mom there. Megan went to Prairie View A&M and went viral after battling some male opponents in a video rap battle, although Wikipedia says she is still a student right now, at Texas Southern. [update: she claims to be graduating in the Fall, despite her career exploding].
Two albums - 2017's relatively generic Make It Hot, and then 2018's ridiculously entertaining Tina Snow. Tina Snow is her alter ego who is confident and sexually dominant. She also apparently has another alter ego who is a college party girl, named Hot Girl Meg. That shit is confusing and weird, but whatever. Ghostface can call himself Tony Stark all the time, she can go with her weird aliases too.
No song from her first album shows up in her top ten most popular tracks, and I agree. Her top song overall is "Big Ole Freak," with just over 7 million streams. [up to 73.9 million in 2021]
A few observations - (1) that beat uses a slice of the same beat LL Cool J used on "Loungin'" and I am very down with it (that apparently came from an Al B. Sure song, which I didn't know before); (2) I feel like someone important is just about to walk into my office as I watch these videos and I'm super gonna get fired on the spot for watching all these girls grind as Megan talks about liking to fuck in the mirror; and (3) I think if I actually tried to twerk for any appreciable amount of time, my thighs would cry for mercy and I would die, and as such, I actually respect the difficulty of the dancing here.
Other tracks on this album are also good - "Hot Girl," in which I'm pretty sure she calls her boobs "leches," and I love it. That one also uses a Too $hort patented sound like a steel drum being hit. Also, "Cocky AF," where the beat is slow and low, the boasts fly like lazy paper airplanes swirling through a boxing ring, and she talks about sucking something like a Capri Sun. [which, whhaaaaat!?!] But I'm not especially into R&B stuff like "Cognac Queen." I won't be there second weekend, so I know I won't see her, but what the hell, this would be a fun time.
[EDIT 5/22/19] - she threw out a new album last week, Fever, and its more of the same fun stuff. I still think "Freak Nasty" is the gem of this catalog, but "W.A.B." and "Hood Rat Shit" work. My only beef here is that several of the beats start to bleed together and seem too similar, but the beats are still pretty solidly little trap bangers. Also a good Juicy J cameo on one of these tracks. "
Since that post, she's released two more albums - 2020's Suga and 2020's Good News - which included a Beyonce collaboration, and then was half of the biggest rap track of the year with the supremely nasty-ass "WAP." Let's do both of those.
First, "Savage" was a single off of the Suga album, but then later in 2020, a remix with Queen Bey popped up on the Good News album. 320.6 million streams.
I had heard that song a large number of times before even realizing who was on it, because my middle kid was big into it on TikTok for a while. Love the line "if you don't jump to put jeans on, you don't feel my pain." That "Suga" album also has "B.I.T.C.H.," which interpolates and flips around the 2Pac song "Ratha Be Ya N****" in a fun way. She put out a Houston-aimed remix album of Suga called ChopnotSlop which is mediocre. Then, 2020's Good News throws out 17 songs - none of which are the biggest hit on her resume.
That track came with Cardi B, and created a whole storm of controversial takes and pearl clutching in the news. if you don't already know about it, I'll go in to it a little bit, but honestly if you don't know about it then you aren't paying attention and probably don't care anyway. "W.A.P.," with a whopping 834.2 million streams.
The pearl clutching comes because these two women are rapping about their sexuality in a way that some people might find uncomfortable. Which is so deeply dumb, in my opinion. Politicians tried to score points on Twitter by calling it vile and disgusting. Hell, that video version wouldn't even use the real words to the song - kept saying West And Gushy (which is honestly nastier sounding than Wet Ass Pussy to me). And the reason that became so controversial is that men have been allowed to rap about purely nasty sex stuff for decades. From 2 Live Crew to Too Short to Sir Mix-a-Lot to Lil Wayne to even non-rappers like Prince, dudes have been able to explicitly talk about getting action forever, but when these two ladies try to follow along, people freak out. Which certainly helped propel this single into the streaming stratosphere, so they probably knew what they were up to.
The one thing that starts to grate after a while of listening is that she always makes that AHHHHG sound in every single song. I know other rappers have little trademark sounds they make in each song to denote their presence - Rick Ross' little hhhrruuuhhh!, DJ Khaled's "another one!", Pusha T's yuuuccchhh!, etc. But after listening to her music for a few hours, it gets very tiring to keep hearing the same "I am poking my tongue out as far as possible and then making a gagging sound" sound.
Will I go watch the show? I guess it depends on the lineup. It might be fun to go see the crowd and watch the mess, but if I had to miss this one it wouldn't bother me.
Will I go watch the show? I guess it depends on the lineup. It might be fun to go see the crowd and watch the mess, but if I had to miss this one it wouldn't bother me.
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