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Megan Thee Stallion’s biggest controversies: From 'WAP' to homophobic tweets, here’s how rapper made headlines

With fame also comes great controversies, and Megan Thee Stallion has been part of a few that made it to the news for quite a long time

Megan Thee Stallion has been unstoppable since her 2019 mega-hit ‘Hot Girl Summer’, featuring Nicki Minaj and Ty Dolla $ign. And, 2020 proved to be an even more eventful year for the 25-year-old female emcee! Not only did she join hands with Beyonce for the remix of her hit single ‘Savage’ but she also won the 2020 BET Female Hip-Hop Artist of the Year. Megan first burst onto the hip-hop scene in 2017 with ‘Stalli Freestyle’ but in a short span of time, she is already going places. Adding another feather to her cap, the Houston rapper is dropping her debut album ‘Good News’ on November 20, 2020. However, with fame also comes great controversies, and Megan Thee Stallion has been part of a few that made it to the headlines for quite a long time. Here’s how her list of biggest controversies looks like:

‘WAP’ Controversy

Released in August 2020, the world saw two female emcees Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion joining hands for their song called ‘WAP.’ Thanks to its sexually explicit video, Cardi B and Megan did garner a lot of attention but also divided the Internet. ‘WAP’ is an acronym for Wet-A**-Pu**y which samples Frank Ski's 1993 Baltimore club single ‘Wh***s in This House.’ While some praised both the ladies for the confident display of women who demonstrate their sexual prowess, others pointed them out for too much nudity in the video. The much-discussed song attracted backlash from a mixture of Republican politicians and right-wing pundits including Ben Shapiro and Candace Owens who criticized its explicit content. Responding to the backlash, Megan had then told Time magazine, as reported by NME, “When I saw all of the politicians in an uproar about mine and Cardi’s ‘WAP’, I was just really taken back” adding, “Like, why is this your focus right now? If you have an issue with what I’m saying don’t listen to it. Tune out, ’cause I didn’t ask you to tune in.”

The fan-favourite debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, giving Cardi B her fourth number-one single in the US and Megan her second. ‘WAP’ also went on to break several other records on the leading social media platforms. Since the release, the official audio of the hit single has got 117million views on YouTube whereas, the official video stands strong with 258million views.

Gunfire incident involving Tory Lanez

Megan Thee Stallion and Tory Lanez were real tight buddies until a gunfire incident involving the two changed everything. The incident dates back to July 2020 when Lanez allegedly fired four shots from outside of his vehicle on the night of July 12, with two bullets hitting Megan's feet. Apparently, an argument brewed up in the car which took a wrong turn. Megan Thee Stallion first addressed the issue on her Instagram Live where she did not reveal the truth and said it was an accident, however, later Megan changed her mind and decided to spill all the details behind the gunfire incident. Tory Lanez even grounded himself from all his social media accounts for good two months before dropping an album called ‘Daystar’ where he dissed Megan Thee Stallon on several songs.

The female emcee most recently sat for an interview with GQ, as reported by Billboard where she revealed that Tory Lanez had begged her to not tell police what happened and even offered her and her friend money for her silence. “[At this point] I'm really scared because this is like right in the middle of all the [police brutality] protesting. Police are just killing everybody for no reason, and I'm thinking, ‘I can't believe you even think I want to take some money. Like, you just shot me.’” Tory Lanez was also charged with a felony for carrying a firearm of which he most recently pleaded not guilty. The case is still pending and this piece of news will surely go down as one of the biggest controversies of Megan Thee Stallion’s life.

Protect Black women

Megan Thee Stallion might be known for being a loudmouth but she never shies away from calling a spade a spade. Using her voice for all the right reasons, the ‘Savage’ hitmaker has been vocal about protecting Black women. This might not really be counted as a controversy but this is something for which Megan made headlines for quite a number of days. The American rapper delivered a powerful speech during her solo debut at the ‘Saturday Night Live’ in October 2020. Using her high-profile appearance on the show, she made sure she used the stage to deliver a powerful message. The politically-charged speech included a message for the Black Lives Matter movement. Megan Thee Stallion called for the protection of Black women and called out Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron over his handling of the Breonna Taylor case. In the snippets shared on social media, we could hear Megan saying, “We need to protect our Black women. We love our Black women because at the end of the day we need our Black women. We need to protect our Black men, we need to protect our Black men. I am tired of seeing hashtags about Black men.”

Speaking on the same lines in her piece of New York Times, she mentioned her gunfire incident with Tory Lanez and said, “After a lot of self-reflection on the incident, I’ve realized that violence against women is not always connected to being in a relationship. Instead, it happens because too many men treat all women as objects, which helps them to justify inflicting abuse against us when we choose to exercise our own free will.”

Sued her own record label

Not a lot of artists have the audacity or the time to sue their labels who wrong them but Megan Thee Stallion is of a different breed. The American emcee was part of another controversy when she filed a lawsuit against her record label when she fell in a public contract dispute with her label, 1501 Certified Entertainment, and its CEO, former baseball star Carl Crawford. In March 2020, as revealed by Pitchfork, Megan claimed that 1501 was blocking her from releasing new music, and a day later, a Texas judge granted her a temporary restraining order against the label, allowing her to release her short project ‘Suga.’ According to the same publication, Megan also asked for at least $1 million and the termination of her contract with 1501, claiming that the label has engaged in fraud, breach of contract, negligent misrepresentation, and other violations of civil law. Megan also claimed that Crawford duped her into signing an unfair deal at a time when she didn’t know any better.

Homophobic tweets

In June 2019, Megan Thee Stallion was in a soup when a few of her 2012 homophobic tweets resurfaced on the Internet and she addressed them by saying that she had already apologized for the same. Megan was in high school when she had apparently posted a few homophobic tweets, as reported by Complex. The tweets in question were reportedly published when Megan was about 17 or 18. The controversy apparently roots from one of Megan's tweets in which she used the f-word: “This lil f****t just pissed me off.”

Addressing the homophobic tweets’ controversy in June 2019, Megan had said, “You going this far over a tweet from 2012? That obviously meant no harm coming from me in high school, you mfs are sick.” She also shared another tweet which read, “I’ve already apologized for tweets that obviously do not represent my views now. I don’t do anything but show love to everyone so just stop.”

According to the website Complex, Megan had published other homophobic tweets back in 2012 which apparently resurfaced as screenshots by social media users. “N****s be looking so gay and fruity on Instagram," one screenshot read while another said, “I do not like n****s with tongue rings I think the shit is gay! Idc how much you claim you love to eat pu**y.” After apologizing for her tweets, she never again mentioned these tweets ever again.