R&B/Hip-Hop

Megan Thee Stallion has a lot of strong women in her corner. Following the 27-year-old rapper’s reaction to Drake and 21 Savage implying in a lyric from their new album Her Loss that she lied about being shot by Tory Lanez in 2020, the Southern Black Girls & Women’s Consortium has partnered with influential leaders to pen an open letter dedicated to her that denounces violence against women.
Signed by MeToo founder Tarana Burke, Planned Parenthood CEO Alexis McGill Johnson, Tamika Mallory, Angela Rye, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee and more, the letter reminds Meg that she’s been “so strong” following the backlash she’s received since alleging two years ago that Lanez fired a gun at her during a disagreement at a pool party, injuring her feet. (Lanez has denied the allegation, and the court case is ongoing.)

“You’ve been so strong, Megan, but that’s not what we should demand nor expect from you,” it reads. “You deserve the space to cry, mourn and heal as you see fit without having to worry about being judged for having a human reaction to a personal tragedy.”

The letter comes five days after the “Plan B” artist called out Drake on Twitter for rapping in “Circo Loco” — one of the tracks on his and 21 Savage’s joint album — that “This b—h lie ’bout getting shots, but she still a stallion.”

“Stop using my shooting for clout b–h ass N—-s!” Meg wrote in a string of tweets on the same day Her Loss dropped. “Since when tf is it cool to joke abt women getting shot !”

The Southern Black Girls & Women’s Consortium’s letter seems to address the song’s lyrics, as well as the negativity the Houston rapper has been facing from people online who accuse her of lying about the shooting.

“You’ve had to endure public harassment and taunting not only from that person but from others choosing to stand with him,” it reads. “You’ve consistently been clear about what happened to you, but instead of being met with widespread support, people who should have had your back have chosen to stay out of the matter.”

Read the Southern Black Girls & Women’s Consortium full open letter to Meg, signed by several influential leaders, below:

Dear Megan,

You are larger than life in many ways; your name is in lights, your face on billboards, your songs in the history books…and this is still just the beginning of your story. In a very short amount of time, you’ve achieved success probably beyond your wildest dreams, and it seems that each day brings a new announcement about something amazing you’ve done or are preparing to do. Women all over the world consider you an inspiration, in part because you make them feel good about themselves. You’re a special kind of talent and a special kind of person; the place you hold in your fans’ hearts is a testament to that.

As you’ve risen to the top, you’ve also had to endure a lot of obstacles along the way. In the face of triumph and tragedy alike, you always keep your head held high, maintain your poise, and push forward. However, while so many of us celebrate you for your strength and perseverance, it must be said that you have been treated in ways that no young woman–no person at all–should be treated.

It must be said that our culture has failed you, one of its most brightly shining daughters. In July of 2020, you experienced a violation of the highest order at the hands of someone whom you considered a friend. Since then, you’ve had to endure public harassment and taunting not only from that person but from others choosing to stand with him. Bloggers have circulated rumors and excitedly reported on the most traumatic experience of your life as if it were juicy gossip, often perpetuating the idea that you’ve got a reason to lie, that you shouldn’t be believed. You’ve consistently been clear about what happened to you, but instead of being met with widespread support, people who should have had your back have chosen to stay out of the matter.

You don’t deserve any of this, Megan. You deserve to be heard, to be believed, and most importantly, to be safe.

There is no amount of power or prestige that can prevent a woman from becoming a victim of violence and there is no level of achievement that exempts women from our society’s complacency with that violence.

You may be a boss, the “hot girl coach,” and a bonafide superstar, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t experience pain. No one is too ‘bad,’ too famous, too powerful to feel hurt. You’ve had to navigate this deeply difficult experience in the public eye, and while you’ve managed to stand strong and to keep showing up to work in spite of it all, it can’t be understated how unfair it is that you’re in this position to begin with.

Violence against women is still entirely too common and acceptable in our world. We make excuse after excuse to explain away even the most heinous acts, especially when the person accused is a celebrity of any sort. Being a celebrity, however, will not guarantee a woman any sympathy when she is a victim.

Black women are also often fearful of what will happen to their assailant if they choose to involve the law–as you yourself were afraid to do–and are left unprotected by the system and the community alike. If someone as influential as you can be belittled and mocked as nothing but a liar for standing up for herself, that speaks a volume about what a woman who doesn’t have your resources or fame can expect to endure when she’s found herself in a similar position.

An estimated one in three women worldwide has been the victim of sexual and/or domestic violence. Here in the United States, the numbers are higher for Black women, who also experience psychological abuse–such as humiliation, name-calling, and insults–at an increased rate. Women of all races, cis and trans, are suffering daily and we’re all too complacent. From day one, you deserved a chorus of voices saying, “We believe you, Megan,” and though you may not have been able to hear us sooner, know that we are with you now and every step of the way as you continue to heal from this tragedy. We are committed to making the world safer for you and all women, and one of the important steps that we must take to get there is to make it so that women who have been victims of violence can speak about their experiences without being attacked or dismissed.

You’ve been so strong, Megan, but that’s not what we should demand nor expect from you. You deserve the space to cry, mourn and heal as you see fit without having to worry about being judged for having a human reaction to a personal tragedy.

Even in the midst of your own traumatic experience and healing, you recognized that other girls needed to experience joy and partnered with Southern Black Girls and Women’s Consortium on the inaugural Joy Is Our Journey tour impacting thousands of girls across the south. You have remained committed to the focus of mental health and well being in our community even when your own has been minimized, marginalized, and deemphasized. We want you to know that you are important and you matter to us and to millions of women around the globe. Your life matters. Your work matters. Your joy matters. You deserve joy. We stand with you.

We salute you for the bravery it has taken to defend yourself in the court of public opinion, though you shouldn’t have had to do so at all. We raise our voices against those who have made light of this heinous example of violence against women and will drown them out with our demands for society to take what happens to Black women seriously. You are not alone. You are believed, loved, and supported.

We stand with you Megan.

Dr. Brenda Allen, Lincoln University PA

LaTosha Brown, Southern Black Girls & Women’s Consortium

Laura Brown, LB Media

Tarana Burke, ‘me too’ International

Ethel Cain

Taylor Crumpton, Cultural Critic and Writer

Dr. Tiffany Crutcher, Terence Crutcher Foundation

Allisa Findley, Sisters of the Movement

K.C. Fox, Sisters of the Movement

Angella Henry, DJ Henry Dream Fund

Marc Lamont Hill, Temple University Professor/Journalist

Jessica Jackson

Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, Chair, House Judiciary Crime Committee (Tx. 18th)

Renee Jarvis, Triangle House Literary

Alice Eason Jenkins, Southern Black Girls and Women’s Consortium

Michelle Kenney, Antwon Rose II Foundation

Felecia Lucky, Black Belt Community Foundation

Tamika D. Mallory, Until Freedom

Alexis McGill Johnson, Planned Parenthood Federation of America

Margo Miller, Appalachian Community Fund

Carmen Perez-Jordan, The Gathering for Justice

Angela Rye, IMPACT Strategies

Dr. Topeka K. Sam, The Ladies of Hope Ministries, INC.

Beverly Smith, SiriusXM

L Joy Williams

Is Nick Cannon about to be a dad to a dozen? That’s what some fans think based on a cryptic social media post by one of the mothers of his children.

On Tuesday, Abby De La Rosa shared a quippy Instagram post on her Story which reads, “1 night with a Libra can turn into 3-4 years…be careful.” Beneath the amusing quote, the DJ added her own thoughts, writing, “Damn! lol 1 night turned into 4 years and 3 kids real quick…I see no lies here smh. y’all be safe out there,” bookended by a pair of laughing emojis.

Without naming any names, the post seems to point to Cannon, who, yes, just so happens to be a Libra. (De La Rosa herself is a Scorpio, born just two days past the Oct. 23 cutoff for Libras on the calendar.) However, the glaring discrepancy in the pregnant De La Rosa’s post? She shares twins Zion Mixolydian and Zillion Heir but has yet to publicly confirm whether Cannon is the father of her soon-to-be born third child.

If The Masked Singer host is, indeed, the father, De La Rosa’s bundle of joy would be his fifth child either born or announced in as many months. Legendary Love was born in July to Bre Tiesi; Onyx Ice and Rise Messiah were born in September to, respectively, Lanisha Cole and Brittany Bell; and Alyssa Scott announced she was pregnant with Cannon’s 11th baby in October following the tragic December 2021 death of their 5-month-old son Zen.

Check out De La Rosa’s mysterious Instagram Story before it expires here.

Nicki Minaj hinted at her long-awaited fifth studio album in a new cover story on Wednesday (Nov. 9).
In a wide-ranging chat with City Girls‘ JT for i-D, the superstar rapper opened up about her follow-up to 2018’s Queen, which has been in the works for nearly half a decade. “The fifth album,” she told the publication when asked what projects she has planned for the near future. “I’m not gonna say when it’s gonna come out, but the album will be out soon.”

Not giving away any other details, Minaj then pivoted to tease her nail art company, where, she said, “people will be able to buy my press-on nail with dope designs.” (“I was already working on that before someone auctioned my press-on nail for $50,000 or whatever they spent on it,” she mused.)

Later, Nicki also revealed she plans to get back into the TV and film industry, telling JT, “I’ve been speaking to a director about doing something in a movie. In terms of TV, we’ll see. But I love acting, and I’ll never abandon acting for too long. That’s one of my biggest passions.”

Though as for her place in the music industry, the Trinidadian star got vulnerable about some of the ways she’s been misunderstood since rocketing to fame in 2010 with Pink Friday.

“There’s a huge misconception with people who come across as outspoken,” the “Super Freaky Girl” rapper said. “The misconception is that we’re so strong. Just because a person fights back, doesn’t mean they’re not afraid. I have suppressed years’ worth of things that I’ve wanted to say.”

Confessing that there’s “always been a level of fear” over losing her place as an artist, she went on to say, “I’ve decided that I have to speak up now. You know, I see the hip-hop community praise so many other people for speaking up for themselves, but for some reason they seem to have an issue when I do it. Once I realized that there’s that double standard, I decided I don’t give a s–t anymore. The last part of it is that if I never rap again, I will still leave this earth as an icon. I guess there is a little less fear now at this point in my career because I realize that my fans aren’t going anywhere. I’ve paid my dues.”

Get a look at Nicki Minaj’s i-D cover below.

SZA has a public service announcement to share: Get ready for even more new music. Less than two weeks after she released her new single “Shirt,” the R&B star has now dropped a stunning NSFW teaser trailer for a project titled “PSA.”

Explore

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

In the video, uploaded to her official YouTube channel Tuesday evening (Nov. 8), SZA poses in a brown bikini, while crouching in a ring of neon green flames. Other snippets filmed on a beach in the pitch-black night cut in and out, showing what looks to be the “Kiss Me More” artist pouring a luminous blue liquid onto her bare body from a plastic bottle.

“I always knew things would be just fine, I always knew it’d get worse with time,” she sings over twinkling piano and gorgeous stacks of vocal harmony. “You should go cry about it, not trying to fight about it.”

After the one-and-a-half-minute long video cuts to black, a quick snippet of morse code flashes by: three dots, three dashes and three more dots, translating to “S.O.S.”

The “Good Days” musician also posted the teaser to her Instagram Tuesday, which just so happened to be her 33rd birthday. “Happy birthday to me,” she captioned the video. “Clock starts now.”

As mentioned above, SZA’s teaser follows the Oct. 28 release of “Shirt,” her first proper piece of new music since the seven previously unreleased tracks she dropped in the summer as part of her Ctrl five-year anniversary deluxe package. Before that came 2021 single “I Hate U,” which reached No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100.

On the same day as the song’s release, the Grammy winner also dropped a “Shirt” music video featuring Judas and the Black Messiah star LaKeith Stanfield. A few days before that, she revealed that her long-awaited sophomore album is coming “any day” now, and will include a selection of a hundred or so songs she’s recorded in the half decade since she released her debut LP.

Watch SZA’s new “PSA” teaser video above.