Megan Thee Stallion – Good News

Megan Thee Stallion is coming to the end of a phenomenal year: first her tune Savage takes off astronomically, then veritable R&B legend Beyoncé hops on the remix, then she’s involved with another international hit with the Cardi B duet WAP. The time couldn’t be better for her studio debut, and Megan takes this opportunity to ramp up the sexually-charged lyrics, enlist some A-list features and dabble in a couple of other sounds occasionally as well.

Lead single Don’t Stop makes its mark with dubstep-esque squalls of bass and an uncharacteristically coy verse from Young Thug, while big-time producers such as Tay Keith and Juicy J flesh out the record with sonically varied contributions. Lil Ju in particular delivers a couple of musical highlights, the City Girls team-up Do It On The Tip with its minimal percussive feel and the NSFW banger Body.

Megan’s flow is versatile, her lyrics are as raunchy as ever – “invest in this pussy, boy, support black business” – and it’s clear that she’s found her topical comfort zone. Her flexing on Girls In The Hood, a well-judged Eazy-E flip, is effortless and masterful, taking deadly aim at haters (“Wack hoes hate under my pictures on the ‘gram / Bitch, you better hope I never run across your man”) and continuing a trend of reappropriating male-centric rap songs that started with Suga’s B.I.T.C.H.

When Megan moves away from her standard lyrical fare, perpetuating her beef with Tory Lanez on opening track Shots Fired or penning the poppy tune Don’t Rock Me To Sleep, the results are some of the best moments on the album, and if these aspects of her style had been explored some more it could have made for a more diverse LP, but Good News is still chock-full of catchy hooks, stellar verses and feisty attitude.