Good News by Megan Thee Stallion | Album Review
The debut album from the Houston rapstress extraordinaire dispatches rivals and amplifies her swag to immense proportions.
The modern music industry has pushed artists of all stripes in a more generic direction lately.
Genres from pop to metal have had to resist market forces that value brevity, safeness, and surefire profitability, even if it means repeating something popular from the past instead of creating an original concept.
Hip-hop has been one of the worst offenders in this regard, with so many artists coming off as incapable of sounding like unique individuals or even incapable of using more than one flow. Men have dominated here from the beginning and still hold an outsized influence on what point of view is presented in rap music.
That’s why I really gravitate toward female rappers; they feel like the people bringing a creative shake-up to a genre undergoing a noticeable quality decline. And of the lady ballers working today, few could compete with Houston’s own Megan Thee Stallion for the title of “Queen.” Therefore, in anticipation of her upcoming third album Megan, let’s return to the album that made her a household name, 2020’s Good News.
Meg opens the album with “Shots Fired,” and she placed it first for a reason, because it addresses the infamous incident where Canadian rapper Torey Lanez shot her in both feet. She has to fire back, but she also wants to let most of our focus be on her art, so I appreciate her choice to kick things off this way.
Musically, this track was born to be the backdrop to a scathing diss about guns. The beat is built off a sample of Notorious B.I.G.’s “Who Shot Ya?,” infamous for allegedly fanning the flames of the rap beef that ultimately killed both Biggie and his rival Tupac Shakur. If that wasn’t pointed enough, Megan really lets Lanez have it:
Imagine n***as lyin’ ‘bout shootin’ a real bitch
Just to save face for rapper n***as you chill with
Imagine me givin’ a fuck it was your fuckin’ birthday
You in your feelings, I just thought it was another Thursday.
Once she dispatches that topic, it’s all about Megan and her indomitable swagger. Just look at “Sugar Baby,” where Megan delivers all my favorite quotes from the feminist Bible over a fantastically funky beat:
Oh, he want a bad bitch?
Well, I want a n***a with some money and a long dick
Buy me everything in my cart if you my boyfriend
Invest in this pussy, boy, support Black business.
And then there’s “Body,” which is basically Megan’s calling card at this point. It’s simple and to the point: her body is awesome, and she will use it to steal your man:
Look at how I bodied that, ate it up and gave it back
Yeah, you look good, but they still wanna know where Megan at?
Saucy like a barbecue but you won’t get your baby back.
I have to say, though, Megan truly saved the best for last because the final three tracks of Good News go so incredibly hard, starting with “Savage Remix.” This song slayed hard enough when it was a single off her Suga EP, but running it through the Beyonce machine has made it genuinely one of the best hip-hop songs of the 2020s, of the 21st century so far, maybe of all time, in this white boi’s humble opinion.
Megan’s attitude and flow kill from beginning to end, and every bit of vocal layering Bey contributes is just aural heaven. Bey’s low voice entrance on the line “hips tick-tock when I dance” gives me chills. The power she brings to this track elevates it so far beyond the original.
Closing track “Don’t Stop” also leaves no crumbs, with its left-field production choices and another set of killer bars from Meg. I’m not as crazy about Young Thug’s inclusion, but he sounds better here than anywhere else I’ve heard him before, so Megan is clearly bringing out the best in her guest artists.
But I have to give extra props to “Girls In The Hood,” which is an absolute onslaught of boss bitch energy. Her pen game on this track is truly standout, containing some of the most hilariously spot-on lines she’s ever written:
You’ll never catch me callin’ these ni***as daddy
I ain’t lyin’ ‘bout my nut just to make a n***a happy.
This one also gets me, as a Naruto fan since childhood:
Yeah, he call me Patty Cake ’cause the way that ass shake
I’ma make him eat me out while I’m watchin’ anime
Pussy like a Wild Fox, lookin’ for a Sasuke
One night with him make him lose it like a prom date.
But the best lyrics come in her last verse, essentially the album’s thesis statement, that no matter what challenge is thrown at Megan, she will rise and overcome:
’Cause the girls in the hood are always hard
Ever since sixteen, I been havin’ a job
Knowin’ nothin’ in life, but I gotta get rich
You could check the throwback pics, I been that bitch.
While Megan’s chemistry with her first artists is largely solid across this record, the moments that fall short are when her guest overtakes her (and would you believe, it’s mediocre male rappers doing this). “Cry Baby,” “Movie,” and “Intercourse” all suffer greatly from this. Most of these men have no business even sharing space with Megan, let alone taking all the real estate on her song.
All that said, there’s a reason Megan Thee Stallion is one of the most talked about rappers in the business right now, and Good News is proof positive of the potential that was there from the beginning. The girl got Beyonce for her debut album, so if that’s her starting platform, I can only imagine the stratospheres she’ll shoot through in the future.
Production: 8/10
Lyrics: 6/10
Songwriting: 7/10
Overall: 7/10
Favorites: Sugar Baby, Savage Remix, Girls In The Hood, Don’t Stop
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Thank you for reading! What did you think of this album? Leave a comment with your thoughts, and I’ll see you in the next review!