Album Review: Megan Thee Stallion Shines on Debut Album ‘Good News’

After honing her talents on a number of projects and collaborative hits, the rapper’s debut is a masterclass in rhythm and rhyme.

Written by Felix Kalvesmaki

Photo courtesy of Billboard

It’s been a mixed bag of a year for Megan Thee Stallion. She managed to get a Beyoncé feature before releasing her debut album, she’s played SNL, and she got a feature in the New York Times. On the other hand, she fought hard against her record label to release her last project SUGA, rapper Tory Lanez shot her at a party, and in her essay for the Gray Lady, she spoke on a truth for Black women across the country: it’s incredibly difficult to find someone who’ll take a Black woman’s pain seriously. “The way people have publicly questioned and debated whether I played a role in my own violent assault proves that my fears about discussing what happened were, unfortunately, warranted,” she wrote for The New York Times.

But the last thing the self-described hot girl does is grovel. Meg stands tall on her debut album, which serves as a response to the hellstorm of 2020. “Through this rough ass year we’ve all been having I felt like we could all use a lil bit of good news,” Megan said in an Instagram post announcing the record. The aptly-titled Good News lives up to its name: she brings bravado and beats on her first full-length project. Even among her star-studded lineup of SZA, DaBaby, and yes, Ms. Knowles, Megan Thee Stallion shines.

Though Meg describes her initial fear of Lanez after the incident, she rakes him across the coals in the first song on the album, “Shots Fired.” Interestingly, she doesn’t address the shooting again for the rest of the tracklist. Perhaps she’d find it best to let people forget the situation that victimized her, and if so, she does a fantastic job at putting it to rest: “Next n---- send a shot, I'ma send it right back.”

At times, Good News feels like hearing the arrival of a greatest-of-all-time album. If “WAP” didn’t convince you, she’s killer with a pen on “Freaky Girls,” and she knows how to deliver it, too. The prowess of lines like “Caught a jet just to buy a car, I'm the flyest bitch on the dealership” is impossible to overstate. In “Outside,” she asks: “Baby, can you tell me have you ever heard of polygamy? / It's only me and you, but I got many personalities.” She even pulls from the Addams Family, referring to her hair as a “Forty-inch long black weave like Morticia” in “Go Crazy.”

Image courtesy of 300 Entertainment

It’d be a crime to talk about this record without discussing “Savage Remix,” which is one of the best songs of 2020, bar none. Put your hands down — this isn’t up for debate. Beyoncé is a gift; she harmonizes, she spits, she glows. Her gravelly delivery of “Hips tick tock when I dance / On that Demon Time / She might start an OnlyFans” is memorable, but what’s most impressive about this Houston duet is how easily Megan fits in. She keeps pace with Bey, even pulling ahead. It’s not just a remix of SUGA’s “Savage,” as even the beat changes subtly from the original. This track is a triumph, and it’s bound to be a song Megan will be known for throughout her career.

Sonically, the album accompanies Megan’s flow well. On “What’s New,” trap grooves match groaning bass as somebody whistles behind her vocals, almost harmonizing with her rapped chorus while small flourishes of chords ring like a doorbell in the background. Something this album does incredibly well is create space within each track. These beats aren’t just an arrangement of instruments; some of them are conceptual too. “Body” even opens with Meg moaning. In between her choruses, she blows kisses, and you can hear her sticking her tongue out with every “Ahh.” And it’s in these little infusions of confidence that Megan stands out from the crowd: everything about her, from her words to her accompaniment, is proud. It makes for a deeply rewarding and empowering listen.

However, this album isn’t without its flaws. “Don’t Stop” with Young Thug is well-written, but the beat is criminal, and at times it feels grating, like a sound you’d hear seconds before a computer malfunctions and shuts down. The production feels careless, like a more hollow version of something SOPHIE or 100 gecs would turn out: all of the chaos with none of the intricacies that make it work. “Body” is a banger, but the chorus could use some work. Though arguably the catchiest hook of the track, Megan’s repetition (“Body-ody-ody-ody…”) is one of the few times where her delivery could use some work. To be frank, it gets a little irritating to hear over and over.

Overall, though, there’s not a lot of bad news on Good News. Most of Megan Thee Stallion’s public prominence thus far has come from her collaborations. She began as a revelation on a 2016 cipher with nine fellow rappers, which currently holds over 800K views on YouTube as of this article’s publication, and became a cultural icon with her feature on Cardi B’s “WAP.” In her debut LP, however, she proves she can stand on her own and even outshine her peers. She’s not an “up-and-coming rapper” any longer — she’s come up, like flowers springing out of Houston ground.