Just last year, Megan Thee Stallion graced the cover of XXL‘s 2019 Freshman Class as a rising rapper. Fast forward a year and she is prominently displayed on the cover of Time‘s “The 100 Most Influential People” issue. While the rapper has had a number of successful singles over the course of the past year, none were as discussed as her NSFW song “WAP” with Cardi B. Nearly everyone had an opinion about the track, from conservative talk show host Tucker Carlson to Tiger King star Carole Baskin. The track even riled up a few right-wing politicians, but Megan was not expecting the single to receive the amount of controversy it did.
According to Billboard, Megan addressed the song’s backlash in her conversation with Time. The rapper was especially dumbfounded when politicians began offering their opinions about the track. “When I saw all of the politicians in an uproar about mine and Cardi’s ‘WAP,’ I was just really taken aback,” she said. “Like, why is this your focus right now? If you have an issue with what I’m saying, don’t listen to it.”
Elsewhere in the cover story, actor Taraji P. Henson praised Megan for her tenacity as a musician: “Once you discover her, you become a fan. I don’t like to put the stigma of the word strong on Black women because I think it dehumanizes us, but she has strength — strength through vulnerability. She’s lost much of her family — her mother, her father, her grandmother — yet she is the epitome of tenacity, of pulling herself up by her bootstraps. She was shot this summer, and still people tried to tear her down. But she’s out here still loving and being sweet.”
Some of the artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.