Nicki Minajs Response To Megan Thee Stallions Hiss Was A Miss

Nicki Minajs Big Foot a diss track she dropped this week in her escalating feud with fellow rapper Megan Thee Stallion has fallen flat.

Houston rapper Megan released Hiss on Jan. 26, featuring several lines that took aim at unnamed figures in the music industry. Though Megans track did not appear to focus on one specific person, Minaj took at least one of the lines personally.

The Hiss line in question: These hoes dont be mad at Megan / These hoes mad at Megans Law, Megan rapped. 

Megans Law, implemented in 1994, requires convicted sex offenders to register with the federal government. Minajs husband, Kenneth Petty, is covered under that law because of his 1994 conviction on an attempted rape charge. In fact, in July 2022, Petty was sentenced to a year of home confinement and three years probation for not registering as a sex offender. 

Minajs brother, Jelani Maraj, has also been convicted of a sex crime, specifically the predatory sexual assault of an 11-year-old girl. He was sentenced to 25 years to life in 2020.

Despite Minajs decision to respond on social media and with Big Foot, there is little indication this was a shot at her or solely her. The entertainment industry, and specifically the music industry, is in the midst of reckoning with  sexual violence against women , so the line could refer to any number of accused or convicted sex offenders.

Megan herself has not suggested the line was about Minaj. In a phone interview on The Breakfast Club the morning of her songs release, Megan told host Charlamagne Tha God that the song is for these bitches and hoes alike, men or women.

Im saying, a hit dog gon holler. Thats it. Whoever feel it, feel it, Megan added.

(Charlamagne himself has admitted publicly to raping his wife and has been accused of raping a girl when she was 15 years old , though he has denied those allegations.)

Minaj did indeed holler. 

In her diss track, Big Foot, Minaj raps: This little beggin whore talkin bout Megans law / For a free beat, you can hit Megan raw / If you a ghostwriter, Pardi in Megan jaw / Shots thrown but I still aint let Megan score.

Minajs attempt to slut-shame Megan seems to overlook that Megan has built a fan base off of rapping shamelessly about enjoying sex. It also passes over the fact that Minaj has also rapped about sex plenty of times throughout her own career, as do many other rappers and music artists. 

Minaj also referenced a 2020 incident in which rapper Tory Lanez shot Megan in the feet.

F**k you get shot with no scar? Minaj rapped on Big Foot.

The line attempts to discredit Megans claims against Lanez. Multiple rappers, like Drake, DaBaby, 50 Cent and Boosie Badazz, have done the same since the news of the shooting broke.

After the attack, Megan also posted (and deleted) a picture of her injuries .

At the end of the two-week trial, the jury found Lanez guilty of assault with a semiautomatic handgun, carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle and discharging a firearm with gross negligence. In August, a judge sentenced Lanez to 10 years behind bars.

Minaj also repeatedly brought up Megans mother, who passed away in March 2019, with the lyric, Lyin on your dead mama.

The online response to Minajs track and her social media spiral has been overwhelmingly negative, with many questioning how the Queen of Rap blundered so badly. TMZ wrote bluntly that fans rejected the Big Foot record. 

Countless observers on social media  have argued that Minajs legacy has been tainted by her marriage to Petty and her tendency to go after other women in the hip-hop game, including rappers Cardi B , Remy Ma and Lil Kim.

One TikToker pointed out that Minajs fan base is getting more comfortable with holding Minaj accountable as she terrorizes other women. Other fans have  retired their status as Barbz, the nickname for Minaj fans.

As of Wednesday, Hiss, Megans follow-up to Cobra in November, was the top song on Spotify in the U.S. Big Foot was 23rd. Megan hasnt directly responded to Minajs Big Foot, but she did release two new versions of the song Wednesday an acoustic version and a chopped and screwed version.

Misogynoir and Hip-Hop: A Sign Of The Times

A.D. Carson, an associate professor of hip-hop at the University of Virginia, told HuffPost the feud between Megan and Minaj reflects some of the kinds of narratives that folks have projected onto Black women.

The United States of America hates women, Black women in particular, Carson said.

Hip-hop music was created in the Bronx, New York, out of protest and necessity, HuffPosts Taryn Finley wrote in an article marking hip-hops 50-year anniversary  last year. Since then, the genre has had a huge impact on fashion, language and pop culture as a whole. 

Hip-hop has only existed sort of in the public sphere, as we understand it, for about somewhere around 50 years. And we dont have that many examples of rap music as pop music, where its most recognizable faces, names and voices are women. Its a unique moment in this rather short history, Carson said.

Black female rappers were once much less prevalent than they are now. But throughout the 1990s and 2000s, hip-hop legends like Lil Kim, Foxy Brown, MC Lyte, Queen Latifah, Missy Elliot and Trina paved the way for the new rap girls .

 But with all of the genres influence and evolution, misogyny is still central to the genre. Many artists dont try to hide it.

Theres the infamous Bitches Aint S**t by Dr. Dre (who has a history of violence against women ) featuring Snoop Dog (who singer Dionne Warwick once condemned for his misogynistic lyrics) . Rapper Future is celebrated for music in which he denigrates women by consistently calling them hoes and sluts. And Drake, despite his nice guy persona, fixates on the power women hold over him sexuallyand the power he can hold over them financially, according to The Atlantics  Spencer Kornhaber.

Over time, many female rappers have attempted to reclaim words like bitch and ho, and some have found ways to express their enjoyment of sex. But diss tracks are ingrained in the genre, and conversations around anti-Black racism and sexism, victim-blaming and slut-shaming in rap beefs and diss tracks are especially complicated.

For example, rapper Remy Ma wrote the diss track Shether, while Lil Kim put out Black Friday, both aimed at Minaj. Both tracks suggested Minaj used sex to succeed, but more broadly, said Minaj just wasnt as talented.

Hip-hop and any cultural product is very often going to reflect the same ills that come with living in that broader culture, Carson said. And so, American culture being the way it is, you can see how two Black women arguing or rapping against each other might easily rely on the most accessible, easiest-to-understand stereotypical tropes. 

He also noted that its likely consumers may use this conflict to generalize Black women, who already face a number of stereotypes.

But one things for certain: Minajs Big Foot has stirred up more conversation about her own legacy than Megans.

On the craft of writing this record, [Minaj] really gave away the game before it even started, Carson said. I dont know what the comeback story is for this because it feels like such a fumble.

Need help? Visit RAINNs National Sexual Assault Online Hotline  or the National Sexual Violence Resource Centers website .