Megan Thee Stallion dominates virtual concert
Anyone who’s seen one of Megan Thee Stallion’s Instagram Lives knows that the Texas rapper has an uncanny ability to invite people in and make anyone watching feel starstruck. Performing live on stage to thousands of virtual viewers Saturday was no different.
The concert, hosted through Live Nation and Tidal, was Megan’s first day back after taking time off for herself and her health, and follows the massive success of her single “WAP” with Cardi B that released Aug. 7 and topped the Billboard Hot 100 ever since.
“And hotties, it’s been a very very rough 2020, it’s been a very rough few months for me. I didn’t think I was going to even be able to do this show but I did, and I just wanna tell y’all that I appreciate y’all so very very much, because if I didn’t have y’all, then I wouldn’t have a lot of people pushing me as hard as they do and I probably wouldn’t be Megan Thee motherfucking Stallion.”
Donned in a black leather bodysuit adorned with green, red and yellow sequins, Megan took the stage for her first ever virtual performance and dominated. Shrugging off technical difficulties toward the middle of the show with the quip, “I’m not perfect, never said I was,” she brought the latest and greatest of her discography, features and salutes to her oldest fans.
Megan made a fiery return to the stage with her energetic opening song “Realer.” Just a month after she was shot and received surgery on both feet, the red stage lights illuminated Thee Stallion standing firmly in her sparkling heeled boots as her name, and the stage lit up in flames.
Megan’s struts across the stage are the same way she tackles her critics like the hot girl she is: with confidence and veracity. Following the shooting, Stallion faced criticism mainly from men accusing her of feigning injury because she had resumed her normal hot girl activities. The rapper posted a picture of her wounded foot on Instagram upset that people would accuse her of lying.
“I usually don’t address internet bullshit, but y’all are so so sick!” she wrote in the caption. “Sorry I’m not ass sad and miserable as a lot of y’all lol, but ima keep being Megan Thee Mf STALLION.”
Thee Stallion proved she is unstoppable and unbothered by the noise, and “Realer” serves as a reminder that this hot girl is still on fire.
“I keep it realer than real,” Thee Stallion rapped. “Fuck all the critics and fuck how they feel.”
Thee Stallion and her six back-up dancers took to the front of the stage with an interlude of “Slob on My Knob.” It was a much needed reminder of a tweet earlier in August where she responded to misogynistic comments about “WAP” with “Lol dudes will scream ‘slob on my knob’ word for word and crying abt WAP ? bye lil boy.”
After introducing her “Fever” and “Tina Snow” alter egos with “Simon Says” and “Freak Nasty,” the black stage, one second emblazoned with red and purple lights and shooting of flames and a fiery “Megan Thee Stallion” on the screen, was in the next completely dark and silent.
Outlined in bright white and illuminating, the silhouettes of Megan and the dancers read the words, “This shit is exhausting.” With heads bowed and hands up in a Black Power fist, the performers stood by as the names of Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Aura Rosser, Tamir Rice, Freddie Gray, Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, Stephon Clark, Botham Jean, Elijah McClain, Atatiana Jefferson, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and Jacob Blake passed the screen along with the circumstances of their deaths and debilitating injuries at the hands of police and white supremacists and the dates of the incidents. Before fading once again to black, the screen asked those watching to consider, “Why is it so hard being Black in America?”
Megan both received and radiated unwavering support and compassion for those affected by hate crimes and state-sanctioned violence with friends in the audience and on stage. She brought the lights back up slowly with a return to her mantra that has graced the tongues of millions, “Hot Girl Summer.”
In between bouts of choreography coordinated by JaQuel Knight, who also oversaw choreography for Thee Stallion’s BET performance and the “WAP” music video, Megan introduced every one of her back-up dancers — Ashley, Caydee, Dominique, Dnay, Corbin and Taylor — to the stage with freestyle dances to songs ranging from “Back That Thang Up” to “Who’s that Girl” to “Bald Head Hoe Shit.” Hyping them up from on and backstage, Megan continuously brought immense energy and spirit that made you forget you were watching from a screen miles away.
Always loyal to her fans, Thee Stallion performed audience requests and favorites “Captain Hook,” “Pimpin” and “Cash Shit” with bright and bold graphics of swords, muscle cars and sex talk-telephones never overshadowing her presence.
With a setlist packed with 20 of her songs, there was never a moment to sit down — not that you wanted to — as Megan urged “I need all my hotties to stand up, wherever you at, and shake that ass.”
Recent releases “Savage,” “WAP” and “Girls in the Hood,” with an electric guitar accompaniment, rounded out the performance with a reminder of the high bar Thee Stallion has set for rap — even in a pandemic. Her infectious laughter, neverending sex positivity and always impressive talent is exactly what the world needed in a virtual performance.