| "Thot Shit" | ||||
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| Single byMegan Thee Stallion | ||||
| from the albumSomething for Thee Hotties | ||||
| Released | June 11, 2021 (2021-06-11) | |||
| Genre | Dirty rap | |||
| Length | 3:04 | |||
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| Megan Thee Stallion singles chronology | ||||
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| Music video | ||||
| "Thot Shit" onYouTube | ||||
"Thot Shit" (known as "Thot Ish" in theradio edit) is a song by American rapperMegan Thee Stallion. The first solo release following her debut studio albumGood News (2020) and the lead single from her compilation albumSomething for Thee Hotties (2021),[1] the song was produced byLilJuMadeDaBeat andOG Parker and was released on June 11, 2021, through1501 Certified Entertainment and300 Entertainment. Anuptempo song with heavy bass, it began as afreestyle by Megan Thee Stallion, and was inspired by her desire to reclaim the term "thot" from men who used it in a sexist manner. The song is performed from the perspective of her "raw and aggressive" alter ego, Tina Snow.
"Thot Shit" was nominated forBest Rap Performance at the64th Annual Grammy Awards and peaked in the top 20 in the United States. The Aube Perrie-directed music video for "Thot Shit" was released on the same day as the song. It was inspired byconservative backlash against her andCardi B's 2020 song "WAP", andhorror films such asA Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) andThe Shining (1980). In it, Megan Thee Stallion and several other women follow around a hypocriticalconservative politician andtwerk wherever he goes to exact revenge on him for posting a sexist comment underneath Megan Thee Stallion's "Body" video onYouTube.
Over a month before the release of "Thot Shit", severalsci-fi-themed posts on Megan Thee Stallion's social media showed her in a "regeneration tank" and announced that she would be "recharging". A week before "Thot Shit" was released, she posted aCGI animation of herself announcing her return as her alter ego,Tina Snow. Megan Thee Stallion later posted a link to pre-save the song, and revealed the release date, title, and cover of "Thot Shit", which shows a shirtless man collapsed on a checkered tile floor next to a plate of food, a magazine featuring an image of Megan Thee Stallion, and a box of "Tina O's" cereal, with three women in white patent leather platform heels standing over him.[2][3][4]
According to Megan Thee Stallion, "Thot Shit" began as afreestyle.[5] After Shawn "Source" Jarrett, the song's engineer, asked for beats from producerOG Parker, he and producer Lil Ju met up at Parker's house in Atlanta to produce "about seven beats" together before sending them to Jarrett. Megan Thee Stallion chose to use one of them for "Thot Shit".[6] The song was released at midnight on June 11, 2021.[7] It was her first solo single of 2021 and her first solo release following the release of her debut studio album,Good News.[5] It was also included on her 2021 mixtapeSomething for Thee Hotties as its lead single.[8]
After the song's release,blackTikTok creators went on "strike" and refused to choreograph a dance to the song.[9] The strike was organized in response to black creators previously having not been credited or compensated for creating trending dances on the app whichwhite TikTok users profited off of, and was intended to show that black users were essential to the success of the app.[10] Dances created by white TikTok users to the song were heavily mocked online.[11][12]
"Thot Shit" is an uptempo[13] song with a "booming" bassline[14] performed by Megan Thee Stallion as her "raw and aggressive" alter ego, Tina Snow, who first appeared onher 2018 EP of the same name and was inspired American rapperPimp C's alter ego Tony Snow.[15][16] The song was inspired by Megan Thee Stallion's desire to reclaim pejoratives used by men against women, such as "thot" and "hoe".[17] The song's lyrics are described as "confidently risque"[18] "self-confident", "sexually liberating",[13] and "hit[ting] hard while also being playful".[19] The chorus gives "twerk instructions".[13] In the song, she references her three wins at the63rd Annual Grammy Awards forBest New Artist,Best Rap Performance, andBest Rap Song with the line "I'm the shit perthe Recording Academy". She also references her scheduled graduation fromTexas Southern University in 2021 and the 1940 filmPinocchio, and quotes the 1998 miniseriesThe Temptations with the line, "Ain't nobody come to see you, Otis".[20][13]
This song received critical acclaim from critics.Rolling Stone's Mankaprr Conteh called "Thot Shit" "a sonic and visual explosion of sexuality, pride, and ideas" filled with "sharp zingers", adding that her "tone and candor" on the song combined her "hard-hitting raps" with "the strong sense of purpose she's developed as a woman that has been attacked and vilified for her boldness and honesty".[16]Jezebel's Shannon Melero referred to the song as "an absolute banger that is all the good things about Vax/Hot Girl Summer".[21]Pitchfork named the song "Best New Track", with Cat Zhang writing, "'Thot Shit' follows the classic Megan recipe: unapologetic sex positivity, brash and delicious boasts, sharp-tongued goofiness."[22]The A.V. Club's Gabrielle Sanchez described "Thot Shit" as "charged and fast-paced, carrying the intensity last year'sGood News too often lacked" with an "infectious" energy.[20]Revolt's Jon Powell wrote that the song had "some of her most hard-hitting bars to date", whileClash's Robin Murray called the song "a swaggering piece of no-take-shit empowerment, one that finds Megan at her most open".[23] Robyn Mowatt ofOkayplayer described the song "biting, energetic, and ideal for the looming summer".[24]
| Publication | Accolade | Rank | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pitchfork | The 100 Best Songs of 2021 | 18 | [25] |
| Year | Organization | Award | Result | Ref(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | MTV Video Music Awards | Song of Summer | Nominated | [26] |
| 2021 | UK Music Video Awards | Best Hip Hop/Grime/Rap Video – International | Won | [27] |
| Best Color Grading in a Video | Nominated | |||
| Best Editing in a Video | Nominated | |||
| 2022 | Grammy Awards | Best Rap Performance | Nominated | [28] |
| 2022 | Webby Awards | Video, General Video - Music Video | Won | [29] |
| People's Voice | Won |
The music video for "Thot Shit", directed by Aube Perrie and executive produced by Boris Labourguigne, was released on the same day as the single. After seeing the music video forL'Impératrice's song "Peur des filles", also directed by Perrie and produced by Labourguigne, Megan Thee Stallion's team reached out to the pair to make the video for "Thot Shit". It was filmed over the course of two 18-hour day shoots in April and choreographed byJaQuel Knight.
Several different camera rigs were built to filmtwerking shots, and the filming was partially inspired by thecinéma vérité style ofdocumentary filmmaking.[30]Prosthetic makeup was also used for the video's final shot.[31] Parts of the video were filmed at the 101 Coffee Shop, a defunct diner inLos Angeles.[7] Skip Pipo stars in the video as an olderconservativesenator meant to represent James P. Bradley, aRepublicancongressional candidate for California who, after listening to American rapperCardi B's song "WAP" featuring Megan Thee Stallion, posted on social media that the two artists "are what happens when children are raised without God and without a strong father figure" and claimed that he came across the song accidentally.[30][15][31][32] A day before its release, Megan Thee Stallion teased the video by postingDJ Khaled's shocked reaction to it on her Instagram.[17] The video's release was preceded by a livestream hosted onYouTube by Megan Thee Stallion.[33]
Thehorror-themed[5] video begins with the senator sitting in his office, eatingCheetos and leaving a YouTube comment underneath Megan Thee Stallion's music video for "Body", calling it "stupid" and "regressive" before unzipping his pants tomasturbate to it.[34][35][36] Megan Thee Stallion, who appears as her alter ego, Tina Snow, then anonymously calls the man to tell him not to "fuck with" the women who make up every part of his life in a monologue inspired by the 1999 filmFight Club.[30] The senator, however, ignores the phone call after being hung up on and then proceeds to continue masturbating to the video. The next shot shows Megan's alter ego and several other working-class women (the "Hotties") then hit the man with a garbage truck, and spend their time exacting revenge on him by following him around as he does mundane tasks and twerking wherever he goes, including at a diner, in his office, in his bathtub, at the supermarket, and at a construction site.[22][37][38] The video also references the 1984slasher filmA Nightmare on Elm Street with a scene in which Megan Thee Stallion's hand comes out of the man's bathtub andgives him the middle finger, and references the 1980psychological horror filmThe Shining with a room key with the number 237 on it.[30] The video ends with Megan Thee Stallion and the other girls grafting alabia onto his face in place of his mouth.[39]
Andrew Sacher ofBrooklynVegan called the video "very badass, especially followingthe right wing reactions to 'WAP'".[40] Conteh ofRolling Stone described the video as "stylish" and "outrageous", and wrote that it was the best music video to be released this year so far.[16]Esquire's Matt Miller wrote that the video "brilliantly skewers slut-shaming conservatives" and was "a hilarious visualization", also comparing conservativepolitical commentatorsBen Shapiro andTucker Carlson, who commented negatively on "WAP", to the senator in the video.[35] Gabrielle Sanchez ofThe A.V. Club wrote that Megan Thee Stallion addresses "the hypocrisy of sexist, derogatory comments made by men in power" about sexually empowered women "with confidence and plenty of laughs, letting the opinions of men roll off her back with ease".[20] Erica Gonzales ofHarper's Bazaar commented on the video's "absurd, dark humor" and described the visuals as "surreal".Revolt's Jon Powell wrote that the video "successfully mixes Megan's sex appeal with her aggressiveness on the microphone" and "require[s] more than a few replays".[23] ForPopsugar, Navi Ahluwalia called the video "a powerful commentary on the world of online hate", whileUSA Today's Elise Brisco described it as "iconic" and "empowering".[13]Time Out's Andy Kryza called it "pure MTS, an amped up celebration of sex and expression as only the woman behind 'WAP' can muster".[36][41] Allison Hussey ofPitchfork wrote that the video had a "sexy surreality" and praised the "commanding athleticism" of the other women in the video.[30]TechCrunch's Taylor Hatmaker called the video a "a playful but important paean to essential workers" and "a biting commentary on the wealthy white establishment that exploits their labor".[42]
In June 2021,Complex named the video for "Thot Shit" the second-best music video released that year until then, with Eric Skelton calling it "wildly entertaining, powerful, and funny" and stating that the video's ending was "the most memorable scene of the year so far".[43]Pitchfork's Eric Torres listed the video as the best video released in June 2021, describing it as "the new crown jewel in Megan Thee Stallion's run of astounding music videos".[44]
Megan Thee Stallion performed "Thot Shit" at theBET Awards in June 2021,[45] at Rolling Loud Miami in July 2021, atLollapalooza in August 2021, and at ACL (Austin City Limits) Music Festival in Austin, Texas in October 2021.[46][47]
Credits adapted fromTidal.[48]
Weekly charts[edit]
| Year-end charts[edit]
|
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Brazil (Pro-Música Brasil)[66] | Platinum | 40,000‡ |
| New Zealand (RMNZ)[67] | Gold | 15,000‡ |
| United Kingdom (BPI)[68] | Silver | 200,000‡ |
| United States (RIAA)[69] | 2× Platinum | 2,000,000‡ |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. | ||
| Region | Date | Format | Label | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Various | June 11, 2021 |
| [48] | |
| United States | June 15, 2021 | Rhythmic contemporary | [70] |