It’s been a long road to the arrival of Megan Thee Stallion’s debut studio album, Good News.
After the release of several mixtapes and EPs, the Houston rapper encountered label drama in 2020 that disrupted her release plans. Then, of course, she had to deal with a shooting and all the noise that followed. But today, Megan shifted the attention back to her music with a 17-song debut album that features an A-list collection of guest stars like SZA, DaBaby, City Girls, 2 Chainz, Big Sean, Young Thug, and Beyoncé.
In the immediate wake of its release, the opening song, “Shots Fired,” is getting the majority of the attention online, but there’s a lot more music here to get into. So, after a few initial spins, the Complex Music team put together a list of first impressions and takeaways. Below are the six biggest takeaways from Megan Thee Stallion’s Good News.
She didn't hold back on "Shots Fired"
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Megan wastes no time addressing her shooting incident on Good News. On “Shots Fired,” the album’s opening track, she takes direct aim at Tory Lanez, rapping, “Imagine niggas lyin’ about shootin’ a real bitch/ A pussy nigga with a pussy gun in his feelings.” She also responds to Tory’s previous comments regarding the shooting on social media (as well as on his album, wehre he questioned the validity of her story). “You shot a 5’10” with a .22/ Talking bout bones and tendons like them bullets wasn’t pellets/ A pussy nigga with a pussy gun in his feelings,” she raps. Later, she finishes by saying, “should’ve let them lock your ass up,” which suggests she had some regrets about not telling the police who shot her on the night of the incident. And, of course, she rapped the whole thing over a sample of The Notorious B.I.G.’s single “Who Shot Ya,” which is honestly just *muah* (chef’s kiss). —Jessica McKinney
Megan can f***ing rap (in case you forgot)
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There are so many storylines surrounding Meg right now that it’s easy to forget what impressed us all about her in the first place: she’s really fucking good at rapping. From the very first song on Good News, Megan reminds us of her skills as an MC over and over. There aren’t many rappers right now who sound as good in the pocket as Meg does, especially when she’s rapping over bouncy, hard-hitting beats like “Shots Fired” and “Do It On the Tip.” And she pairs this with witty songwriting throughout the album, dropping hilarious bars like, “I told him, ‘You're not poppin', you just on the remix,’” referencing Tory Lanez’ appearance on Jack Harlow’s “What’s Poppin” remix. Megan makes club records so effortlessly that she’s elevated herself to the realm of pop stars, which sometimes overshadows her talents as an MC. But throughout Good News, she makes it extremely clear she’s a great rapper before anything else. A song like “Shots Fired” is going to get attention because of the tabloid fodder, but sitting under all of that is a ferocious flow and excellent first-person storytelling. —Eric Skelton
This needs to be played outside
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Megan had a few things to get off her chest on “Shots Fired,” but she doesn’t dwell on the shooting for too long. The album is called Good News, after all. The tracklist is peppered with uptempo twerk anthems like the vibrant “Body” and the City Girls-assisted single “Do It on the Tip.” Even on tracks like “Freaky Girls” and “Sugar Baby,” which slow things down just a little, you can tell that Megan is having fun. She’s in a confident, celebratory mood. This definitely isn’t a project you want to play while lounging around in the house. Good News is clearly an album that needs to be heard outside. She supplies a lot of quality twerk music, but Megan also doesn’t forget to throw in some records that remind fans of her vicious skills as a rapper. On tracks like “Shots Fired,” “What’s New,” and “Girls in the Hood,” she unleashes an aggressive and relentless flow, which is reminiscent of her recent Megan Monday series and the freestyles that put her on the map in the early stages of her career. One thing is clear: “Freestyle Meg” is nothing to play with. —Jessica McKinney
The samples are used well
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There are some great samples on the album, and Meg uses them thoughtfully and strategically throughout. She begins by sampling The Notorious B.I.G.’s 1994 single “Who Shot Ya?” on “Shots Fired,” which addresses Tory Lanez and her July shooting. “Circles,” the album’s second track may sound like a twerk record, but it samples Jazmine Sullivan’s 2010 relationship song “Holding You Down (Goin’ in Circles) on a sped-up loop. On “Freaky Girls,” Juicy J really puts his foot into the production, sampling Adina Howard’s 1995 single “Freak Like Me.” And later on “Go Crazy,” Megan mixes Motown with hip-hop, borrowing snippets from The Jackson 5’s “ABC” and Naughty By Nature’s “O.P.P.” The budget to clear all these samples must have been huge. —Jessica McKinney
It loses some momentum in an uneven second half
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Megan comes out of the gates extremely strong on Good News, but she’s unable to carry the momentum throughout the full album. Like most projects this year, it would have benefited from a little trimming. A tight 10-song tracklist may have made a bigger impact. It’s clear she set out to show her versatility, but the melodic-leaning songs like “Don’t Rock Me to Sleep” don’t work as well as the straight-ahead rap records. As mentioned above, the rapping on this album is excellent, but the biggest room for improvement for Meg lies in executing better hooks (and putting together a more cohesive, consistent tracklist). If she grows into this on future albums, she’ll continue her ascent upwards. —Eric Skelton
Megan did what she needed to do
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This album isn’t perfect. Like Fever, Suga, and Tina Snow, it soars to very high highs, but it has flaws as a complete project. Still, Good News will achieve what Megan was looking for. After a year spent dealing with a shooting and label drama, she was finally able to put out a triumphant debut studio album that shifted the attention back to her music. Some fans will be disappointed she didn’t get more personal on some of these songs, but it’s clear that’s not the kind of album she was trying to make. This is a fun, upbeat album. There are going to be a handful of songs on here that blow up on TikTok and turn into streaming monsters, making for an overall successful release. It’s not a top-to-bottom classic, leaving her room to grow on the follow-up, but it’s a nice bow on the end of a year that solidified her place in the upper-tier of mainstream artists. —Eric Skelton
