Hi, everyone. Misthony, Taketano here, the internet's busiest music nerd. It's time for a review of this new Megan Thee Stallion album, Megan.

Here we have a brand new album from Houston native rapper, songwriter, Megan Thee Stallion. It is her third full-length LP, and it sees her at an interesting peak in the midst of her career.

Right now, I don't know if there's anyone in rap music you could say is simultaneously as hated, as discounted, as throttled as Megan is. But by that same token, she has seen such massive success over the past couple of years. Her numbers, her accolades, her ticket sales, the recent distro deal she inked with WMG, which maintains her independent status and allows her to have ownership of her rights and masters. This is all currently adding up into a historical run that after the fact, as the meme says, will most definitely need to be studied.

Megan continues to ride high despite everything that the world seems to have been throwing at her, whether we are talking about the Tori Lanez trial, the shade she was recently given on Drake's 21 Savage collaboration, "Her Loss," or even most recently, we've had one of the biggest female rappers of all time going at Megan's throw in a diss track that pretty much blew up in her face, which, make no mistake, is most definitely something that would have smothered the shine of a lesser artist.

So right now, culturally and commercially, it feels like Megan has reached a point where she is just seemingly unstoppable. And the singles in the lead up to this record most definitely reflected that between all of the snake themes and visuals, kiss, rattle, boa. I mean, this is all coming together into Megan being like a predator who's on the prowl to eat up the next rapper who gets in her way. The fact that she even dropped that Megan's law line that got Nikki in such a tizzy to begin with just shows how confident in her place she feels right now at this moment, that she could say whatever and challenge nearly anyone and come out, for the most part, unscathed.

Some of the bars on these teasers, on these singles, have also have seen Megan writing from a more personal and introspective place, something that she seems to be getting more comfortable with as she is growing into her career. As prior, I think there may have been a lot of pressure to feed the constant demand of fans to just give us summer bops, just give us bangers. As "Cobra," one of the lead singles to this record, and now the closing track to it, was a surprisingly moody song for Megan, again, especially as a single.

So, when I went into this record, I was most definitely crossing my fingers for more content and more material that would give us more insight into everything that has been happening to her contextually, something that emotionally or personally runs a bit deeper than your average Megan bopp. When you actually dig into the album, sometimes you get that and sometimes you don't.

The opening track, which again was a single, and many have heard up until this point, is a charismatic, aggressive, cold-blooded southern rap banger where Megan sounds more confident than ever on the mic. Her charisma, her poise, pretty much everything that made her a compelling artist to begin with five years ago when she had these breakout projects like Tina Snow and Fever, all of that is now fine tuned into what you hear today. It's a great intro track, a great tone setter, and from here we move on to a very strong run that continues through the first leg with tracks that are very cut and dry, very what you see is what you get, but still pretty catchy, as well as energetic, hype, unhinged, sexy, and in your face.

There's "Rattle," where Megan spends more time lyrically firing back at her haters, specifically a few moments that read very much as afterthoughts to the whole beef where Megan is most definitely getting the last laugh. Meanwhile, "Where Them Girls At?" turns the tempo down a bit for a very heavy, bassy anthem whose vocal chops and groove are very much giving "WAP" vibes all over again, but not in a bad way necessarily. Obviously, this is just a sound. It's a vibe that plays to Megan's strengths, and she's just eating it up.

Then later in the album, we switched things up a little bit with "Otaku Hot Girl," which is a cute and sparkly trap pop rap cut where Megan indulges in her long documented love of anime, which doesn't exactly run deep in terms of content, but the 'Jujutsu Kaisen' and 'Naruto' references are still cute.

"Find Out" is very much a 'fuck around and find out' type track where Megan is rapping about pulling another woman's man, being the other woman, and all of the toxicity and weird dynamics that come along with that. Topically, this thing is just where Megan is in her bag. The instrumental features some really glossy and gray synth leeds that stand out really well, too, despite being so sweet and smooth. And that 'insides, ringsize,' rhyme and bar in the hook is definitely one for the history books, too.

Moving on, "Boa," I thought was an okay single from the record, but in the context of the entire tracklist, it is most definitely one of the stronger tracks here. "Accent" with GloRilla, who I'm not usually a huge fan of, has quite a bit of chemistry between Megan and Glow, so much so that I can't really deny it. It turns out into a great conceptually focused track that's essentially a celebration of where Megan and Glow are respectively from. Plus, I think this classic Memphis-flavored beat just sounds incredible.

Not every production choice on the record is fired, though. There's "Paper Together" featuring UGK, where I do think the beat runs a little basic and maybe too stripped back. Still, though, I do think it is fantastic that Megan continues to very openly display a connection to her Southern roots as an artist. It's something that I think continues to go underappreciated about her and her music, as if the sound of it doesn't matter and all the partying and sex and ass shaking is just happening completely out of context. Like there's not an artistic lineage going on here, please. But anyway, even if I do find the instrumental a little underwhelming, Bun B shows out on this verse for sure, with a flow that moves at a great clip. And also, "never heard of monogamy / that shit don't work in a service economy." He's still a very unhinged and very horny man, and I appreciate him for that.

There are a lot of highlights so far on this record, but also a few minor missteps, too. There's "Broke His Heart," which I think is a song a lot of people are taking too, this very hyped up, meaningful, cinematic, epic type instrumental. I'm not exactly sure if this plays to Megan's vibe all that well. It sounds like something that should have gone away with 2009.

Meanwhile, "B.A.S." conceptually and thematically, I think is a great idea. It's this mutually cheating type song where two people are coming together. They're both equally deceitful and horrible. You not only get Megan's side of the story, but also the other dude, too, with a featured verse. But this Jersey club bass style instrumental is not one of the best I've heard in this lane. It feels like Megan is just hopping onto it for the current trend. Meanwhile, Kyle Richh on the track, I just don't think vocally is a match for her energy. His ultra-raspy voice and awkward flow feels like he's just ranting more than he's rapping.

The song "Mamushi" is another cross-cultural moment in the tracklist, and I do like the direction. I like the bilingual bars, but I still think the piano cords and chorus on the track are generally a little too stiff. These moments I did want a little more from. And there are also some other tracks in the second half that I wish were a bit stronger. "Spin" featuring Victoria Monét, is this slick, chill, mild stripper anthem, which is a bit too sleepy for my taste. Or maybe what would have worked is Megan taking a different vocal approach to the track because she's going at it as aggressively as she is any of the louder beats on this record.

Then "Miami Blue" featuring Big K.R.I.T., I was super excited about, mostly because I generally enjoy K.R.I.T.'s music and his feature verses. But I was surprised to see that his performance here was a little understated. Not to mention the fact that while the track is fine, I feel like topically, it doesn't add that much to the record at this point aone-noteacross it do come across a bit one note after a while.

Then "Downstairs DJ," I am a little torn on because I do love I do wholeheartedly support, without question, a masturbation anthem. But maybe for what it is, it's a bit too on the nose. Maybe just a touch bit more innuendo would have made it a bit funnier and cheekier. "Worthy" is maybe my least favorite track on the entire LP, and it's like this pop, rap, funk, guitar, combo-type moment that reads as very Doja Cat-esque, but I feel like Megan going in this direction just displayed how much this vibe is not necessarily her best.

Still, though, I think the record ends decently with "Moody Girl," which is a little bit more topically, emotionally, and thematically what I was hoping for going into the album. Really an introspective moment where Megan is addressing her fears, her anxieties, her concerns, her insecurities.

Then the following "Cobra," obviously, reinforces a lot of those themes, though I will say as a final track on the record, it's not the strongest closer or best way to tie the entire album up, I would say. Overall, though, I will say I do think this record is a general improvement over Megan's last, but I still left it wanting more, maybe some stronger features or some more interesting production choices. I would say more versatility, but for the most part, I feel like Megan tried her hand at that. It's just that it didn't work all the time. More importantly, though, I think Megan definitely could have found more ways to switch things up delivery or flow-wise across the album. I will say after a while, her voice did start to feel very samey toward the end of the record.

One more thing I'll note is that I was shocked once I finished the album, how it felt like despite it being five years since Megan really started to pop off and break through and get out there. I feel like stylistically and artistically, she hasn't evolved quite as much as maybe she could, as there are at least maybe a song or two on this thing that could have easily slipped on to Fever and would have very much sounded in place with everything else there.

But still, with that being said, I feel like this record brings more bops than flops to the table, and Megan is most definitely getting better at showing us different sides of herself and having that play out well across an entire record, which is why I'm feeling a light 7 on this new one.

Anthony Fantano. Megan The Stallion. Forever.