Megan Thee Stallion becomes the protagonist of her own video game in the third single from her upcoming album, 'BOA'. Continuing the serpentine theme after 'Cobra' and 'HISS', the Texas rapper has taken the opportunity to sample one of Gwen Stefani's key songs, at half throttle, and continue her bad vibes with Nicki Minaj.
On 'BOA', Megan raps about her success in the rap industry, but puts practically the entire focus of the song on her haters. Specifically, Nicki Minaj. “Whores don't stop hitting the keyboard / But I've never felt pressured / It's obvious that they're obsessed,” Megan raps, clearly referencing the entire string of tweets that Nicki recently dedicated to her for the release of 'HISS'. In fact, the entire chorus goes to the author of 'Pink Friday 2', aimed at taking away her position as 'Queen of Hip Hop': “Doing shit for Tik Tok, bitch, I am Hip Hop.”
All this, over a sample of 'What You Waiting For?' by Gwen Stefani, one of the most remembered of her. The part that Megan borrows is the “la la la” that also repeats throughout Stefani's song. For the rest, it is a standard trap base, quite skeletal. With all the play she could have given, the sample remains more like a funny anecdote than something powerful. Aside from this, Megan always performs perfectly in this type of beats, and 'BOA' is no exception.
At the same time, it is a declaration of intent on Megan's part. It works as a provocation for Nicki (the 'What are you waiting for?' and as a nod to her own video clip, which shares Japanese aesthetics with Stefani's. The difference is that Megan's is set in a fictional video game called 'The Curse of the Snake Woman' and has anime as its central inspiration. In fact, the title of 'BOA' is a reference to a One Piece character.
