Megan Thee Stallion climbed her way to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 thanks to the release of “Hiss” earlier this year, and she has now provided some insight into its backstory.
In an interview with L’Officiel that was published on Wednesday (May 29), the Houston Hottie expanded on how she conceived the song and what it represents to her in hindsight.
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“I absolutely did not know it was going to do all of that!” she began, referring to its immediate success. “I had no clue that was going to happen. I had been holding in feelings for a while. I felt like everybody was kicking me when I was down.
“It felt good to finally be able to just talk my talk because I was in a place where I was so down, and I didn’t want to do anything to disrupt any kind of peace. I felt like, Oh, Megan Thee Stallion, everybody hates you right now. Don’t you say a word. Just be quiet.”
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She continued: “I felt so awful every day. It was such a hard place to get out of. I don’t even want to care who hates me, really. What I should be focusing on is the love that I do receive. That’s what I’m trying to get better about now. Everything is not going to be great all the time. If I’m going to be here for the cheers, I got to be here for the boos.”
She also opened up about women in her line of work have to be passive and submissive.
“For female rappers, there’s a line that you don’t want to cross,” she said. “You want to be Miss Congeniality. You want to be well liked by everyone. You want to be the baddest, you want to be the best, but you want to do it the right way.
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She added: “I did have to learn that there is no right way. Whoever you are, be that. If you crazy, be crazy. If you nice, be nice. If you mean, be mean. If you sad, be sad. Whatever your lane is, just be that. Be your real true self.”
When asked if her new album will be on the same wavelength as the song in question, the 29-year-old rapper explained that she has a number of other emotions to channel beside anger.
“‘Hiss’ was me just getting the things that I had to say off my chest,” she said. “I’m really not focused on the negativity on my album. I have a lot of different songs on the album because my emotion doesn’t stop at anger. My emotion doesn’t stop at sadness because I did grow and I did start feeling more things.
“I started feeling really happy. So you have songs on the album that are about the positive times that I’m starting to have. You get a little bit of everything. You get all the emotions in there.
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Likewise, she hinted at transcending the snake theme of her recent songs like “BOA,” “Hiss” and “Cobra,” saying: “We don’t just stop at the snake. This is just what everybody sees right now. Renewal, rebirth: that is the whole concept of this [album]. We started with the snake because, first of all, I love snakes, but I feel like snakes are so misunderstood, especially in western culture.
“Snakes represent rebirth, spirituality. I’m not really a person that’s like, Oh my God, sunshine and just super bubbly, happy. I like darker things. I like things that are a little scary. I like things that are unique. I picked the snake because … it’s kind of like an antihero.”
