Prior to Megan Thee Stallion becoming a rap powerhouse dominating the charts, she was an unknown rhymer from Houston looking to make a name for herself. One of her early videos caught the eye of A Tribe Called Quest’s Q-Tip, which led to The Abstract inviting Meg to NYC to have her meet with various labels in 2018.
Even with Q-Tip’s co-sign and having an insignia deal with Columbia himself, both Columbia Records and Def Jam Records didn’t have much interest in signing her for varying reasons, including video analytics and social media data.
“The head of the company wasn’t there, Ron Perry, I guess he was detained, but we took the meeting anyways,” he explained during a recent episode of Math Hoffa’s My Expert Opinion. “We sit at the meeting, it’s great. The dude comes back, ‘We saw the views, she’s good, we saw the views and everything, it was whatever. We could give her like $30,000.’ Just say you don’t wanna fucking sign her, B. Don’t fucking embarrass me like that.”
The New York City legend was appalled that his co-sign didn’t work to push a deal through with a track record of previous co-signs that included J Dilla, Nas, and Redman.
“I was like, ‘I can’t do it.’ I guess the co-sign is not working anymore,” Q-Tip admitted. “The co-sign is kinda flimsy now because they rely on data.”
Three years later, Megan Thee Stallion has blossomed into a rap titan and is one of the biggest names in mainstream Hip Hop. Her decorated résumé also boasts three Grammy Award victories and a pair of Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hits to her name.
Of course, Q-Tip had high hopes for the Houston Hottie and he shoves her success in the faces of Columbia’s label heads whenever he gets the chance.
“N-gga, you know I give them the fucking blues all the time,” he joked. “I be sending the n-gga Ron Perry shit of her on the cover of shit, Grammy’d-out shit. I’m always hitting ’em with that.”
Megan Thee Stallion & Snoop Dogg Adding Hip Hop To ‘The Addams Family’ Rollout
On the record label side, Meg continued her deal with 1501 Certified Entertainment, which she’s publicly criticized and is currently trying to get out of, along with signing to 300 Ent. and now has enlisted Roc Nation for her management side of ventures.
Watch Q-Tip’s entire interview below.
We live in a data-driven society, where you don’t get to use your wit and gut feelings about things….
Exactly! Which is why we get faulty products, boring movies, cacaphonus music, depressing TV and horrible politicians. Enjoy dumbasses.
Hip Hop has created its own Westworld. More so the corporations. I think everybody should go indie to create a glitch in the Matrix, while supporting each other, radio stations…etc. look at what it’s become. Even websites are sold out. Gone are the Rawkus, Loud Records and so forth. The artists did this. 2 generations did this. We could’ve been the absolute eff to the corporations. But people within the groups sold out as well. Can’t blame them. They getting paid.
A lot of fake money floating around pumping up bs. Let the market crash and the economy fall. It’ll wipe out the riff raff.
Why do rap artist always beg labels and award shows???? If Q-tip thought she was so dope he should have been in a position to sign her himself. Also Carl Crawford help put her own now she treats him like he never did anything for her, just because she doesn’t like the deal she originally signed.
Tip isn’t an A&R, isn’t an exec, and doesn’t have his own label…that why he has to give the co-sign. Not that it matters anyway…the industry got a hold of Megan now and it will spit her out, just like the rest of these new rappers.
qtip a real one and a legend!
Hmm, so no Tory Lanez fans here? Nobody calling Megan a male horse or talking about her feet? *sees Q-Tip in headline* Interesting… *takes notes*
highly doubt if megan came out wth Tip’s co-sign she would have the same hoe-ed up image like today
Qtip used to be a hiphop purist. Now he’s lobbying for some untalented ho bag. Wonder what happened to him.
Untalented GTFOH hating a on a black woman
Why is it always about race? She’s a disgusting shut peddler. Instead of defending her why don’t you defend someone worthwhile? She’s the lowest, most cringeworthy from of entertainment and yet you defend her like she’s family.
Noname, Little Simz, Sa-Roc, Che Noir >>>>
Nothing to do with sex or race but with talent and art
Rap industry is a waste of time. Dudes like Q Tip was always too good for the reality of hip hop. Unfortunately it was guys like him back in the day that made others believe hip hop was worth something more than it became.
Labels are essentially worthless outside of distribution… no more artist development, they just want a finished product to make money from
Dont you love how even a cosign from a legend like Q tip cant convince the misogynists on this site that this lady is talented? Big Sean talked about his dick for 3 albums and y’all ate that shit up.
Oh you want it to be like that? You think this shit only happens to women? You analyze Big Sean’s lines while championing who’s? It’s funny that you would make this into a whole political thing, then bring up the male rapper that has had a VERY similar pathway as Meg. Signed by major artist (Kanye/Jay), thrown in with the best names of the time, and then lower sales than anticipated because people gravitated more to other artists. The difference between Meg and Big Sean is up until this point Meg only plays the industry game and blows up over stories that have nothing to do with music. That’s why when Big Sean went introspective for his 18mil Spotify listeners they actually listened to it and he sold the exact same as Meg who has 36 mil followers. Megs own fans don’t listen to her so quit crying misogyny when she doesn’t even try to make real music. Roc Nation poured 10’s of millions into Megs marketing and that shit went number 2. Maybe this label guy was right.
Megan a one trick pony though.