Megan Thee Stallion’s “quarantine girl summer” is turning out to be the hottest season of all. The Houston rapper had her first No. 1 single, as well as an EP reach the top 10. It was all capped on Sunday (June 28), when she delivered a sexy performance for the socially distant BET Awards.
Megan’s pre-recorded performance began with her newest single, “Girls in the Hood,” which released on Friday (June 26). She appeared out of a Mad Max fantasy: Rolling up in a desert scene on the back of a stripped-down motorbike, she wore knee-high lace-up boots and an S&M bralette decked out with silver O-rings; her shoulders were covered with red and black feathers, while her long hair streamed behind. As the lyrics to the song suggested: “I’m a hot girl / I do hot shit / Spend his income / On my outfit.”
While lonesome oil cans sat in the background and graffiti-kissed train cars whizzed by, Megan and her crew of dancing, road-warrior vixens finished the song, then hopped onto skull-decorated four-wheelers, resetting the scene. The rapper segued into her hit single, “Savage.”
Standing atop a structure of metal bars and flimsy netting, Megan twerked before a Black fist, while a sign at the structure’s base read, “Black Lives Matter.” Though Beyoncé, whose addition made the “Savage” remix a breakout hit, didn’t join the performance itself, her disembodied voice sang its part. Megan finished out the performance ghost-riding a deconstructed sports car, which appeared as a metallic peacock driven by a masked chauffeur. The whole performance read as some afrofuturist apocalypse; the revolution was already here, and in this landscape, freedom and music reigned.
Prior to taking the stage, Megan accepted the award for best female hip-hop artist. She is also up for best collaboration, video of the year, album of the year, and viewer’s choice award; she tied Roddy Rich for second-most nominations, with five nods, trailing Drake, with six.
