Hiss (song)

"Hiss" is a song by American rapper Megan Thee Stallion from her upcoming third studio album. It was released independently through Hot Girl Productions on January 26, 2024, as the second single from the album.

"Hiss" was met with widespread critical acclaim, with praise for the lyrics and rap flow. The song also attracted media coverage regarding the multiple artists that were indirectly dissed in the lyrics, with a subsequent notable reaction and controversy regarding fellow rapper Nicki Minaj. Commercially, the song debuted at number one on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, marking Megan Thee Stallion's third number-one single as well as her first as a solo artist. It debuted at number one on the ''Billboard'' Global 200, where it became her second number-one single, and made Megan Thee Stallion the first lead female rapper to debut atop the chart. The single additionally charted within the top-20 in Canada and Greece, while reaching the top-40 in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Background

On October 19, 2023, 1501 Certified Entertainment announced that they had reached a settlement with Megan Thee Stallion in her favor, ending a three-plus-year legal battle between the two. After her departure from the label, she founded her own independent label Hot Girl Productions and announced her upcoming third studio album. Megan Thee Stallion released the album's lead single, " Cobra", on November 3, 2023. On January 22, 2024, she announced her follow-up single "Hiss" would be released on January 26 and shared its cover art, depicting her posing with a white snake around her neck. Two days prior to the release of "Hiss", Megan Thee Stallion posted a snippet of its spoken word intro, in which she issues a warning to the song's intended subjects.

Composition

"Hiss" is written by Thee Stallion with long-time co-writers Joel Banks and Shawn "Source" Jarrett, who produced the song with LilJuMadeDaBeat, Bankroll Got It and Derrick Milano. Apart from the spoken word intro, the song features another spoken word break between the first and second verse. Characterized by aggressive and confident delivery, it also notably features no hook.

Lyrics

Publications reported that the lyrics of "Hiss" address different disses towards multiple artists who previously spoke out negatively against Megan. In the opening verse, Megan raps "I feel like Mariah Carey, got these niggas so obsessed/My pussy so famous, might get managed by Kris Jenner next", referencing Carey's 2009 single " Obsessed". Later, she alludes to her shooting in 2020 by Tory Lanez and the subsequent trial, which resulted in the conviction of Lanez and his sentencing to ten years in prison. She speaks about the situation in the lines, "I ain't scared to dig/Any man go against me, I handle shit/I'm the Teflon Don in the court room/They be throwin' that dirt, don't shit stick." Towards fans defending Tory Lanez, Megan suggests that they download JPay, a money transfer service for the United States prison system, to send some money or even that they schedule a " conjugal visit", given all the "dick riding".

Megan Thee Stallion goes on to address Canadian rapper Drake, who previously dissed Megan on his song "Circo Loco" (2022). She raps, "These niggas hate on BBLs and be walkin' 'round with the same scars/Real curvy, no etchin', niggas fight to get in my section/Don't speak on my body count if the dick ain't worth comin' back for seconds/Cosplay gangsters, fake-ass accents." These lines were taken by publications and fans to be disses towards Drake about his scars being the result of a rumored ab surgery, claims previously made by Joe Budden and DJ Carnage. Megan also alleges in the song that her ex Pardison Fontaine can't move on and needs to keep speaking out about Megan to stay relevant with the lines "He can't move on, can't let it go, he hooked, nose full of that Tina Snow/And since niggas need Megan help to make money, bitch, come be my ho."

Megan Thee Stallion further raps the line that "hoes don't be mad at Megan, but they're really mad at "Megan's Law"/I don't know what the problem is but I guarentee ya'll don't want me to start/B*tch you a p*ssy, you never finna check me/every chance you get, bet your weak ass won't address me (ho)". Megan's Law is the name of a federal law that requires registered sex offenders to provide their personal information to local law enforcement agencies. The bars were taken as a diss towards rapper Nicki Minaj by critics, fans, and Minaj herself, due to the fact that she is married to Kenneth Petty and her brother is Jelani Maraj, both registered sex offenders.

Reception

Critics

Chris Malone Méndez of '' Forbes'' found the song "lyrically complete 180 °from the more honest 'Cobra'" and that "a snake theme seems to have been the right choice for Megan's next chapter". Liberty Dunworth of '' NME'' stressed that the rapper "show off her confidence and ability to refuse to give any attention to those trying to drag her down" with her flow, carrying forward the "theme of snakes in her music". Eddie Fu of '' Consequence'' also affirmed that "Megan fires back with venomous lyrics going after the biggest names who called her a liar".

Paul K. Barnes of Medium wrote that "ominous keys carry the melody of the song which are paired with the skittering drums", in which the lyrics express the rapper alter ego Tina Snow with "an aggressive delivery and several flow switches".

Nicki Minaj

Rapper Nicki Minaj took offense to the line "These hoes don't be mad at Megan, these hoes mad at Megan's Law", interpreting it to be directed at her and her husband Kenneth Petty, who is a registered sex offender. In 2019, Petty was sentenced to a year of house arrest along with probation and a $55,000 fine for failing to register as a sex offender in California. Following the release of "Hiss", Minaj almost immediately took to Instagram Live to preview her own song, a diss track directed towards Megan, rapping "Bad bitch, she like 6 foot, I call her Bigfoot/The bitch fell off, I said 'Get up on your good foot'", referencing the 2020 shooting of Megan by Lanez. On the live, Minaj criticized Megan, saying "You have three Grammys and you have to learn how to rap on the beat and being comfortable in the music", before mocking her rap flow. Minaj also liked hundreds of tweets from fans talking negatively about Megan, many of which mocked her for the shooting. Megan posted an Instagram story where she was doubled over with her left hand on her mouth, seemingly laughing at Minaj's response.

In the days following the song's release, Minaj continued to talk about Megan on Instagram Live and Twitter, and continued to like Tweets that spoke negatively of Megan. In a 3,100-character post on Twitter, Minaj stated she did not "condone bullying" before calling Megan a "horrible actor that can't cry on cue" and a "pathological and manipulative liar". In the same post, Minaj bragged about her own success, listing several accolades of her fifth studio album ''Pink Friday 2'' (2023) and comparing the success of her song "Barbie World" for '' Barbie'' (2023) to Megan's songs "Hell No!" for '' The Color Purple'' (2023) and "Not My Fault" for '' Mean Girls'' (2024). She continued by accusing Megan of winning "fraudulent awards", seemingly referencing her Grammy Awards, of which Megan has three and Minaj none, and repeatedly described her as a "flop". Minaj also accused Megan of using ghostwriters for her raps.

Minaj defended her husband Kenneth Petty on Instagram Live and labeled his rape conviction "30-year-old tea from when this man was a 15-year-old child". She further addressed Megan with the words "You bringing up 30-year-old tea cause no man will ever fucking love you, and lying on your dead mother", referencing Megan's mother, who died of brain cancer in March 2019. On the radio app Stationhead, Minaj continued to discuss Megan's mother, as well as Tory Lanez and Megan's former collaborator DaBaby: "You let everyone be thrown under the bus. You let DaBaby be thrown under the bus, Tory, your best friend, your mom... You better go conjure up your mother and apologize. That's disgusting." On Twitter, she called Megan a "disgusting serpant " and shared the lyrics "Megan's Law. For a free beat you could hit #MeganRAW." Tabloid magazine '' TMZ'' alleged that a number of Barbz, Minaj's fandom, leaked the location of the burial site of Megan's mother on social media, and as a result the cemetery notified local authorities and increased the number of security personnel at their facility; however, Minaj refuted that she had encouraged her fans to desecrate the gravesite.

Two days after the song's release, Minaj announced the release of the track " Big Foot", posting the single cover alongside a photo of Megan Thee Stallion crying. However, Minaj claimed the song is not a diss track. A few hours prior to her release of "Big Foot", Minaj disclosed that her team was waiting for LilJuMadeDaBeat "to clear that beat that I've had for 6 years". Minaj then suggested that Megan tried to prevent the diss track from coming out despite the fact she had not "even heard the song". Minaj tweeted, "It's been eadyfor 2 days. Just was tryna be cool & let her get lil streams. Wasn't gon say anything. But remember how everyone kept my name in their mouth and how I said the next person mention my family gon regret it. Btw, they haven't even heard the song. Who said it's even a 'diss?'" The song was delayed further for another six hours before being released on January 29. In "Big Foot", Minaj taunts Megan over her deceased mother, her appearance, and her ex-boyfriend Pardison Fontaine; publications reported that the song was poorly received by fans, who criticized the attacks against Megan as being in bad taste. On the fifth day of Minaj's continued "intense fixation" with Megan following "Hiss", as ''Rolling Stone'' labeled it, she speculated on Twitter Spaces that Megan's management company, Roc Nation, had launched a smear campaign against her and accused Megan of seeking sympathy as a victim of violence to further her career, saying "She wanted a Rihanna moment so bad", an allusion to Chris Brown's 2009 assault on Rihanna.

Kanka family

Tabloid magazine ''TMZ'' reported that Richard Kanka, father of the late Megan Kanka, after whom Megan's Law was named, found the use of the law's name in "Hiss" disrespectful. Kanka admitted to not hearing the track and only reading the lyrics, and reportedly did not want his daughter's name mentioned in an "expletive-riddled song" and is considering pursuing legal options.

Music video

An official music video, directed by Douglas Bernardt, was released on January 26, 2024, through the rapper's YouTube channel. In the video, Megan raps alone with no background dancers or extras. She transitions between several different settings like a "capillary instillation" in front of various screens displaying her image. The music video for the snake-themed song amassed more than 2.1 million views in a day, making it the number-one trending music video on YouTube, with the lyric-only version bringing in 1.2 million views and reaching number three on the trending list.

Commercial performance

"Hiss" was immediately successful in the United States, reaching number one on the US Apple Music singles chart within a day after its release. It also reached number one on the global Apple Music singles chart, her second solo song to do so after "Body" (2020). With "Hiss" and "Body", Megan Thee Stallion became the first female rapper ever to have multiple solo songs reach number one on the global chart. "Hiss" earned 3.2 million on-demand audio streams on its opening day, and fell by 27% to 2.3 million streams by Sunday. Following the release of Nicki Minaj's response diss track "Big Foot" on Sunday, streams of "Hiss" shot up by 60% to 3.8 million on Monday, while "Big Foot" began with a strong debut of 4.1 million streams. However, by Wednesday, "Hiss" was leading "Big Foot" by most real-time metrics, holding the top spot on both Spotify and Apple Music's daily US streaming charts and the number two and three spots on the iTunes chart with multiple other versions in the top 25. While streams of "Hiss" remained high through the week, those of "Big Foot" fell off quickly, with the song only achieving 1.1 million streams in the last day of the tracking week.

"Hiss" officially debuted at number one on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 dated February 10, 2024. It marked Megan Thee Stallion's third number-one song on the chart after "Savage" (2020) featuring Beyoncé and "WAP" (2020) with Cardi B, and her first solo number-one song. Its debut was powered by strong sales and streaming figures of 104,000 digital downloads sold and 29.2 million streams garnered within its first week of availability from January 26 to February 1, as well as 2.9 million radio airplay audience impressions. This led the song to debut atop ''Billboard''s Streaming Songs and Digital Song Sales charts, becoming her fourth number-one single on either chart, after "Savage" and "WAP" on both as well as "Body" on the former and " Bongos" (2023) with Cardi B on the latter. "Hiss" concurrently debuted atop the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot Rap Songs charts, earning Megan Thee Stallion her third number-one song after "Savage" and "WAP". ''Forbes'' noted that the song's performance was boosted by the feud with Nicki Minaj and the release of multiple versions, although it remained above Minaj's "Big Foot" on Spotify and Apple Music charts throughout the tracking week.

"Hiss" also debuted at number one on the ''Billboard'' Global 200 dated February 10, 2024. The song achieved 39.6 million streams and 99,000 sold worldwide within its first week of availability from January 26 to February 1. With "Hiss", Megan Thee Stallion became the first female rapper in a lead role to debut atop the chart. It also marked her second number-one song on the chart after "WAP". "Hiss" was the most US-centric global number-one song until that point, with 73% of its streams and 95% of its sales coming from the country. It debuted at number 104 on the ''Billboard'' Global Excl. US dated February 10, 2024, achieving 10.8 million streams outside the US within its first week of availability.

Track listing

* Streaming/digital download
# "Hiss" (explicit) – 3:12
# "Hiss" (clean) – 3:12
# "Hiss" ( chopped 'n screwed; explicit) – 4:26
# "Hiss" (chopped 'n screwed; clean) – 4:26
# "Hiss" ( instrumental) – 3:12
# "Hiss" (DJ edit; explicit) – 2:55
# "Hiss" (DJ edit; clean) – 2:55

Charts

Release history

See also

* List of ''Billboard'' Global 200 number ones of 2024
* List of ''Billboard'' Global 200 top-ten singles in 2024
* List of ''Billboard'' Hot 100 number ones of 2024
* List of ''Billboard'' Hot 100 number-one singles of the 2020s
* List of ''Billboard'' Hot 100 top-ten singles in 2024
* List of ''Billboard'' Digital Song Sales number ones of 2024
* List of ''Billboard'' Streaming Songs number ones of 2024

References

{{Megan Thee Stallion

2024 singles
2024 songs
Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles
Billboard Global 200 number-one singles
Diss tracks
Megan Thee Stallion songs
Nicki Minaj
Obscenity controversies in music