With unstoppable performances on her 2019 mixtape
Fever, Houston rapper
Megan Thee Stallion exploded onto the charts and moved to the front of the line in terms of rap stardom. Her rhymes were brazen, dripping with confidence, and sexually charged to the point of shocking.
Fever was a powerful portrait of
Megan midway on her rise to fame, a rapper in complete control who hadn't lost the ability to have fun with her craft. Things changed quickly in the short time between
Fever and 2020's brief EP
Suga. Exponentially more famous and more scrutinized than when she arrived just a few years earlier,
Megan Thee Stallion faced issues with her record label that held up the release of a proper debut album. Even with just the nine tracks here, there's a definite change in tone. Where the songs on
Fever and earlier mixtape
Tina Snow orbited mainly around sex, power, money, and partying, many lines on
Suga address the stress and loneliness that often accompany newfound stardom. Album opener "Ain't Equal" is nearly somber compared to the overblown sex rhymes the rapper made her name on, with fierce flows dedicated to putting haters and detractors in their place. The moody "Stop Playing" sounds antisocial and distant, with an eerie bell sample and a slippery guest verse from
Gunna. The audacity and blush-inducing sexuality of earlier work isn't missing from
Suga by any means. Rowdy and raw, "Captain Hook" packs more X-rated one-liners into a song than should be legally allowed. Elsewhere, tracks like the sung R&B "Crying in the Car" or the G-funk throwback "Hit My Phone" make bids for pop accessibility, but they're weaker offerings than songs where
Megan focuses on her gift for ruthless flows.
Suga is an odd collection of both styles and emotional statements. Just as
Fever captured a snapshot of a young artist breaking through to worldwide fame in real time,
Suga finds
Megan Thee Stallion experiencing the growing pains of success. The songs reflect this in their lyrical content, overall shift in tonality, and even in the small steps they take towards more commercial sounds.