good news – The Concordian

Megan Thee Stallion continues to show that she’s a great rapper even if that means she hasn’t made a great album just yet.

From the first few seconds of “Shots Fired,” the very first track of Megan Thee Stallion’s Good News, it became abundantly clear that the Texas-born rapper isn’t taking kindly to being disrespected anymore. A few months ago, Megan was at the center of a massive controversy when she claimed that Torey Lanez shot her in the foot. Lanez then responded by saying she lied and he didn’t shoot her which led to her being constantly scrutinized on social media. The now-ridiculed Toronto rapper then took it upon himself to release a whole album dedicated to slandering Megan. So what did she do? She retaliated with one of this year’s most searing songs.

Megan’s rapping on the aforementioned track is cutthroat, vicious, and very much angry. And why shouldn’t she be? Since her breakout mixtape Fever, she’s proved over and over again that her rapping skills are among the best in the industry right now. Though she channels this energy through much of her debut album, at times she seems to be a better rapper than album artist.

Good News is made up of hits, for better or for worse. On “Body,” Megan crafts an annoyingly catchy hook built for the TikTok machine. It’s simple and couples with a dance move sure to ruin people’s knees, but the repetitive “Body-ody-ody-ody” will only be attractive for so long before it becomes the world’s most overplayed song. Still, even with these issues, Megan’s verses are as sharp as they’ve been.

The 25-year old rapper shines brightest when she avoids attempting to make pop-music and when she doubles down on her hypersexual aggressive flows like on “Do It On The Tip” with City Girls. The track is expectedly raunchy but packs a fiery punch as the southern rappers all fit together as perfectly as one could imagine.

“Circles” features a beautiful sample of “Holding You Down (Goin’ in Circles)” from Jazmine Sullivan and sees Megan rapping some of her best verses on the album. It also features a better hook, something Megan struggles with.

Megan’s collaboration with SZA on the exquisite “Freaky Girls” is the apex of the album. SZA’s rare appearance is a sight to behold and she sings the best hook on the album with a fervour that only makes me want to hear her new project that much more.

For as much as Megan does right on this album, Good News is burdened with a few lazy attempts at making pop tracks that simply don’t work that well. “Don’t Rock Me To Sleep” is a boring autotuned affair that adds nothing to the Megan Thee Stallion story. It’s a retread on her sexual lyrics masked by a glittery pop instrumental. “Intercourse” sees Megan collaborating with Popcaan on what sounds like a leftover track from Drake’s Views sessions. Popcaan’s vocals are decent and fit the theme of hypersexuality, but Megan’s crossover into dancehall is unnatural.

The album effectively ends with “Outside” (the three tracks following it are previously-released singles that one could call bonus tracks) which is akin to Drake’s reflective outros on each of his projects. It’s reflective and insanely confident which only points to a brighter future for Megan. If she can start cutting the fat on her albums and removing her attempts at going pop, then perhaps she has a classic album in her.

Until then, we’ll have to deal with yet another good Megan Thee Stallion project with only a few blemishes. She continues to prove that she’s a great rapper who’s just shy of achieving greatness as an artist.

Rating 7.5/10

Trial Track: “Shots Fired”

Striking a balance between good news and bad

Why The Goodnewspaper’s disregard of the negative isn’t the solution to improving society

So, what do you want to hear first: the good news or the bad news?

With all that is upsetting in the world today, from natural disasters and terrorism to politics and
everyday life, it’s understandable that many people feel powerless whenever they see the news. The scales of justice and equality seem to be tipped down, and it’s getting hard to imagine they could ever lift back up. A new quarterly publication called The Goodnewspaper aims to change this by only printing “good news.”

What falls under this category are mainly stories about people who “[cut] through the negativity by doing something different. They focus on hope and goodness and happiness,” according to the newspaper’s founder, Branden Harvey, on his podcast, Sounds Good. The idea is to motivate and inspire readers by sharing these positive stories, and help them see the world in a more positive way. The Goodnewspaper also offers a weekly newsletter that claims to feature the most inspiring and positive news from around the globe. Although this may sound like a good idea in theory, it certainly isn’t in reality.

Ultimately, I don’t think this newsletter should be seen as a legitimate news source, given it is censored to purposely avoid any bad news. In an attempt to avoid upsetting readers, The Goodnewspaper fails to tackle everyday issues like unproportional government services, poverty and injustice. Instead, it focuses solely on stories about people who have used a positive outlook to change their life.

The Goodnewspaper targets people looking for hope rather than negative news. Yet the problem with only hearing about success stories is they can make other shortcomings look colossal in comparison. It can be hard for everyday people to relate to these grand success stories, especially if they don’t have the same resources or opportunities. This newspaper brings attention to the fact that it’s a privileged idea to think everyone has time, money and physical abilities to do good deeds. The truth is, not a lot of people do.

In contrast, local and national news report things that affect regular people. These outlets reinforce the idea that, as a community, we are all partly responsible for what happens around us. It’s hard to hear about tragedies, to learn about the low points of society and to wonder how to make the world a better place. And remaining an informed citizen in today’s fast-paced world doesn’t make any of this easier. But being aware about bad situations is a good thing. It’s what gets people motivated to change the situations around them.

The news today may seem negative, but it’s important to remember the stories being told are ones we need to be talking about. And contrary to what The Goodnewspaper suggests, most of the news stories published or broadcasted aren’t meant to make people feel bad. Rather, exposing yourself to the bad news is an opportunity to learn about your community and question what can be changed.

People who stress out about world events would certainly benefit from this newsletter, but there are also a lot of people who will use it to ignore their responsibilities. It can be hard to motivate yourself to be an agent for change, but avoiding reality will limit your ability to question why things happen and make it harder to change these bad news stories into good ones.

We shouldn’t cut negativity out of our lives—we should learn from it. Every serious news story directly affects real people, and reading The Goodnewspaper won’t fix their problems. The truth is, there will never be a perfect balance between good and bad news, but as a society, we need both to survive.

Graphic by Zeze Le Lin