The line, “These hoes don’t be mad at Megan / These hoes mad at Megan’s Law” dropped jaws by calling out alleged predators in the industry and those who have stood up for them. (Megan’s Law refers to state and federal laws that require public sex offender registries.)
Megan Thee Stallion didn’t name any names on “HISS,” but many listeners believed it was obvious that the song alluded to registered sex offender Kenneth Petty, who is married to Nicki Minaj.
Minaj went on a weekend-long warpath that culminated in the release of “Bigfoot,” a diss track that responds to the perceived reference to her husband’s criminal history with allegations that Megan Thee Stallion sleeps around and references Megan Thee Stallion's dead mother.
At some point, Erykah Badu was unwittingly dragged into all of this.
Badu has been close with Megan Thee Stallion in the past. Most notably, she made a surprise appearance at a Megan Thee Stallion show in Switzerland to show off her twerking skills.
On Saturday, Badu shared a photo of Megan Thee Stallion to her Instagram with no comment. Fans of Minaj interpreted this as Badu picking a side in the feud.
Then, in a bizarre twist, Badu was brought into a Spaces conversation on X hosted by Nicki Minaj stan accounts in an attempt to hold her accountable for purportedly disrespecting Minaj. It’s unclear how Badu came to be invited on the call, but she appears to have called the host back. Badu sounds just as confused as we are on the call.
“I didn’t appreciate you liking that shady post about Nicki Minaj when you she’s the queen of rap,” says X user ItsLeKid, co-host of the conversation.”
“Y’all are crazy,” Badu replies with a laugh before giving the host suggestions for better uses of his time, such as taking a bath or calling his mother to say hello. ItsLeKid clarifies that he already lives with his mother, before steering the conversation back to finding out why Badu, as he sees it, has a problem with Minaj.
For most of the conversation about Minaj, Badu’s responses are unintelligible as ItsLeKid talks over her, repeating phrases like “queen of rap” and “No. 1 album of the year” until the words lose meaning. If Badu actually said anything about Minaj during this portion of the conversation, we’ll never know.
Eventually, she manages to tell ItsLeKid that she doesn’t know Nicki Minaj. He insists that she does, claiming he’s seen her referencing her songs before, repeating “high heels on my tippies” (a lyric from recent Minaj single "FTCU") multiple times as Badu becomes increasingly confused.
The conversation culminates with ItsLeKid giving Badu a message to relay to Megan Thee Stallion.BARBZ DONE FOUND ERYKAH BADU’S NUMBER 😭😭😭✌🏾 pic.twitter.com/55AmftV8z9
— ❄️🗝️ (@DiaryOfKeysus) January 28, 2024
“She needs to watch her mouth when speaking on the queen of rap,” he says.
“Who’s the queen of rap again?” Badu responds without missing a beat.
“Bitch, you know who ... ” ItsLeKid says before catching himself. “I mean … I mean … my bad. My bad.”
Badu then corrects him on his use of the word “bitch,” claiming it should be used as an endearing word and even taking the time to define the word “endearing” for him.
ItsLeKid went on to claim that he and Badu were “just trolling each other” and said he was afraid that his mom would find out he called Badu “the B-word.” Badu’s only response to his many tweets on the matter were the numbers “55515.”
A quick Google search for this number reveals that some believe repeating it can reduce pain. For those who antagonize Dallas’ most high-profile witch, that number may come in handy. Last time she got angry online, she called rapper Blueface "trash," and his life took a dive through the dumpster.