Megan Thee Stallion is free. Last week, Billboard reported that Hot Girl Meg’s years-long legal battle against her label, 1501 Certified Entertainment, and its president, Carl Crawford, had “mutually reached a confidential settlement to resolve their legal differences.” That resulted in Megan and 1501 agreeing to “amicably part ways.”
This week, Megan has continued setting the stage for her first act as an independent artist. On Monday, October 23, she posted an Instagram video hinting at an imminent new album. The frame is all black with the exception of a spotlight on Meg’s mouth, as she says, “Just as a snake sheds its skin, we must shed our past over and over again.” She is then revealed to have snake eyes and fangs, hissing and rattling, while the screen displays the words “A story by Megan Thee Stallion” and “directed by Douglas Bernardt.” The Instagram caption reads, “ACT ONE [snake emoji].”
On October 12, Meg posted three sequential Instagram photos that, when pieced together on her grid, read, “ACT ONE.” It should be noted that the “O” in “ONE” is a red snake. On the same day, Megan Thee Stallion went live on Instagram and shared that she is not currently signed to a label and is “so excited to be doing something for the first time independently since it was just me and my momma.” She added, “We’re doing everything funded straight out of Megan Thee Stallion’s pockets. So, the budget is coming from me. Motherf*cking Hot Girl Productions! The next sh*t y’all about to see is all straight from Megan Thee Stallion’s brain and Megan Thee Stallion’s wallet.”
All signs point toward Megan introducing the follow-up album to August 2022’s Traumazine. In September, she told Billboard that new music was “definitely coming very soon,” but Hotties are still waiting on an official album announcement.
Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.