Maybe because the pressure of having to release rando singles all the time instead of complete, well-thought out records in the style of, say, Lil’ Kim’s La Bella Mafia, means less attention to caliber over time, we’re now faced with “Girls in the Hood.” As Megan Thee Stallion’s latest single, it doesn’t quite pack the same punch as her last one: “Savage (Remix)” featuring Beyoncé. Despite sampling/paying homage to Eazy-E’s 1987 hit, “Boyz-n-the-Hood,” it strays too much toward “originality” to carry the same weight. And while some would tend to think that’s a good thing, in this case it is not, for Megan could’ve used the same bolstering she got when borrowing more heavily from 2Pac’s “Rather Be Ya N.I.G.G.A.” for “B.I.T.C.H.” from the Suga EP.
To the point of white boy vibes (at least from a sonic standpoint), at a mere two minutes and thirty-five seconds, the production of the song is more rock-influenced than we’re accustomed to hearing from Megan. Produced by IllaDaProducer and Scott Storch, the overwrought guitar riffs don’t lend the “hard edge” they’re intended to, so much as something like a bad interpretation of Run DMC and Aerosmith joining up for “Walk This Way.”
With a lyric video that grafts its aesthetic straight out of the early 00s MySpace playbook, Megan Thee Stallion also interweaves elements of some kind of ghetto fab Cher Horowitz into the visuals. In all honesty, the video’s graphics bring more joy than the song itself, with Megan appearing in the MGM logo at one point to parade her greatest physical asset.
Even though Thee Stallion gives her usual (and, by now, somewhat tired) flexes about being a “bad bitch” and being a “hot girl” who does “hot shit,” it isn’t enough to make the song slap. Least of all with a half-assed chorus like, “Spend his income on my outfit/I don’t text quick ’cause I ain’t thirsty/These bitches mad, mad, they wanna hurt me.” Eh, that don’t impress Nicki or Cardi much, and Megan is going to have to step up her game on the next arbitrarily released single if she still wants to be classified among their leagues (even though, let’s be honest, the ultimate MC/verse dropper will always be one, Missy Elliott).
