Did ‘WAP’ Just Open Up A Huge Pandora’s Box?

Just last week, Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion arrived with their rather tantalizing dish, ‘WAP’. The tune was accompanied by its very own music video and in no time, it became the talk of the town.

With its groovy flow and swift change of pace, the tune highlights the starkly different rap styles adopted by both women. In their previous numbers, both Cardi and Megan have dabbled in heavily sexual lyrical content, and ‘WAP’ finds a space there.

Now, with every new release comes a barrage of both positive and negative feedback. While fans of both artists have shared their excitement over this collaboration, ‘WAP’ has also fallen victim to a lot of criticism. Predictably, some of this revolves around the provocative, overtly sexual nature of the tune. Others point to the supposed “animal abuse” that took place for the music video shoot. Also making it to this list is the hate revolving around Kylie Jenner’s cameo in the video.

And so, in light of all this talk – here’s a closer look at the various issues buzzing around ‘WAP’.

‘WAP’ Is Heavily Sexual. So What?

Now, as expected, a number of people found this listen extremely uncomfortable. If a song’s soundscape and lyrical content doesn’t click with you, that’s completely alright. ‘WAP’ isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. And yet, there are still people who decided to share their opinions on the toxic social media web, detailing how “problematic” the song is.

Many believe that this song discusses women in a derogatory fashion. Its explicit detail of sex and the body have resulted in a lot of disapproving glances. But that begs the question. Would this much disapproval exist if a male rapper were to spit these very rhymes? Perhaps not.

In response to these haters, Cardi B shared a selfie video wherein she defended the song’s content and delivered (as the kids say) the clapback of the century. Cardi opened the video with a rather amusing line, “First of all, I rap about p***y because she my best friend, and second of all it’s because it seems like that’s what people wanna hear. I ain’t even gonna front because let me tell you something: when I did ‘Be Careful,’ people was talking mad s**t in the beginning like, ‘What the f**k is this? This is not what I expected. I expected this, I expected that.’ So it’s like if that’s what people aren’t trying to hear then alright, I’m going to start rapping about my p***y again.”

Now, just for some context, Cardi’s ‘Be Careful’ is a thoughtful look at a troubled relationship. It ropes in a number of issues from selfishness to disrespect to a complete lack of trust – all steadily growing within a toxic relationship.

Cardi then concluded her rant with an important message. She pointed out that there are a number of other female artists who choose not to rap about pleasure and intimacy, and yet, noone seems to be paying attention to them. Cardi delivered her final blow with, “So don’t blame that shit on us when y’all not the ones supporting them.”

‘WAP’ & Tigers: A Complex Relationship

Now, this issue erupted when Carol Baskin criticized the use of big cats in the music video. Carol has become quite a household name after the release of Netflix’s ‘Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness’ docuseries. According to her, the two primary issues with ‘WAP’ was the way in which the big cats had to be trained in order to be filmed and the constant association of owning an animal like this when one is swimming in wealth.

While she was glad that none of the cats were actually brought into the rooms with the singers. Her main issues where with the events that might’ve transpired in front of a green screen. As she articulated,

“You have to pose a wildcat in front of a green screen to get that image, and that doesn’t happen in the wild. It can’t happen in sanctuaries like ours where cats have plenty of room to avoid a green screen. That tells me they probably dealt with one of the big-cat pimps, who makes a living from beating, shocking, and starving cats to make them stand on cue in front of a green screen in a studio. That’s never good for the cat.”

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Coming to the second part of her argument, she had this to say, “The worst part is that it glamorizes the idea of rich people having tigers as pets. While I think most are destroyed behind closed gates at that point, some end up being given away to people who want to have a tiger to show off. That never works out, and the cats either die or end up dumped in sanctuaries or, worse yet, breeding mills. Either way, it’s always abusive to the cat.”

‘WAP’ & Kylie Jenner

And finally, we reach the issue that has been blown severely out of proportion. For starters, the music video for ‘WAP’ witnessed a number of surprise cameos from the likes of Normani, Rosalia, Rubi Rose and…Kylie Jenner.

Now, a number of fans were upset by Kylie’s inclusion in this video for a long list of reasons. In fact, one fan even went as far as creating a petition to have Kylie removed from the video altogether.

“The video was perfect until we saw K and I wanted to throw my phone,” wrote the fan who started the petition. This very petition has now gone on to rake in around 54,000 signatures.

Now, one of the primary reasons why Kylie’s presence is creating such an uproar is because this spot could have gone to any other up-and-coming female musician of color. Fans felt her cameo seemed rather out of place, considering that her co-stars were all women of colour and musicians too. Another reason making the list is the fact that Kylie Jenner wasn’t supportive enough of Megan Thee Stallion after she suffered from bullet injuries and was subsequently hospitalized. And the final reason was that the Kardashians are often known for appropriating black culture and fans believed that Kylie was guilty of doing the same in this video.

But once again, Cardi B was not ready to let this backlash slide. She took to Twitter to defend Kylie’s involvement by writing, “Why did I put Kylie on my music video? She treated my sister and daughter so lovely at her kid bday party. Travis and Set are real close and Kris Jenner have giving me advice on certain things I ask for and her husband real cool with mine.”

In a later interview, she further articulated, “Not everything is about race. There’s issues out here in the world that it is about race that I preach all the time about. This is not about f**kin’ race.”

Well, that’s a rundown of all the issues plaguing ‘WAP’. Like we mentioned before, new releases always fall prey to criticism, one way or the other. But despite all the fuss, it looks like both Cardi and Megan are standing their ground.

By: Nina Karun