Following a fake press cycle that included spoof “appearances” on The Howard Stern Show and NPR’s Tiny Desk concert series, as well as a dizzying number of Hentai porn images posted to Drake’s Instagram Stories, rappers Drake and 21 Savage dropped their new album Her Loss in the early hours Friday.
And one song—rather, one line—in particular is causing quite a stir.
On the track “Circo Loco,” Drake raps, “This bitch lie about getting shot but she still a stallion / She don’t even get the joke but she still smiling.”
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The line sees Drake accuse rapper Megan Thee Stallion of lying about being shot by rapper Tory Lanez, which prompted Megan to take to Twitter and reply, “And when the mf facts come out remember all y’all hoe ass favorite rappers that stood behind a N*** that SHOT A FEMALE.”
In a follow-up tweet, she added, “People attack me y’all go up for it , I defend myself now I’m doing too much … every time it never ends and this did NOT happen until I came out and said I got shot … y’all don’t fwm okay cool fuck it bye.”
Megan came forward on August 20, 2020, with the allegation that Tory shot her in the foot after a pool party at the home of Kylie Jenner on July 12 of that year. (She initially told police she’d stepped on glass out of “fear.”) Tory proceeded to launch a smear campaign against Megan (that’s allegedly included fabricating emails from her label) and was eventually hit with two charges related to the incident in question: one count of assault with a semiautomatic handgun and count of carrying a loaded, unregistered gun in a vehicle. He faces a maximum of 22 years and 8 months in prison. After Tory delayed the trial a number of times, it will commence on November 28. He is pleading not guilty.
Tory’s antics—and the lack of support Megan’s received from other male members of the hip hop community—prompted her to pen a New York Times op-ed in October 2020 that addressed the episode, and the ensuing public reaction.
“I was recently the victim of an act of violence by a man. After a party, I was shot twice as I walked away from him. We were not in a relationship. Truthfully, I was shocked that I ended up in that place,” she wrote.
“My initial silence about what happened was out of fear for myself and my friends. Even as a victim, I have been met with skepticism and judgment. The way people have publicly questioned and debated whether I played a role in my own violent assault proves that my fears about discussing what happened were, unfortunately, warranted.”
Despite Tory’s claims, all the known evidence appears to back up Megan’s account. On December 14, 2021, LAPD Detective Ryan Stogner—who arrived on the scene—testified in court that Tory had yelled “dance, bitch, dance!” at Megan as he fired shots at her feet. Megan, Det. Stogner testified, “immediately felt pain to her feet, observed blood, fell to the ground, and then crawled to an adjacent driveway of a residence,” reported TMZ.
Det. Stogner further testified that Megan told him Tory begged her not to tell the truth about the shooting and even offered her money for her silence because he was on probation. In addition, he testified that Megan told him she initially said it was glass that caused her injuries because she was worried that given the political climate—it was the summer of 2020—the situation could escalate to violence if she directed the police toward Tory, a Black man with a gun in his car.
If that weren’t enough, a phone call was reportedly played in court that Tory made to a friend of Megan’s while he was behind bars apologizing for a bad thing he did because he was too drunk.
Tory and his supporters have not provided any hard evidence that refutes Megan’s side of the story, though he has violated a protective order that says he must stay at least 100 yards away from Megan.
It’s beyond disappointing to see Drake exhibiting misogynoir. He should know better, and Megan is deserving of a sincere apology.
