Megan Thee Stallion Says She Wanted to ‘Take Control of My Own Narrative’ on ‘Traumazine’

No matter how Megan Thee Stallion feels, she has no problem writing songs about ass-shaking and booty-popping. But on Traumazine, she wanted to channel her current emotions into the new track. In a Rolling Stone exclusive clip of her interview with Apple Music 1, the Houston rapper opened up about her approach to music on her latest LP, which dropped Friday.

“Usually, when I write songs, I could be sad, and I’ll write a song like ‘Body,’ or I could be pissed off, and I’ll write a song like, ‘Freak Nasty.’ I don’t write songs about how I feel,” she says in the clip. “I write songs about how I want to feel. So I feel like, on this album, it’s probably the first time I figured out how to talk about what I want to say. Like, express myself a little bit more.”

After years of being told to stay quiet, Megan says she finally decided it was time to take control of the conversation and be truthful about what she’s experienced throughout her life and career.

“I feel like it’s been so easy for people to tell my story for me and speak on my behalf. I’m like a nonchalant person, and people be talking about me, and I’d be like, ‘Okay, go with it. Fine. Sure,’ ” she says. “But I see now that it can get out of control. So I feel like I wanted to just take control of my own narrative, take control of my own storytelling and tell it from me.”

Ahead of the LP’s release on Wednesday, the Houston rapper shared on Twitter how much she had to fight to release her music, writing, “Y’all know I always have problems with dropping my music under this label, all these games and having to go to court just to put out my art has been so stressful.”

Her 18-track album Traumazine features songs such as “Budget” with Latto, “Who Me” with Pooh Shiesty, and “Consistency” with Jhené Aiko. In her recent Rolling Stone interview, she said she wanted to “take you through so many different emotions… at first you was twerking, now you might be crying” on the LP.

Megan’s interview with Ebro and Nadeska airs in full on apple.com/_Ebroon on Monday, Aug. 15 at 4:30 pm EST.