Megan Jovon Ruth Pete, better known as Megan Thee Stallion is a multi-talented rapper, singer, songwriter, and actress currently blazing trails in the rap industry. While she has been rapping and writing since the age of 16, she became universally known in 2019.
With her hit “Freak Nasty” she began cranking out the heat and coming out with back to back fire tracks.
Unfortunately, after her rise to stardom, she lost her mother to a long-term battle with cancer.
Holly Thomas was her mother, manager, and confidant. Megan always spoke about how her mother pushed her to work hard and be who she wants to be.
After her mother passed she didn’t speak much about her death but only talks about her mother being a rapper back in the day and being her inspiration.
Being in the spotlight doesn’t give you much time to grieve so Megan keeps working in honor of her mother.
“After my mom passed I promised myself I was going to keep going hard because not only is music my dream but it was her dream for me too”, she tweeted after her mother’s passing.
Around the same time of her mother’s death, she began using the term “Lemme drive da boat”, a phrase said directly before taking a bottle of liquor to the head. This turned into a worldwide sensation and now can be found in many pop culture references.
When Megan is out with her friends she can usually be found with a bottle of D’usse in her hand and generously “water-falling” it into someone’s mouth. While we love to see our good sis out here having a great time, there have been a few videos of her looking like she was holding onto reality by a thread.
This raises the question, could the abuse of alcohol be a coping mechanism that is masked in the allure of parties and fire music? Social media is quick to dissect videos of celebrities and on occasion when she’s caught slipping she will get on twitter to explain or defend herself against scrutinizers. In recent social media news, Megan was seen drunk with G-Eazy and it caused an uproar on Twitter:
On that same evening, a video was recorded of Megan Thee Stallion in the club hanging onto the railing for balance.
“I feel like she has a drinking problem, to be honest. I saw a video where she looked drunk as shit and I don’t even know if she’s been able to properly cope since her mother’s passing. This isn’t even the first time I’ve seen a video like this of her before” said student Dominique Dixon.
I asked this student what other videos she was referencing and I was shown a video of Megan looking to be pressured by the same phrase she has coined. It is clear that she is visibly uncomfortable in the situation as she denies the drink offering.
There are at least two other people in the background trying to convince her to take another shot and the video cuts off with her looking a bit distraught. Celebrities are still people who can be affected by the same vices and pressure everyone else feels, the only difference is the size of the spotlight on their actions.
After watching the video, student Elijah Ortiz said, “Oh wow… she looks physically uncomfortable but at least she said no”.
I asked how they would respond if they were at a party with friends and someone yelled “drive the boat!” if they would feel obligated to drink. Onyi Okpala admitted, “I mean at this moment I say no but I feel like when you’re out with friends you don’t really think of it as peer pressure”.
Megan Thee Stallion went onto Instagram Live to address allegations surrounding the videos that surfaced of her inebriated, emphasizing she has always partied in this manner and sometimes she just goes a little too hard.
As responsible drinking adults, we cannot hold a celebrity accountable for our actions. If we want to “drive the boat” that is on us, not her. As fans of Megan Thee Stallions’ work we just hope that she is healing well & drinking responsibly.
Mykera Crawford is a staff writer for the Paradigm Press. For more information regarding this or other stories, email mykeracrawford@gmail.com .
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