Megan Thee Stallion Says She Doesn't Know When She Can Release New Music

Last week in an interview with Rolling Stone, Megan Thee Stallion teased a few details about her debut album, Suga. She said it will usher in a new persona, much different than Tina Snow or Hot Girl Meg, and it's stacked with features from Kehlani, SZA, and the Neptunes. Suga's potential release date is sentimental, too: "May 2 is my mom's birthday," Megan said. But now, the fate of the Houston rapper's debut is unclear. On Instagram Live over the weekend, she claimed she's unable to release new music because of a dispute with 1501 Certified Entertainment, an indie label in Houston.

"When I signed, I didn't really know what was in my contract," she said, noting that she signed with the label nearly five years ago. In 2018, the rapper signed to Lyor Cohen's 300 Entertainment and signed to Roc Nation with a management deal last September. "When I got with Roc Nation, I got management—real management. I got real lawyers and they was like, 'Did you know that this was in your contract?' I was like, 'Damn, that's crazy. No, I didn't know."

While the specifics of the dispute are unclear, Megan says she never wanted to sever ties, she just wanted to renegotiate the specifics of her contract.

"Soon as I said I want to renegotiate my contract everything went left," she said. "So now they telling a bitch that she can't drop no music. It's really just like a greedy game."

She even offered up some sound advice to aspiring artists. "Read that motherfucking paperwork and have somebody that know what they're talking about reading it," she said. "Don't sign nothing without no real lawyer and make sure your lawyers is not your label lawyers. Get your own lawyer with their own opinion."

To see someone as successful as Megan Thee Stallion compromised by a bad contract is unsettling, but she isn't the first artist to be embroiled in a deal without reading the fine print. Fans are still waiting on Lil Uzi Vert's Final Atake, which still hasn't been released after he said he wanted to renegotiate his contract. Similarly, it took Kash Doll four years to be released from her previous deal before her debut album Stacked could see the light of day last fall. The hotties are hoping the Houston rapper can release Suga on her mother's birthday as she intended.

"You mad because I don't want to roll over and bow down like a little bitch and you don't want to renegotiate my contract," she said. "Niggas be like, oh they made Megan Thee Stallion. Megan Thee Stallion was Megan Thee Stallion before I even got over there. I been rapping, been freestyling, been doing me, been Meg."

Megan Thee Stallion has not responded to VICE's requests for comment.