In July 2020, Grammy Award-winning rapper Megan Thee Stallion was shot, allegedly by fellow rapper and then-friend Tory Lanez. A dispute escalated between Megan’s friend Kelsey Harris and Lanez after leaving a party held at Kylie Jenner’s house in Los Angeles. On the car ride home, Megan says that she wanted to get out because Lanez became violent. Police arrested Lanez following the incident, but he was later released on bond. Per CBS News, the case is expected to go to trial in September of this year.
That night quickly became a whirlwind of he said, she said in the social media stratosphere, amplified by both rappers occasionally responding to comments online. Despite her success over the past two years, this incident has taken a serious toll on Megan, especially speculation about whether she lied about being victimized. So when her team reached out for an interview, Gayle said yes.
After two years of being doubted and disparaged, she was ready to put her own narrative out there for the first time publicly, knowing that people may still not believe her. Gayle and her CBS team traveled to California, where she sat down and got to know Megan a little more. She was candid, vulnerable, and transparent. Here’s what Megan says really happened, and why Gayle thinks we should all pay attention to how we see victim shaming.
Before I met Megan Thee Stallion, I knew that she was a huge global superstar. I was familiar with her music—I liked her song “Savage” because it’s one of those songs that makes you smile, and I loved “Body-ody-ody-ody” (although some of the lyrics in her bolder songs are bit much for me).
Megan has this whole badass persona when she’s onstage—when you watch her, you think, This woman doesn’t have a care in the world! She’s tall, statuesque, and gorgeous. She’s very confident without being arrogant, which is a fine line. Offstage, she’s a college graduate. Last December, Megan received her bachelor of science degree in health administration at Texas Southern Stage University. I admire her.
This was the first time I had the chance to sit down with Megan and talk to her face-to-face. Surprisingly, what I found was a very vulnerable young woman who is still reeling from the infamous incident two years ago, where she was shot in the foot, allegedly by rap star Tory Lanez. Her emotional pain is raw, intense, and right there at the surface. In speaking with her, I got the sense that Megan is tired of being portrayed as the villain, as opposed to the victim. Some of it may be her own doing. Initially, she said she had stepped on glass that night. But when I heard why she didn’t tell the truth to the police at first, it made perfect sense to me: She was trying to protect everyone in the car with her that night.
To put it all in context, the shooting occurred in July 2020. George Floyd had just been murdered in May. We were living in a very heightened-tension society, where Black people certainly felt leery of the police. Megan told me it was a time when police fired first and asked questions later. She knew there was a hot gun in the car. She was in a swimsuit, bleeding and barefoot on the road. She feared for her life before the cops arrived, and when they did, along with helicopters, she thought everybody was about to die. So she told them that she stepped on glass. Her driving thought was: How can we all get out of this alive? Of course, she regrets that she didn’t immediately say she had been shot. And since then, she has told the truth.
I believe her story.
The police and medical reports both show that she was shot. To this day, there are still bullet fragments in her foot. I’m so fascinated that people still don’t think that she’s telling the truth. How can that be? You’ve heard all the rumors; please listen to what she has to say and then ask yourself, What does she gain by lying?
It bothers me that despite all the evidence, people can still troll her on social media, try to take her down, and make her feel less than. I don’t understand that part of society we live in today. It’s part of being famous, so you always have to have a strong sense of self—but that’s a lot easier said than done. And Megan is still a work in progress. Although she’s performed at Coachella and the Oscars, appeared as one of Time magazine’s most influential people, and worked with showstopping names like Beyoncé and BTS, remember that just five short years ago, she was making amateur rap videos in her dorm room.
She’s a young, 27-year-old woman who is without the guidance of her parents. Her mom, who was her best friend, died in 2019, and her father, years before that. “I just wanna pick up the phone and call my momma,” she said through tears when we spoke. When I asked her if there was anyone she could trust she flat-out, she said, “No.” Can you imagine going through all of this without a strong support system? Yes, she’s got great management with Roc Nation and 300 Entertainment, who genuinely care about her and have no agenda other than making sure she’s healthy. But it’s still not like having her mother.
I think the interview was very hard for her, but no questions were off-limits. My wish is that after our talk, Megan feels better and lighter—and that she ignores what the social media trolls are doing. She is always a trending topic; she trended on Twitter for two days since we announced and then showed the interview. She gets both support and hate, but my concern is that Megan will only listen to the negative. That’ll take you down such a dark hole. Please don’t do that to yourself. You may want to respond, but don’t. Also, up until now, she hasn’t gotten therapy, which I believe is tremendously important and can help.
And to anyone that still has doubts about what happened that night, don’t be so quick to judge.
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