100 Greatest Songs of the 20’s So Far #23 Cardi B ft. Megan Thee Stallion – WAP

Released: 2020

The argument about what pop fundamentally is and isn’t will rage on for as long as it exists. If you want to play it straight down the line then WAP is popular – currently around the 1.5 billion streams mark give or take, but if as a purist it’s all about audience then quite clearly, it all depends on what you perceive pop’s audience to be.

What is handy though comes from spotting who says what and why they’re providing commentary. The moral guardians of this particular age are also – without coincidence – the ‘fuck your feelings’ crowd, meaning it’s easy to dismiss pretty much everything they have to say about how anyone should be living their lives.

This is a too long a lead in to WAP, a track which the preachy assholes told us went out of it’s way both to offend and corrupt the minds of young people everywhere. Cardi B and partner in crime Megan Thee Stallion used it to tell everyone in character what they wanted and how; it’s bony trap minimalism was the least naked thing about it.

The point was that you were meant to hear every word, because this is what the mainstream could be about in the twenty first century, a vessel for turning the tables on it’s constraints for women, most of which had been in place for decades. With rhymes that were so provocative they were almost cartoonish, it had to be that in your face to get your attention; this is worth far more consideration than any flex on what crossed your red lines. It’s pop. Deal with it.

1 Comment

Leave a comment