The queen of Gag City wasn’t the only one streaming “Hiss.†Megan Thee Stallion’s viral diss track debuted at No. 1 on “The Billboard Hot 100,†her first solo effort to top the singles chart and her third to do so after “Savage†featuring Beyoncé (2020) and “WAP†with Cardi B (2020). Released independently under the rapper’s Hot Girl Productions banner, “Hiss†recorded 29.2 million streams, 2.9 million radio airplays, and a record-breaking 104,000 downloads, making it the biggest pure-sales week for a solo female rap song this decade. And Stalli slithered into some tense company with her latest career milestone.
With “Hiss,†she joins an exclusive club that only she and Nicki Minaj have been able to enter: They are the only female rappers to debut multiple songs at No. 1 on the “Hot 100.†The irony probably isn’t lost on Minaj, who spent the week following the release of “Hiss†stoking a one-sided beef with, to my estimate, a bajillion hate tweets pointed at Megan. She went as far as to release “Big Foot,†her own diss track, in response to the lyric from “Hiss†about Megan’s Law, i.e., the sex-offender registry on which Minaj’s husband is listed. While Megan’s bars were more than enough to get people listening, Minaj’s declaration of war likely fanned the flames of public interest. Looks like Billboard was the one to call this round.