Megan Thee Stallion made her voice heard on the Season 46 premiere of Saturday Night Live. The evening was hosted by Chris Rock, with musical performances by the 25 year old rapper.
The Houston native kicked off her set with her hit “Savage” which she introduced with a plea to “Protect Black Women.” In the middle of her song, the screen behind her went dark, gunshots rang out, and giant, bleeding bullet holes appeared. Audio clips from Malcolm X’s 1962 speech “Who Taught You to Hate Yourself?” then played: “The most disrespected, unprotected, neglected person in America is the black woman. Who taught you to hate the texture of your hair? The color of your skin? The shape of your nose? Who taught you to hate yourself from the top of your head to the soles of your feet?”
Then, a much more recent quote from Women’s March co-founder Tamika Mallory played, slamming Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron for the handling of the killing of Breonna Taylor, specifically the lack of any indictments in Taylor’s actual death. “Daniel Cameron is no different than the sellout negroes that sold our people into slavery,” the clip said.
Taylor was murdered while asleep in her bed March 13 after the Louisville police officers raided her home with a no-knock warrant. There were no other charges against law enforcement for their roles in her death.
After the audio clips played, Megan Thee Stallion had a few words of her own to share. “We need to protect our black woman and love our black women, because at the end of the day, we need our women,” she said. “We need to protect our black men and stand up by our black men, because at the end of the day, we tired of seeing hashtags about black men.” At this point, my entire body was filled with goosebumps. The symbolism of it all, combined with her guttural passion sent out a very strong emotional cry to us all, and it is indeed time we protect our Black men and women.
The screen behind her then switched to red and black, and she finished out her performance.
Megan then concluded her performance with her new single “Don’t Stop,” which featured a cameo from Young Thug.
We also got to see the ‘Hot Girl Summer’ songstress in her acting bag as she was also included in two skits. One was a musical spoof about dating during a pandemic, featuring Chris Redd and Pete Davidson, who wanted to see their dates’ faces without a mask. Megan Thee Stallion also made a brief appearance in the skit “NBA Bubble.”
Watch her “Savage” and “Don’t Stop” performances, and the skits listed above.
