Opinion | ‘WAP’ is more powerful than controversial

Luca Evans, Managing Editor

Welcome to your latest installment of “Men get upset by the platform of powerful Black women.” (This opinion is not in fact about John Eastman’s Newsweek piece – it’s about the song “WAP.” Easy to get confused, though).

The first time I listened to “WAP,” a single released Aug. 7 by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion, I was sitting in my bed on a lazy Thursday night preparing to go to sleep. My eyes were drooping. Needless to say, I was in no way, shape or form prepared for the sheer onslaught of sex that was about to assault my eardrums. As I heard Cardi B tell her listener that she wants them to “park that big Mack Truck right in this little garage,” a thought crossed my mind that the song was basically just musical porn.

I went to sleep thinking, “That’s pretty catchy, but I’m not listening to it again.” 

Flash-cut to 10 days later and I’m riding in the passenger seat of my friend’s Volvo, on our way to get groceries, blasting that same Cardi verse at, frankly, obscene volumes. 

As “WAP” began to dominate the cultural zeitgeist due to its raunchiness and I began to both listen to and read about the song more frequently, I had a simple realization. I was caught off guard simply because, other than previous songs by Cardi or Meg or Nicki Minaj, I wasn’t used to hearing women speak so blatantly about their sexualities. That, of course, is a microcosm of our society; throughout America’s patriarchal history, men have traditionally had the platform to speak on their sexual desires. 

Consider the history of the song’s genre: rap. Men, and even women, have become so used to artists like Future detailing extremely explicit sexual acts that when hearing female rappers flip the narrative they are startled. That’s why Cardi and Megan’s performances are so fantastic.

Here’s what’s interesting, though. We knew “WAP” would receive a ton of hate from the middle-aged crowd. That was a given. What doesn’t make sense is the criticism it received from a younger generation, the generation that makes up the primary demographic of rap listeners. 

That’s really interesting to me. There’s literally a massive library of grossly explicit content from male rappers. There’s usually little to no complaints when Lil Uzi Vert or Drake or DaBaby drop a new song with ridiculously misogynistic and demeaning lyrics. Sure, braggadocious bars about sex have been a staple of the genre for years, but female rappers are the only ones who are ever criticized. The same kids that get hyped to A$AP Ferg singing “slob on my knob” in “Plain Jane” are the same ones calling female artists “trash” because “all they do is talk about sex.” So getting mad when they upend that custom just screams “MISOGYNIST” in bright red lettering.

The thing is, this article shouldn’t even be written. This song should exist out of any sort of weird political or cultural discourse, because musically, there are just so many things to like about it. Firstly, the beat absolutely slaps and the lyrics are brilliantly feminist. The flow is intoxicating and it’s written really damn well. I mean, the lyricism is actually fantastic. I learned ways to describe sex I had never dreamed to think of before. 

Yes, “WAP” is explicit. Strikingly so. But if you call it out for that, you better also call out the entire discography of most mainstream male rappers.