Over a month ago, Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion released their first collaboration together. “WAP” has been extremely successful yet controversial. The music video, which features several celebrities such as Kylie Jenner and upcoming artist Normani, equally contributed to the backlash the new single was given.

 After its initial release, the song racked up 93 million streams in the United States within a week, giving it the record for the most record streams in an opening seven-day period.
“WAP” also debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. 

Almost immediately, the song ignited conversation about sexual empowerment. The lyrics, which are too explicit to give any examples, talk about a woman having sex with a man. The music video has been described as an “Olympic-level twerk routine,” according to Rolling Stone Magazine. The video takes place in a mansion and features breast-shaped fountains without a single man in sight. The outfits worn by the artists can be seen as skimpy and too over-revealing for Cardi B’s and Megan Thee Stallion’s younger audience, but the controversy the song has caused doesn’t stop there.

The song has made its way to TikTok, a video-sharing social networking app with over 500 million users. A famous TikTok  dance choreographer named Brian Esperon created the “WAP” dance only a few days after the release of the song. The short 15-second sound clip of the song has over 2.9 million videos on the app. Famous TikTokers including Addison Rae and her mother, Sheri Easterling have posted videos performing Esperon’s choreography. Makeup artist and social media influencer James Charles has also joined in the latest trend and has close to 5 million likes on the post. People have also been seen recording their WAP dance in public places such as Target, the beach and random restaurants. The attention this song has gotten has taken over social media, and it brings up the question: is WAP too much?

Ben Shapiro, a conservative commentator, spoke about his feelings of the new hit single. He described it as “really, really, vulgar”. James Bradley, a Republican congressional candidate, explained that it made him “want to pour holy water into my ears.” Artist CeeLo Green, singer of the popular song “Forget You,” said he understands the women wanting to come across as being independent and in control but “at what cost?” Green asked. 

Besides the negative commentary, a lot of people, women especially, have spoken out about how much they appreciate the song. Another famous female rap artist, who goes by the name of Trina, found it humorous that there was drama from this latest release. “I just feel like it’s a freedom of expression,” she said. “Some people really can’t handle it, and that’s fine. It’s not for everybody.”. 

Both Megan Thee Stallion and Cardi B have gone to Twitter to express their feelings about the backlash to their hit song. Megan Thee Stallion compared her recent project with Cardi B to the sexual innuendos from Three 6 Mafia’s 1999 hit “Slob On My ****”. She tweeted stating “Lol dudes will scream ‘slob on my ****’ word for word and cry abt WAP … bye lil boy.” Cardi B has retweeted and reacted to multiple people performing the WAP dance. Cardi B seems to hold confidence in herself and in her newest song “WAP,” regardless of the backlash she received. In an interview with i-D she said, “They keep talking and the numbers keep going up. At the end of the day, whatever they’re saying, the numbers speak for themselves.” 

Image from Cardi B via YouTube