It’s not Queen and David Bowie’s “Under Pressure.” It’s not Fergie’s “Fergalicious.” No, the song that arrived on Friday (July 22) was “Pressurelicious,” from one Megan Thee Stallion and Future. Two of the biggest names in hip-hop teamed up for the first time, resulting in a song that’ll play in clubs and outdoor parties well into the summer and beyond. “Spend that sh-t, I’m worth it,” raps Megan at the start. “Thick, look better in person / Hair and nails match my Birkin / I don’t block hoes, keep lurking.” From there, Megan says she’s “stomping on hoes so motherf-cking hard, I’m knocking out Mario tokens,” giving a shoutout to her love of video games.
However, it’s not a fight stick that Megan and Future want to play with. It’s an unabashedly raunchy romp that captures Megan’s sex-positive attitude, and she finds a mutually ribald rap partner in Future. “Real I belong in the Guinness,” he raps in one of the few semi-safe-for-work lyrics. “ Pressure she good for the image / I put her in vintage / Imma take care of the business / Drop a bag and hit different.”
The song was produced by HitKidd, per Rolling Stone, who worked on “FNF (Let’s Go)” by Memphis rapper GloRilla, as well as “Warning,” “Opposite Day,” and “God’s Favorite” from Megan’s Something for Thee Hotties project.
Megan spoke about “Pressurelicious” in the Rolling Stone feature released earlier this year. “He just so fucking ratchet!” she said about Future with a big laugh. “He is unapologetically himself. I appreciate that about anybody who gets up and has to do anything in the public eye. Anybody who has to read about their life online every day and deal with so many energies and can put it out into their music and do it gracefully, I feel like you deserve your flowers.”
Pressure she good for the image 🖤💵 pic.twitter.com/yWN3WQFz6R
— TINA SNOW (@theestallion) July 20, 2022
For Future, this song is a chance to take a victory lap after his well-received I Never Liked You album. The project arrived in April and has since been certified gold by the RIAA. The album featured his chart-topping “Wait For U” collab with Drake and Tems, and while the second single – “Keep It Burnin,” featuring Kanye “Ye” West – didn’t replicate that success, it still cracked the Top 20 and kept Future’s momentum going.
For Megan, “Pressurelicious” marks what Hotties hope is the continued roll-out of her next album. After teaming with Shenseea for “Lick,” Meg linked up with Dua Lipa for “Sweetest Pie,” a track that hit No. 15 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. A month after that, Meg dropped “Plan B,” the song she premiered during her set at Coachella. The aggressive track reminded everyone about Megan’s lyrical prowess. Though fans initially dubbed it “Letter to my Ex,” Megan later clarified that the song was not about any single person in particular.
Megan said she hoped to have her second studio album – the follow-up to 2020’s Good News – out sometime “this summer,” though her ongoing battles with her label, 1501 Certified Entertainment, may hinder that process. When speaking with Rolling Stone about this album, Megan said she wanted to “take you through so many different emotions.” Writer Mankaprr Conteh noted that the album was “an effort [for Meg] to process her pain without losing sight of her strength.” Meg also told her that it’ll cover all the emotional bases: “At first, you was twerking, now you might be crying.”
When she discusses writing for the album, Megan says that she has a goal in mind with this project: “I just always want people to remember, ‘Yes, Megan Thee Stallion, she was great, she was a rapper. She was one of the best rappers, the coldest.’”