Megan Thee Stallion and GloRilla in the City That Never Sleeps — But Feverishly Twerks

Madison Square Garden has seen it all: legendary concerts, NBA Finals games, prize fights, Verzuz duels, and everything in between. Last night, I was lucky enough for a rare MSG first: Megan Thee Stallion’s New York stop on her Hot Girl Summer Tour made the first independent woman rapper to headline at the world’s greatest arena. Even with GloRilla signed to CMG, indie-rap havens Houston and Memphis should be represented in this moment.

Meg and her tour opener, GloRilla, brought the summer vibes to the city in more than one way; the post-show let-out was the first night of 2024 when I went outside with short sleeves and it wasn’t too chilly. The New York weather made way for the girls’ fans to dress like they were headed to a July 4th cookout; the venue was speckled with people of all identities adorned in two-pieces that looked like they were set to hit the stage. The building was also full of plenty of pink, including cowboy hats representing Meg’s Texas roots.

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The uniformity in festive vibes exemplified Megan as an artist who’s properly cemented her brand into pop-culture consciousness — that’s what headline-caliber acts do. Megan has been a defining figure of the modern rap era, with her lyrical dexterity, empowering lyrics, and charisma earning her a wide-spanning fan base. There have been several acts who’ve reportedly had arena-tour woes in recent years, but that didn’t seem to be the case for Megan — at least in New York, where the crowd was filled to the brim. The adage is “If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.” And if you can sell out here, detractors have to shut up everywhere.

Memphis rapper GloRilla opened the concert, steeping the loaded crowd in the evening’s defiant, braggadocious, sex-positive vibes. Her booming north Memphis baritone propelled her through intermittent audio issues that affected her clarity; her low-end cadence was enough for fans to follow throughout her set. One could glean that this was her first arena tour, as she was a bit stationary for certain points of the night. The set featured a circular stage and a front walkway area in front of the two fan pits. GloRilla rarely ventured to the front or the sides of the stage, often standing in the middle while waving her hands.

But to her credit, she didn’t appear to rap over backing vocals.  She also brought her uproarious social media personality to the stage, twice joking to fans that her ass was going to bust out of her yellow pants. And hits like “FNF” and “Yeah Glo” turned the crowd upside down. She did several dances with her dancers throughout her set, continuing the renaissance of rappers with actual moves onstage. It’s cool to see rappers with gruff content not be too cool or tough to entertain the crowd à la a Heavy D or Bobby Shmurda.

After a short intermission, Megan dimmed the lights and played audio from her “Hiss” hit before taking the stage. Her stage lighting went red, which was the dominant color of her performance. The screen displayed moving imagery that looked like something of the fire-and-brimstone variety. It symbolized the trials (literally) she’s had to overcome to get to this point — but maybe it just looked cool to her. She jumped onstage, tore through “Hiss,” and kept that tone throughout the night.

The most impressive part of a good performance is often what the attendees take for granted. Few artists, like Megan, can rip into double-time rhymes without missing a beat, all while moving all over the stage, dancing. And, yes, kneeling down for twerk sessions that made the crowd go crazy every time. This was with three changes, from red to blue to black outfits.

Multiple times between songs, she exuberantly yelled out that it was her first tour, and that the New York hotties were making her emotional. But we didn’t get a full-on tearful moment; she still had to jump into songs like “Plan B,” “Thot Shit,” and “Ratchet” that seemingly vaulted her onstage from “just a girl” into a rap hero the size of Lady Liberty.

After one intermission, Megan returned to the stage to the beat of “WAP.” She began rapping her verse, then Cardi’s started playing over the PA. The crowd, all standing in anticipation of a Cardi B hometown appearance weren’t sure if she was actually there — but those who saw the way Megan was looking back knew she was wondering what was taking her girl so long to get to the stage. Cardi eventually came out to raucous applause. And though her vocal audio wasn’t great, the fans knew every word of “WAP” regardless. Shortly after, GloRilla returned to the stage, seemingly bursting out of her yellow pants and wearing microscopic short shorts with her bikini top. She and Cardi jumped into “,” then she and Megan did “Wanna Be,” before the girls all gave one another flowers and GloRilla told the crowd that a “Wanna Be” remix with Cardi B was coming.

After GloRilla and Cardi left the stage, Megan delved into the home stretch of her set. It was cool to see the big three of the night, but Megan is fully capable of holding her own onstage, as well as with her dancers.

She had a palpable connection with fans. Even as a male rap writer who doesn’t quite relate to the lyrics of “Sex Talk,” I could see the bliss from the people who did. One woman in the row in front of me was on FaceTime for a decent part of the performance, presumably with a friend who was all smiles while watching the set. One could tell that these were the fans who religiously played Megan’s music while getting ready for parties and cruising the streets, and bend over to twerk to “Savage.” Her most ardent fans brought the party energy to MSG, dancing throughout the set. A man by stage right was dancing in the stands so intensely that Megan couldn’t help but point him out and vibe with him for a portion of her set.

The travesty that Megan went through over the past several years isn’t simply a tabloid story that existed in a vacuum; it spoke to the violence women face every day and have to endure alone through ignorance, second-guessing, and outright ridicule. Many music fans empathized with the way her pain became secondary to whatever agenda people wanted to trumpet about her plight. And it helped that she had great music to deepen that connection. The flowers that she got from fans in the pit weren’t mere gestures, they were floral trophies for the resilience that got her to this point.

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