The song will appear on the rapper’s upcoming studio album Megan, out Friday, with a hard-to-clear sample from an undisclosed anime series
Megan Thee Stallion feels like she has been through a fight sequence in an action anime of her own after wrangling clearance approval for the use of a hard-to-get anime sample on “Otaku Hot Girl,” a song from her upcoming album Megan. The album is set for release on Friday, June 28, and was already turned in when the rapper received an ultimatum from the production company on Tuesday, June 25, to either remove all character names from the song or scrap the sample itself.
“I’m not talking bad because I’m very grateful,” Megan clarified during an Instagram Live before her concert in Dallas on Wednesday night. “Y’all know how I told y’all I got an anime sample on my album? This has probably been the hardest song to try to have on my album — but like I said I’m not complaining ’cause I’m grateful.” She hasn’t revealed which anime series the sample is from but said that she was told she would not be allowed to cosplay as any of the show’s characters if she were to film a music video for the song.
Megan agreed because of how badly she wanted to use the song, and then the second twist came at the very last minute. “Last night, we get an email. They said, ‘Actually I need you to take out the names of the characters that’s in the show.’ That is the whole song. That makes the song make sense,” she said. “They said, You could either do this — you could have the music clearance or you can have the name clearance.’ The music is what’s really important to me, but the names really tied it all together.”
Just before she recorded the live, Megan stepped into a makeshift studio to re-cut the song without the character names. “I really hope y’all think this shit sound fire, ’cause I had to jump through eight million hoops to get this shit. Once y’all hear the sample, y’all are gonna know why they was giving us a hard time,” she added. “This is a very big production company so for them to even say yes — and I be cussing and shit — like I said, I’m grateful. I’m not complaining. I really wanted this sample. I really wanted to do it, so I’m doing everything I got to do to keep it. But change the names? Change the names the day before the album out? That was nuts.”
The rapper has been vocal throughout her career about her love of anime, naming titles like Hunter x Hunter, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Attack On Titan, and Demon Slayer as some of her favorites. Megan first revealed that she received clearance on the sample in May, writing on Instagram Stories: “Y’all will never believe what anime sample I got cleared for my album. This has never been done/very hard to do y’all are going to scream.”