After an explosive weekend that saw Nicki Minaj and Megan Thee Stallion engage in a very public feud that shook Twitter to its core, it seems like even the dead have lost their peace over it.
Moreover, the family of Megan Kanka, a 7-year-old who was raped and murdered in 1994 and subsequently influenced the creation of federal legislation Megan’s Law, have taken umbrage with some of the lyrics in Megan’s recent track ‘Hiss’.
On Tuesday 30 January 2024, TMZ reported that the cemetery in which Megan Thee Stallion’s mother was laid to rest back in 2019 was forced to increase security after its location was leaked online.
In Megan Thee Stallion’s new song ‘Hiss’, the rapper seemingly takes aim at Nicki Minaj with a reference to Megan’s Law, a federal law in the US that requires authorities to make information regarding registered sex offenders available to the public.
“These hoes don’t be mad at Megan, these hoes mad at Megan’s Law,” the lyric reads. Fans immediately took this to be in reference to Minaj’s husband, Kenneth Petty, who pleaded guilty to attempted rape in the first degree in April 1995 at the age of 16. He was sentenced to 18 to 54 months in prison and is now listed as a level two registered sex offender in New York.
In July 2022, Petty was then sentenced to a year of house arrest as well as a $55,000 fine for failing to register at his new address after moving to California with his wife.
Likewise, Minaj’s brother Jelani Maraj has been sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for predatory sexual assault against a child.
Following the release of ‘Hiss’, Minaj went live on Instagram to address the line. “You let everyone be thrown under the bus. You let DaBaby be thrown under the bus, Tory, your best friend, your mom… You better go conjure up your mother and apologise. That’s disgusting,” the rapper said.
Minaj, just days later, then released a song in response called ‘Big Foot’. Within the track, the rapper made more references to Megan’s deceased mother stating: “If you don’t apologise to your mama in 24 hours, sh*t gon’ get uglier than KenBarbie, okay? Don’t play.” Minaj further asserts: “Cause she was lyin’ on your dead mama, on-on your dead mama, Lyin’ on your dead mama, on-on your dead mama.”
Upon these inflammatory comments, multiple fans of Minaj’s proceeded to post the grave site of Megan Thee Stallion’s mother online. Megan’s mom, Holly Thomas, was laid to rest in Texas after passing away from brain cancer.
However, this is not the only fallout from the very public fallout. The family of Kanka, who was the inspiration behind Megan’s Law, expressed offence to the verse in ‘Hiss’ that references the legislation. In 1994, Kanka was raped and killed by her neighbour, Jesse Timmendequas, who already had two prior convictions of sex crimes against small children, unbeknown to the neighbourhood.
Megan’s father, Richard Kanka, told TMZ he found Megan Thee Stallion’s lyric about his daughter’s law “disrespectful” and was refusing to listen to the song. Kanka felt that her involving his daughter in the rap diss in a “graphic” way was “highly disrespectful.”
It seems like this war might not be worth it in light of the casualties ramping up.