Megan Thee Stallion releases ‘Cobra,’ her first single since shedding her old label. The song goes into her struggles with depression and anxiety.
Megan Thee Stallion dropped a new single this week, her first since leaving her longtime label and after the end of the criminal case against Tory Lanez, who was sentenced to prison in August.
The music video for “Cobra,” released late Thursday, begins with Megan’s mouth speaking aloud the song’s thesis, a nod to what has been a tumultuous year for the rapper: “Just as a snake sheds its skin, we must shed our past, over and over again.”
As the music begins, brooding electric-guitar chords, she reveals her snake eyes and fangs before crawling out of the mouth of a large serpent that recently slithered out of its skin.
Since early 2022, Megan Thee Stallion — real name Megan Pete — had been embroiled in a legal battle with her label, 1501 Certified Entertainment, during which she filed successive lawsuits to get out of the deal she signed in 2018 with the label’s founder, former MLB star and Dodgers player Carl Crawford.
The lawsuits called the contract “one-sided” and “unconscionable.” Pete alleged in her complaints that the label owed her more than $1 million in unpaid royalties, had failed to promote her music or allow her to record new music with other artists, and signed her to a deal that was below industry standards.
Attorneys for 1501 and Crawford countersued, saying Pete was the one who owed. The label said the performer needed to pay it more than $10 million in earnings and royalties from touring, merchandise sales and her sponsorships, endorsements and commercial work with other brands.
