Four-time Grammy-nominated rapper Megan Thee Stallion is defending her debut Fashion Nova collection after a designer accused her of stealing her work.
A designer named Aazhia came forward on Instagram last week claiming the 25-year-old rapper had used her unique TLZ L’Femme dress design to create the Chase the Bag Shoulder Pad Mini Dress with a similar long cloth draping in between the legs. “IMA BREAK THIS DOWN REAL SIMPLE! MY DRESS WAS STOLEN AND USED IN THIS MEGAN X FN COLLAB! WAS I TOLD? NO! WAS I COMPENSATED? NO!” she wrote in the lengthy caption, which alleged the rapper’s team reached out to Aazhia to pull one of her dresses for an event Megan was attending. “I’M VERY MUCH SO TAKEN BACK BY THE THE LACK OF RESPECT FOR ANOTHER BLACK WOMAN! THERE IS THIS TIRED NARRATIVE THAT THE BLAVK WOMAN IS SO DISRESPECTED, BUT WE DO IT TO EACH OTHER!!!!”
The “Savage” rapper, who has been actively chanting a “protect Black women” rallying cry since her shooting incident with Tory Lanez in July, cleared the air during an interview with The Morning Hustle on Tuesday.
“A lot of times, people say that they talked to somebody from my team. I don’t know what year that was, I don’t know who… what are you talking about? And a lot of times, they won’t even bring me… they don’t tell me who they talking to,” Meg said in the interview. “If I’ve probably never heard of you, like I’ve never seen that dress before. But it’s been a dress that has been done a lot, like over the years. So I feel bad that people’s initial reaction would be to just come at me like, ‘Oh, you a Black woman! You’re stealing from Black women!’ And I’m like, ‘Damn, hold on, sis, ’cause like I don’t know you.’”
While denying the allegations, Megan explained how she would’ve made amends with the designer, whom she left unnamed during the interview.
“It’s a way to come at people. ‘Cause if it would’ve been a real misunderstanding, I would’ve never had a problem saying, ‘I’m sorry, sis.’ I would have checked my stylist. Like you don’t do that. That’s not right,” Megan continued. “And then I would’ve had the dress taken down, whatever the money made from the dress, I would’ve gave the money to the girl if that was really something that she felt like was stolen from her.”
The “Body” rapper’s Fashion Nova collection dropped exactly one week ago, with 106 denim pieces, dresses, bodysuits, outerwear and more ranging from $24.99 to $199.99. It reportedly brought in $1.2 million within the first 24 hours, according to TMZ, who broke the news last Friday — the same day Meg’s highly anticipated debut album Good News dropped.
Aazhia responded to Megan’s interview the same day in an IGTV video. “I’m vexed because it’s condescending, it’s disrespectful, it’s hypocritical. Everything that she said was addressed towards me, although we were talking about multiple Insta boutiques,” she claimed. “My dress is from the ’90s. And she also said, in her opinion, it’s not stolen…. But for me, all I saw was more disrespect.”
Watch Megan’s interview in full below.
