Megan Thee Stallion takes inspiration from One Piece's Boa Hancock for new single and album

Modified May 07, 2024 20:49 GMT

Megan Thee Stallion takes inspiration from One Piece's Boa Hancock for new single and album (Image via Toei Animation)

Tuesday, May 7, 2024 saw American rapper Megan Thee Stallion announce a new single entitled “BOA” with some obvious One Piece references beyond the title itself. The cover art, for example, sees her cosplaying as Boa Hancock, the character from author and illustrator Eiichiro Oda’s original manga series.

Megan is also striking a pose very reminiscent of the fan-favorite One Piece character, with the cover art also featuring a snake statue and text reminiscent of a tropical island a la Amazon Lily, where Boa lives in-series.

It was also announced that Megan will name her new album (off which Boa is a single) after the Boa Hancock character from Oda’s manga-turned-anime series.

One Piece set to enter Western cultural zeitgeist yet again with Megan Thee Stallion’s Boa-inspired album

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There's no word on when Megan’s new One Piece-inspired album will be released. However, the “BOA” single is slated for a Friday, May 10, 2024 release date. This will be her third single in recent months following the Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper “Hiss” in January 2024 and “Cobra” in November 2023.

The upcoming Boa Hancock-inspired album will be Megan’s first since the sentencing of Tory Lanez to 10 years in prison for shooting Megan Thee Stallion multiple times in her feet during an argument in Hollywood.

Megan has previously commented on feeling like she wasn’t treated as a human for a long time during the trial and in its immediate aftermath. She will kick off her first-ever headlining tour, called the “Hot Girl Summer Tour,” on Tuesday, May 14 in Minnesota, accompanied by fellow female American rapper GloRilla.

The two most recently collaborated on the latter’s latest single, “Wanna Be.” It’s unclear as of this article’s writing when Megan’s upcoming album will release with respect to her upcoming tour, set to run through the end of July 2024 per her official website as of this article’s writing.

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Megan is originally from Houston, Texas, and first garnered attention as a rapper following videos of her freestyling gaining traction on social media platforms like Instagram.

In 2019, her mainstream breakthrough came via the singles “Hot Girl Summer” and “Cash Sh*t,” with the former peaking at number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the latter earning quadruple platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America.

Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece manga first began in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump manga publication in July 1997, where it's still ongoing in its Final Saga today. The series has also become the best-selling manga of all time with well over half-a-billion copies in circulation globally. The series was adapted into a television anime series by Toei Animation in October 1999, with this anime still ongoing today.

Netflix recently adapted the series into a live-action production, which was first released in August 2023 and has since been confirmed for a second season. This second season will start filming in June 2024 and is expected to be released via Netflix exclusively sometime early on in the 2025 calendar year.