WAP (song)

"WAP" (an acronym for "Wet-Ass Pussy") is a song by American rapper Cardi B featuring Megan Thee Stallion. It was released on August 7, 2020, through Atlantic Records. Originally intended as the lead single for Cardi B's second studio album, it was ultimately included as the final track on Am I the Drama? (2025). Musically, it is a hip-hop song driven by heavy bass, drum beats, and a sample of Frank Ski's single "Whores in This House" (1993). Its sexually explicit lyrics helped with its popularity, and the song peaked at number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.

After shelving a demo of the song in 2019, Cardi B revisited the song during COVID-19 lockdowns, recording additional verses and deciding to turn it into a collaboration with Megan. In the lyrics, Cardi B and Megan discuss how they want to be pleased by men, specifically referencing numerous sexual practices. Upon release, "WAP" received widespread acclaim from music critics, who praised its sex-positive message and for empowering women, with Rolling Stone, NPR, and several other publications ranking it as the best song of 2020.

It became the first female rap collaboration to debut atop the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and had the largest opening streaming week for a song in U.S. history. It gave Cardi B her fourth number-one single and Megan her second in the U.S. The single spent four non-consecutive weeks atop the chart and spent multiple weeks at number one in several other countries. "WAP" became the first number-one single on the inaugural Billboard Global 200, topping the chart for three weeks, and it earned the 11th position on IFPI's year-end singles chart. As of September 2025, the song was certified 9× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

A music video directed by Colin Tilley accompanied the single's release. It features cameos from several women, including television star Kylie Jenner, singers Normani and Rosalía, and rappers Latto, Sukihana, and Rubi Rose. "WAP" broke the record for the biggest 24-hour debut for an all-female collaboration on YouTube. Cardi B and Megan performed the song at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards, leading to over 1,000 viewer complaints being sent to the Federal Communications Commission. Social conservative politicians and pundits objected to the song for its sexually explicit lyrics, and the ensuing discourse fueled the song's impact.

Background and release

Cardi B's first album Invasion of Privacy, released in 2018, was recorded on an accelerated timeline so it could be completed before the birth of her daughter Kulture. After that experience, her writing process became more flexible, taking additional time to explore ideas. "WAP" originated with a beat sent to her by Ayo the Producer and Keyz. She recorded what became its first verse in 2019 but ended up shelving it indefinitely.

When COVID-19 lockdowns were instituted in March 2020, Cardi B decided to stay in Los Angeles and use that time to work on music. She and her team rented a house and turned it into a studio for three months. Going through previously recorded tracks, Cardi B wrote an additional verse for "WAP", continuing to rework parts of the song several times. She was initially unsatisfied with the song's hook, feeling that "wet-ass pussy" was repeated too much. She began sending it to other female artists to see if they could improve on it.

Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion first connected through their respective wardrobe stylists. After meeting her in Los Angeles, Cardi B told her team that she was considering a collaboration with her. A couple of days later, both sent tracks to each other. Cardi B had her business partner Brooklyn Johnny send "WAP". After receiving Megan's verses, the song's engineers started editing and mixing vocals, still trying to find a way to emphasize the song's hook. They decided to switch the order of Megan's verses to improve the way the song flowed.

On August 3, Cardi B revealed an upcoming collaboration with Megan Thee Stallion. The announcement included the single artwork which shows the two rappers back to back against a bright pink background, holding out their tongues. They are styled with gold "WAP" hoop earrings, 1990s-inspired makeup, and tall interlocking updos. The day before the single's release, Frank Ski teased his involvement through a Twitter post. Cardi B and Megan promoted the premiere with a livestream on YouTube.

"WAP" was released on August 7, 2020, as a digital download, vinyl, and cassette. A clean version was sent to U.S. radio, as opposed to the original version. In it, the hook is changed from "wet-ass pussy" to "wet and gushy", among other censors. It marked Cardi B's first release of 2020, and Megan's first release following a highly publicized shooting incident involving Tory Lanez, where Megan had sustained injuries from a bullet to her feet. To accompany the release of the single, Cardi B launched a line of waterproof "WAP" merchandise which included umbrellas and raincoats. She confirmed that the song will appear on her upcoming second studio album.

Music and lyrics

"WAP" is a hip-hop, trap, and dirty rap song. It uses a vocal sample from Frank Ski's 1993 Baltimore club single "Whores in This House". The sample consists of Al "T" McLaran chanting "There's some whores in this house" in the style of a military cadence. It is looped around 80 times over the course of the song, with its pitch shifted up in some sections. The music is minimal—drum programming, a throbbing bass line, and McLaran's looped chant—leaving emphasis on the rapping. Writing credits are given to Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion, producers Ayo and Keyz, Ski, and Pardison Fontaine.

In "WAP", Cardi B and Megan boast about their sexual prowess while listing their own erotic needs. Their lyrics describe sexual acts through vivid, outlandish metaphors like "Punani Dasani" and "Swipe your nose like a credit card". Cardi B invokes "macaroni in a pot" as a reference to the viscous sounds of sex. Megan's lines "Switch my wig, make him feel like he cheating" and "You can't hurt my feelings, but I like pain" allude to roleplay and BDSM respectively. The title is an acronym for "Wet-Ass Pussy".

Cardi B's starts the song in a "throaty" register, delivered "as if she's inching up close to her partner's ear". Her flow during the verses, described as a "staccato bark", is steadily paced in the style of her earlier Gangsta Bitch Music mixtapes, for clear articulation of each line. In contrast, Megan makes use of a nimble, rapid-fire flow.

Credit disputes

McLaran was improperly credited as a performer but not as a songwriter on the original "Whores in This House". Other singles sampling the song have inconsistently credited him; Joe Budden's "Fire (Yes, Yes Y'all)" includes McLaran as a cowriter, but Lil Wayne's "In This House" does not. Ski and McLaran talked after the release of "WAP" and reached an agreement to give him a cut of the royalties from "WAP".

Rapper Necey X sued Cardi B and Megan for copyright infringement in 2022. Necey had previously entered a failed partnership running an assisted living center with Fontaine's father. Her lawsuit alleged that "WAP" and Megan's 2021 single "Thot Shit" infringed on her 2019 song "Grab Em by the Pussy". Judge Andrew L. Carter Jr. dismissed the suit, stating that Necey could not claim ownership of "the phrase 'p*ssy [sic] so wet' because it 'existed long before she included it in her song.'"

Critical reception

"WAP" received widespread critical acclaim. For Pitchfork, Lakin Starling called it "a nasty-ass rap bop, bursting with the personality of two of rap's most congenial household names". Jon Caramanica of The New York Times deemed it "an event record that transcends the event itself", and stated that both rappers "are exuberant, sharp and extremely ... vividly detailed" in the song that "luxuriates in raunch". Rania Aniftos of Billboard described the song as a "scorching banger". Mikael Wood of Los Angeles Times deemed it a "savage, nasty, sex-positive triumph" and stated that "the women's vocal exuberance is the show—the way they tear into each perfectly rendered lyric and chew up the words like meat".

For The Guardian, Dream McClinton wrote, "the hit collaboration ... has become a belated song of the summer, empowering women and enraging prudes along the way ... [it] should be celebrated, not scolded". In NPR, cultural critic Taylor Crumpton deemed both rappers "women leading the genre into [a] new era of unification between women rappers" with "an already iconic song about women sexuality". She praised the message, describing it as "if you need to come, step to me, you have to be able to fill my sexual needs, and these are what they are". In another article from Pitchfork, Jayson Greene said that it "has become the song of this ... summer—a ripe ... sex jam", deeming it detailed and "joyfully explicit".