Megan Thee Stallion recruits a Jujutsu Kaisen voice actor for the song intro, fulfilling a long-held fan dream

It’s no secret that rapper Megan Thee Stallion is one of the biggest anime fans in the music industry. A track on her eponymous LP, Otaku Hot Girl, not only fulfilled anime fans’ dreams, but also proved just how far Megan would go to get her anime anthem approved.

Ahead of the release of her third LP, the outspoken anime devotee piqued her fans’ curiosity by saying that her track “Otaku Hot Girl” would feature an anime sample that she had worked really hard to complete. When her album finally dropped on June 28, fans jumped on the track and discovered that the anime the outspoken “weeb and a baddie” sampled was the commercial hit for the second season of the mega-popular shonen anime “Jujutsu Kaisen.” The Houston rapper didn’t stop at the sample; she also enlisted Yuji Itadori’s English voice actor Adam McArthur to voice the song’s intro.

Megan Thee Stallion tries out a Jujutsu Kaisen track and has Yuji Itadori’s English voice actor (Adam McArthur) speak the intro like she’s crazy about it, lmfkskdkskdr#MEGAN #JJK pic.twitter.com/eUgCo7l3Sn

— Springkies (@jekkibby2) June 28, 2024

This brings things full circle for Jujutsu Kaisen fans, as it references a 2021 fandom meme in which McArthur changed a famous line about Itadori’s penchant for “big girls like Jennifer Lawrence” to Megan Thee Stallion. It should be noted that McArthur completed the fan-requested assignment for free, pinned it to his official X/Twitter page, and was frequently recited by the anime voice actor – to great applause – at numerous anime conventions.

Megan’s anime history, more specifically Jujutsu Kaisen, goes even further than the fan-requested namedropping. Since Jujutsu Kaisen first aired in late 2020, Megan has added fan-favorite character Satoru Gojo to her rotation of Instagram cosplay images. presented Jujutsu Kaisen with the Crunchyroll 2024 Anime of the Year AwardAnd Jujutsu Kaisen invited cosplayers to dance on stage during her Hot Girl Summer tour. The triumph fans are experiencing with Otaku Hot Girl is all the greater considering the “eight million hurdles” she had to overcome to ensure the song saw the light of day.

Megan Thee Stallion talks about dealing with sample clearance issues and having to change the name and lyrics of a song the day before her album release. pic.twitter.com/9lSpaguF6J

— XXL Magazine (@XXL) 27 June 2024

During an Instagram Live appearance on June 26 – two days before the album’s release – Megan revealed that she had last-minute issues with getting the anime’s studio approval. According to Rolling StoneMegan was told that she would have to either omit the anime sample or remove all references to character names in order to retain the rights to release the song. Billboard reports that Megan re-recorded “Otaku Hot Girl” in a makeshift studio hours before her June 11 show in Dallas to release the song.

“I really hope you guys think this shit sounds awesome, because I had to jump through eight million hoops to get this shit. When you hear the sample, you’ll know why they gave us such a hard time,” Megan said. “This is a very big production company, so like I said, I’m grateful they even agreed to do it – and I’m cussing and stuff. I’m not complaining. I really wanted this sample. I really wanted to do it, so I’m doing everything I can to keep it. But changing the names? Changing the names the day before the album came out? That was crazy.”

@ign There are so many video game references in Megan Thee Stallion’s BOA music video! #megantheestallion #boa #music #video #games #spacechannel5 #crashbandicoot #onepiece #mortalkombat #ddr #roomba #tekken #scottpilgrim #streetfighter #soulcalibur #spongebob #squidward #ign #sidebyside #reference #easteregg #gaming #gamingontiktok ♬ Original sound – IGN

Megan’s LP is not only chock full of clever anime references; she also showed her love to the gamers of the world with her music video for Boa. In the song, which references One Piece character Boa Hancock, recalled to a wealth of video games. The most important ones include Crash Bandicoot, Mortal Kombat, Dance Dance Revolution, Street Fighter and Tekken. If Megan’s affinity for video games is still in question, Boa’s single covers paid off Homage to the box art of the PlayStation 2 video game.

In Our rating for Jujutsu Kaisen’s second season, we gave the series 6/10, saying, “Jujutsu Kaisen offers plenty of spectacle, but little else during the Shibuya Incident arc.”

Photo credit: @theestallion on Instagram

Isaiah Colbert is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter at @ShinEyeZehUhh.