THEY'RE NO
JUAN SOTO

Megan Thee Stallion and NBA YoungBoy are unquestionably the two hottest free agents on the current artist landscape. So what might their next moves be? Thee Stallion has racked up 6.7b streams in the U.S. (1.8b worldwide on Spotify) and 4.7m in total activity; YoungBoy has amassed about 28b streams in the U.S., 6.8b global on Spotify, with a total ATD of 16m.

One question insiders are buzzing about is whether 300/Atlantic has a sufficiently strong relationship with Megan’s Des Perez-led Roc Nation team to negotiate her new deal with them—or whether she’s ready to take a check from some other deep pocket. The artist recently disentangled herself from a cumbersome deal with Carl Crawford’s 1501 Certified Entertainment, through which she was inked to 300. But since the latter’s estimated $400m acquisition by Atlantic/WMG, the ball is clearly in the new team’s hands.

YoungBoy, meanwhile, is said to be fielding substantial offers from both an East Coast and a West Coast major as well as a possible renewal with Atlantic. The rapper came to Atlantic via its deal with Mike Caren’s APG (which retains YoungBoy's publishing).

Insiders now predict YoungBoy will go elsewhere and Megan will re-up with Atlantic. It would certainly be a major blow for the label to lose both acts, which came to them through the acquisition of companies with a combined price tag of $900m.