Megan Thee Stallion has quickly become the
female rapper to watch, having shot into the
spotlight with her infectious confidence and
her jaw-dropping lyrics. But the star hasn't
always enjoyed the highlife. From her humble
roots to making history in the rap industry,
this is the stunning transformation of Megan
Thee Stallion.
Megan Thee Stallion was born on February 15th,
1995 in Bexar County, Texas, according to
E! News, and spent her early years in Houston.
And she's always been open about the positive
impact her Texan upbringing has had on her
life. In 2019, she told Rolling Stone,
"I feel like I have to put on for my city,
because we have so many legends and so many
greats. But I don't feel like we ever really
had a female rapper come from Houston or Texas
and shut s--- down."
"Who does not like Texas toast? How can you
even eat a sandwich without it being on Texas
toast?"
This girl is clearly Texas-proud, through
and through. And, as she told Vulture, there's
nothing she doesn't like about her home state.
She explained,
"I love doing shows in Texas because they
be turnt. I already know it's gonna be a party.
It's just really good energy every time."
It turns out that Megan may have had a very
different life trajectory if it wasn't for
her late mother's influence. Her mom, Holly
Thomas, was a rapper in the late '90s and
early 2000s, who went by the stage name Holly-Wood.
And it appears Megan spent her early years
soaking up Houston's rap culture in the studio,
thanks to her mom. Megan told Vulture in 2019,
"My mom is the first female rapper I've ever
known. I'm thinking, like, 'Okay, yeah, this
is normal. Everybody's doing this.'"
"She would have me in the waiting room, in
the studio, but I'm like at the door, like,
listening like, ok, yeah, yeah, that's what
you said?"
Megan was seriously hooked from an early age.
She described how she would listen to her
mom at work and envision how she would one
day follow in her footsteps. But while she
took inspirational elements from her mom,
Megan certainly forged her own path in the
industry. She explained to The Source,
"My mama was more of a gangster rapper than
a sensual rapper. I'm a lover."
These days, Megan Thee Stallion is the ultimate
picture of confidence and self-assurance.
But as a kid, she had yet to truly discover
her own voice. In 2019, she spoke to Billboard
about her experiences with bullying in elementary
school. She eventually told her mom about
the situation, and Holly encouraged her to
stand her ground. Megan remembered,
"She was like […] 'Girl, f--- her. You go
to school and you say this.'"
"After that, I just never gave a f--- about
what anybody had to say about me. So just
don't give a f---."
She took her mom's advice, recalling how good
it felt to really stand up for herself. And
ever since receiving her mom's words of wisdom,
Megan has been positively owning her confidence.
As she explained to Billboard,
"You can't let anybody tell you that you're
not a queen."
Megan's mother wasn't the only one who was
hugely influential on the rapper. Her late
father was also instrumental in her development
as a kid. But her relationship with her dad
was a little more complicated. She explained
to Marie Claire,
"My dad was definitely my best friend, but
for the first eight years of my life, he was
in jail."
Once he was released from prison, he and Megan
became inseparable. Revealing that they spent
everyday together, when her dad was reunited
with the family, Megan witnessed her parent's
healthy relationship — and developed an
understanding of real love. She remembered,
"I saw how he treated my mom, and I saw how
my dad treated me. I have so many strong positive
influences. I’m not going to lower my standards."
"I'm a bad b----. Where you goin' after this?"
After spending years listening to her mom,
Megan finally started writing her own bars
at just 14 years old. She spoke to XXL about
how she got her start, revealing,
"I was in [the studio] writing too. [My mom
would] be over her instrumentals, doing her
thing, but I'll be in there, secretly putting
it together in my head."
"I been like secretly rapping since I was
like 7."
That hobby quickly developed into Megan stealing
her mom's beat CDs so that she could practice
rapping in secret. But even though she started
honing her chops at 14, it wasn't until four
years later that she worked up the courage
to share her hidden talents with her mom.
It's clear that Megan fell in love with rapping
as a teen. But even though she was already
familiar with the industry, thanks to her
mom, young Megan was initially hesitant to
perform in front of, well, anyone. She explained
to Rolling Stone,
"I was kind of shy about telling people that
I could rap for the longest. […] I never
wanted anybody to know that I could even rap.
Even when I got to college and I told my best
friend I could rap, she'll be like, 'OK. Well,
then rap.'"
"I was just like, when I grow up, I'ma be
a rapper."
Of course, when she finally stepped out with
her skills in public, she said,
"I was confident in myself, but I didn't really
know how people would react to how I thought
about myself on the inside."
It probably goes without saying that Megan
Thee Stallion's real name isn't "Megan Thee
Stallion." It turns out, the rapper's professional
name actually came from Megan being tall for
her age, in high school. The stunner is 5'10"
and she has reportedly been roughly this height
since she was a teen. She explained to Vulture,
"In the South, they call girls that are tall
and fine 'stallion.'"
She recalled one early incident when an older
man used the term in reference to her. It
was then that she heard it for the first time.
"I'm like what?! What is that! Like, I, you
know, I didn't know what it was, 'cuz I'm
like 15, I never heard nobody say that before."
Megan immediately told the guy to back off,
but she flipped the table and took the name
"stallion" for herself — and these days,
she's totally owning it.
While Megan was exposed to rap culture from
a very early age, she didn't always plan on
making it her career. And it might surprise
many fans to learn that the rapper once thought
of pursuing a career in plastic surgery. Apparently,
she got the idea from watching TV as a kid.
She explained to XXL,
"I used to watch Dr. 90210 and I would see
the ladies would get up after they got their
boobs done, or their nose job and they'll
be all happy and s---."
"Who knows better than a woman, what a woman
wants to feel like."
But ultimately, Megan's fear of blood made
her dreams of becoming a plastic surgeon pretty
much impossible. Luckily, her killer bars
can make people feel just as happy as a nip
and tuck. As she told the outlet, she decided
that she'd quote, "just make bad b---- music"
instead.
Megan shared with Rolling Stone about how
she first began recording freestyles around
the Texas Southern University campus, where
she was studying health administration. And
all that work gave her the confidence to then
share her secret talent with her mom. Megan
recalled,
"I went home and told [my mom] I could rap,
and she was like, 'No you can't.'"
But once she proved she was serious, Megan's
famously suggestive lyrics caused her mom
some concern. According to Megan, mom Holly
said at the time,
"Oh my god! No, [you're] not coming out 'til
you're 21!"
Megan respected her mom's wishes, and her
mom went on to become her manager.
Megan rose to fame pretty quickly once she
started sharing her music. And like a true
21st century star, she used social media to
find her following of so-called "hotties,"
as she calls them. And she garnered that following
by posting videos on Instagram, YouTube, and
TikTok.
"I'm new to this, but I'm true to this."
It all began with her now-famous appearance
in a 2016 cypher . As MTV News reported, Megan
dominated with her confident delivery, and
the video soon went viral. She then began
uploading freestyles to Instagram, although
most have now been deleted. The next video
to hit the internet was Megan's "Stalli Freestyle,"
which grabbed attention worldwide after she
uploaded it in 2017.
Then came Megan's song "Big Ole Freak." The
track sparked a social media sensation, dubbed
the "Big Ole Freak Challenge", which saw women
all over the world twerk it like a boss. And,
if all of that still doesn't sound familiar,
in 2020, her song "Savage" became the soundtrack
to a viral TikTok dance challenge, and suddenly,
Megan was everywhere.
If Megan's record-breaking musical success
wasn't enviable enough already, the star has
another impressive claim to fame in the industry.
In 2018, she became the first female rapper
to ever sign with 300 Entertainment since
it began in 2012. The record label is responsible
for stars like Young Thug and Migos. At the
time, Megan was anxious, telling Rolling Stone,
"Is this really going to happen? Am I really
about to be signed?"
But it turned out that the budding star had
nothing to worry about. The team welcomed
her with balloons and a bottle of Hennessy,
and she signed the contract the same day.
In an Instagram video of the moment, Megan
and her mom celebrated the life-changing contract
that would kick-start her rise to international
fame.
Megan's mother clearly played a huge part
in her story. From inspiring her daughter
to become a rapper, to taking on the role
of her manager, Holly Thomas was an immensely
important figure in Megan's world. But in
2019, Holly tragically passed away after a
devastating battle with brain cancer. At the
time, Megan posted a touching tribute to her
mother on Instagram, which has since been
deleted, writing,
"We were together EVERYDAY, Holly was my biggest
cheerleader and toughest critic. She taught
me enough for 2 lifetimes and if you were
blessed to meet her she taught you something
too."
"Everybody knows that I had lost my mom. So
that's a thing that's really heavy on me all
the time."
Later that year, Megan took to Twitter to
explain the impact her mother's death had
on her and why she had continued to work so
tirelessly. She wrote,
"After my mom passed I promised myself I was
going to keep going hard [because] not only
is music my dream but it was her dream for
me too."
Finding success as a female pioneer in a male-dominated
industry isn't easy — but Megan is a prime
example of someone who is taking on the challenge
like a boss. The star is unafraid to speak
out for other female rappers everywhere, and
she's also serious about calling out a misogynistic
system. She told Billboard,
"I feel that artists in general, but definitely
women — if you are not dating somebody popping
or you are not just acting a complete a--,
then people nine times out of 10 are probably
not going to know who you are."
"I mean, you know, I think we did a damn good
job."
Speaking with i-D in 2019, Megan also explained
that she would never tear down another female
rapper to get to the top, no matter how tough
the hustle might be. She said,
"There's room for everybody. I really couldn't
care less what the next girl's doing. If she's
shining, that's good."
On July 12th, 2020, Megan was involved in
a terrifying incident, one that she called
the quote "worst experience of [her] life"
on Instagram Live. She revealed that she was
the victim of a crime that ended in a shooting.
In the video, she said,
"I was shot in both of my feet and I had to
get surgery to get […] the bullets taken
out."
Megan explained that the traumatic event could
have obviously been a lot more serious if
the bullets had hit her differently, adding,
"I know my mama and daddy, my granny had to
be looking out for me with that one."
"It was super scary, it was like, the worst
experience of my life."
The horrific incident was clearly quite sobering
for Megan. The trauma even caused her to back
off from social media for a minute, and focus
on making time for herself.
Even though Megan is clearly taking the rap
world by storm, her plans for the future may
reach beyond the music industry. And they
may lead to working in healthcare in some
way. She explained to Vulture,
"I don't know if it's just because I'm Black,
but I've seen it in a lot of Black households:
You have your great-aunt taking care of her
mom, and you have your grandmother taking
care of her mother, and then just so on and
so forth."
This presumably is what developed a spirit
of helping others, in the star. But would
a different career mean that she would give
up rapping altogether? Thankfully for fans,
she says absolutely not.
"I'm not gonna let music distract me from
school, I'm not gonna let school distract
me from music."
As Megan teased to NME in 2020, she's got
a whole lot of surprises up her sleeve. She
said,
"A whole big ole brand, whole big ole company
— it's gonna be worldwide, okay? I'm really
working on dynasty right now."
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