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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