Megan Thee Stallion is an American performer and rapper. She is originally from Houston, Texas, and initially came to public recognition after videos of her freestyling became viral on Instagram. Although Megan is the first name she goes by, Megan Jovon Ruth Pete is her entire legal name. She chose the stage name “Megan Thee Stallion” because, as a teenager, people referred to her as a “stallion” because of her height and body frame.
What is known about Megan Thee Stallions’ early life?
Megan Thee Stallion was born in San Antonio, Texas, on February 15, 1995. Her mother, Holly Thomas, moved to Houston right away. Thomas, who performed as “Holly-Wood,” brought her daughter to the recording sessions rather than putting her in childcare. Before moving with her mother to Pearland, Texas, at the age of 14, Stallion was raised in Houston’s South Neighborhood. She remained there until she was 18 years old. Megan started making raps at the age of 14.
At age 18, when Megan showed her interest in rapping to her mother, Holly insisted that she should wait until she was 21 before pursuing rapping as a career because, according to Holly, her lyrics were inappropriate for her young age because they were too sexually explicit.
2013 saw Megan graduate from Pearland High School. During her first year of high school, unfortunately, her father passed away
Megan started posting videos of herself freestyling on social media in 2013 when she was a student at Prairie View A&M University. A video of Pete competing in a “cipher” against male opponents quickly gained popularity and helped her to increase her online popularity and social media following. While in college, she gained followers by sharing her freestyle on Instagram. She calls her followers “hotties” and attributes her early success to her devoted following. Pete returned to Texas Southern University after taking a break from her studies. On December 11, 2021, she received her bachelor’s degree in health administration.
What is the success story of Meghan Thee Stallions’ career?
Following the release of her debut single “Like a Stallion” in April 2016, Megan Thee Stallion released two brief mixtapes exclusively on SoundCloud, titled Rich Ratchet (2016) and Megan Mix (2017).
With the commercially released EP Make It Hot, Megan Thee Stallion made her solo professional debut in September 2017. During this period, the EP’s 2017 hit “Last Week in HTx” became her most popular track, garnering millions of views on YouTube.
As a cover of one of late rapper XXXTentacion’s song, Megan Thee Stallion released the song “Stalli (Freestyle),” in 2017.
Megan Thee Stallion joined 1501 Certified Entertainment in the beginning of 2018, a Houston-based independent label run by T. Farris and owned by retired baseball player Carl Crawford. She later had a performance at SXSW in March 2018 after becoming the label’s first female rapper. Under the label, Megan Thee Stallion released am EP named Tina Snow, a 10-song extended play, in June 2018. Tina Snow, her alter persona who she describes as more authentic version of herself. The EP Tina Snow was a success and was received positively by critics.
Megan Thee Stallion released “Big Ole Freak” as the lead single from her EP, Tina Snow, on January 22, 2019, and she also produced a music video for the song which gave Megan Thee Stallion her first chart, which peaked at number 99 on the Billboard Hot 100 on April 15.
On May 17, 2019, she launched her second mixtape, Fever. The album was well-received and included on many year-end critic’s lists; Paper named it the greatest album of the year.
On August 9, 2019, American rapper Nicki Minaj and singer Ty Dolla Sign collaborated with Megan Thee Stallion on the song “Hot Girl Summer.” It became Megan Thee Stallion’s first top 20 single, peaked at number 11 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and topped the Rolling Stone 100.
Megan Thee Stallion was also included on Time’s first-ever “Time 100 Next” list in November 2019.
For the soundtrack of the superhero movie Birds of Prey, which was released the same year, Megan Thee Stallion and singer Normani collaborated on the single “Diamonds,” which was released in January 2020.
Her EP, Suga, was released on March 6, 2020. The song “Savage” went viral on social media that same month after prominent user Keara Wilson used it in a dance challenge video. As of March 20, 2020, the video had had 15.7 million views and 2.4 million likes. On April 29, a remix starring Beyoncé was made available. Soon after the remix was released, the song entered the top 10 in the US charts for Megan thee Stallion for the first time, eventually peaking at number one.
She debuted as a studio artist in 2020 with the critically acclaimed Good News album, which made multiple year-end best album lists. She achieved her first and second number-one songs on the US Billboard Hot 100 with the remix of “Savage” and her cameo on Cardi B’s track “WAP,”
What other activities were Megan Thee Stallion involved in?
Megan Thee Stallion and Beyonce’s Savage (Remix) both donated all of their revenues to Bread of Life, an organization that supports the local Houston neighborhoods affected by Hurricane COVID-19. The song was successful in earning more than $2.5 million.
The “Don’t Stop” Scholarship Fund, established by Megan in collaboration with Amazon Music, to award $10,000 scholarships to each of two women of color pursuing associate, bachelor, or postgraduate degrees in any subject in October 2020.
Fashion Nova and Megan worked together in March 2021 for the “Women on Top”, an initiative which would provide $1 million to help women-led businesses and organisations, one of the recipients was the YWCA in Houston.
Megan and Nike collaborated on a marketing campaign and fitness programme through the Nike Training Club app in September 2021.
On February 17, 2022, it was revealed that Megan would co-star in F*cking Identical Twins, A24’s debut musical film.
Megan Thee Stallion and the international fast food chain Popeyes announced on October 14, 2021 that they were to collaborate which would include her own Popeyes franchise, a new hot sauce (Megan Thee Stallion Hottie Sauce), and co-branded products.
In 2022, she collaborated with Cheetos on a Super Bowl ad.