Megan Thee Stallion is built for this. Being from Houston, TX, hip-hop has surrounded Megan and she’s making the best of it. She’s developed one of the most loyal followings in the industry for her memorable beats, edgy lyrics, and instrumentals as heard on her hit single “Big Ole Freak.” Who introduced her into the rap game? Her mother, who just passed away this year. Her mother, Holly Thomas, went by the emcee name of Holly-Wood. So, influenced by her mother, Megan got started with a microphone in her hand at an early age.
In a recent interview with the Undefeated’s Keith Murphy, Megan reminisced on her days growing up in the industry and following her mother around.
“I remember leaving school and my mom would pick me up and we would go straight to the recording studio,” recalled Megan. “We would be in that damn studio from 7 p.m. till 2 in the morning. My mom thought I was asleep or watching TV, but I was really listening to the instrumentals being played over and over. So I would be in the other room just writing rhymes in my little kid’s folder, just things that I thought sounded cool. I owe everything to my mom.”
Megan’s quote reiterates the fact that the industry has surrounded her and that’s what makes her current rise to fame so meaningful. Meg’s mother died in March of a brain tumor. She was always a big supporter of Megan and was proud of her rise to success up until she died. Seeing her daughter continue to ascend up the ranks would undoubtedly put a smile on her face.
Belcalis Almánzar, also known as Cardi B helped put the east coast on the map, but Meg brings a southern grit to the table that echoes the sounds of a combination of UGK’s Pimp C and Lil’ Kim, with a little bit of Trina.
With being a 5-foot-10 woman with such an aggressive, sexual approach to her artistry, it makes people uncomfortable. It’s not considered to be ladylike, or appropriate (which it isn’t for those under 16 years old), but Meg is unapologetically herself and doesn’t care much what others think.
From the outside looking in, listening and thinking about all that Megan Thee Stallion raps about, the typical person wouldn’t think that she’s currently attending Texas Southern University. She’s in classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays for the entire day, so she schedules her shows around her school schedule. As you would guess, but to her surprise, fellow students and even professors recognize who she is and attends her shows, and follows her on social media.
She just dropped an album titled ‘Fever,’ featuring Juicy J and DaBaby, which dropped today. She also has an opening slot on Cardi B’s female-only concert showcase, Femme It Forward, which starts in a little over a week on May 25. Not to mention her overload of music festival appearances.
Megan doesn’t hide her explicit content, which can rub people the wrong way. Megan talked about that. She voiced how she’s always liked to talk a lot of sh*t.
“It was really kind of an accident. I know that I like to talk a lot of sh*t. And I know that a lot of women may be scared to say certain things or may be scared to carry themselves in a certain type of way because we’ve been conditioned to just be a little princess. We’re supposed to be prim and proper. People hold women up to a ridiculously high standard to the point that we don’t get the chance to let loose.
So when I listen to some of my favorite rappers like Juicy J and Pimp C, I’m like, ‘Wow, these lyrics are so crazy, so raw! This would sound really good if a woman were saying them.’ So if this is as raunchy as the boys can get and if this is as hard as they can go, I feel like women should be able to do that too.”
Megan is right. I’ve admittedly always been the type of man to hold women to a higher standard than men. It has gotten to the point where it’s subconscious. Most are conditioned to think that way, and in my case, it’s not because I don’t think women should have as much fun as men, I just think women are better than men.
The stereotype of men is that they’re dogs, which is true in many cases. What separates a good man from a dog is whether they act on their dog-like impulses or not. I’ve just always thought of women being better, smarter, more composed, and overall better people in general, than men. I still wholeheartedly believe that, but that doesn’t mean that women can’t have fun, too. That’s where we’re cheating women. Just like men, there are so many vastly different types of women. They have the same thoughts as us, they just haven’t been given the green light to act upon them as men do. Meg is going to do Meg and we might as well deal with it and enjoy the fun.