KOKOnista Of The Day: Megan Thee Stallion Is The New First Lady Of Hip-hop

Megan Jovon Ruth Pete known professionally as Megan Thee Stallion, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter and the new first lady of rap music.

Megan Jovon Ruth Pete was born in San Antonio, Texas, and her mother, Holly Aleece Thomas, immediately moved to Houston after her birth. Thomas rapped under the name “Holly-Wood” and would bring her daughter with her to recording sessions instead of putting her in daycare. Pete was raised in the South Park neighbourhood of Houston, before moving with her mother to Pearland, Texas at age 14, where she lived until she turned 18.
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Pete began writing raps at age 16. When she told her mother that she wanted to rap, Holly required that Pete wait until she was 21 to pursue rapping as a career. Her mother commented that her lyrics were too sexually suggestive for her young age. Pete attended Pearland High School and graduated in 2013. Her father died during her freshman year of high school.

In 2013, while Pete was a student at Prairie View A&M University, she began uploading videos of herself freestyling on social media. A clip of Pete battling against male opponents in a “cypher” went viral. Best Dressed Celebrities At MTV VMA Awards 2019The exposure helped Pete gain a larger digital presence and following on social media. She garnered fans by posting her freestyles on her Instagram while in college. She refers to her fans as “hotties” and credits her hyperactive fan base for her early success.

She adopted the stage name “Megan Thee Stallion” because she was called a “stallion” in adolescence due to her height (5′10″) and “thick” body frame: voluptuous and statuesque women in the South are colloquially called stallions.

Megan Thee Stallion signed to 300 Entertainment in 2018 where she released the mixtape Fever (2019), the extended play Suga (2020), and her debut studio album, Good News (2020); all of which peaked in the top 10 of the Billboard 200. Megan Thee Stallion
Her single “Savage (Remix)” featuring Beyoncé, and her feature on Cardi B’s single “WAP”, both released in 2020, each reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, with the latter providing Megan with her first number one in several other countries. At the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards, she became the first female hip hop artist to win Best New Artist since Lauryn Hill in 1999.

Throughout her career, Megan Thee Stallion has received several accolades, including two BET Awards, five BET Hip Hop Awards, two MTV Video Music Awards, a Billboard Women in Music Award, and three Grammy Awards.
In 2020, Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world on their annual list.

Photo Credit: Getty

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