Megan Thee Stallion

She signed with 1501 Certified Entertainment in 2018, and saw her mainstream breakthrough the following year with the release of her singles "Hot Girl Summer" (featuring Ty Dolla Sign and Nicki Minaj) and "Cash Shit" (featuring DaBaby); the former peaked at number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 while the latter received quadruple platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

After the shooting trial and following a prolonged legal dispute with her record label, Megan Thee Stallion parted ways with 1501 and 300 Entertainment in 2023 in favor of a career as an independent artist.

Megan has received several accolades on her career, including six BET Awards, five BET Hip Hop Awards, four American Music Awards, two MTV Video Music Awards, a Billboard Women in Music Award, and three Grammy Awards.

Megan Jovon Ruth Pete (born February 15, 1995), known professionally as Megan Thee Stallion (pronounced "Megan the Stallion"), is an American rapper.

Originally from Houston, Texas, she first garnered attention when videos of her freestyling became popular on social media platforms such as Instagram.

Megan Jovon Ruth Pete was born on February 15, 1995, in San Antonio, Texas; her mother, Holly 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 neighborhood of Houston before moving with her mother to Pearland at age 14, where she lived until she turned 18.

Pete began writing raps at age 14.

When she eventually showed Thomas her rapping skills at age 18, Thomas 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.

At the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards, she became the second female rapper to win Best New Artist (after Lauryn Hill in 1999).

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 freshman 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.

The 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.

After taking time off from school to pursue music, Pete returned home and resumed her studies at Texas Southern University.

She graduated on December 11, 2021, with a Bachelor of Science in health administration.

Pete adopted the stage name "Megan Thee Stallion" after she was called a "stallion" in adolescence due to her height (178 cm) and “thicc” body frame; voluptuous, statuesque women in the Southern United States may be colloquially called "stallions”.

In 2016, Megan Thee Stallion released her first single "Like a Stallion".

Around this time, Megan Thee Stallion auditioned to be a cast member on Love & Hip Hop: Houston; however, the proposed spin-off of the Love & Hip Hop franchise was postponed indefinitely in June 2016.

This was followed by the small SoundCloud-exclusive mixtapes Rich Ratchet later that year, and Megan Mix in 2017.

In September 2017, Megan Thee Stallion made her professional solo debut with the commercially released EP Make It Hot. The EP's 2017 single "Last Week in HTx" became her most successful single during this time, amassing several million views on YouTube.

In 2017, Megan Thee Stallion released the song "Stalli (Freestyle)", as a rework of late musician XXXTentacion's "Look at Me!".

In early 2018, Megan Thee Stallion signed with 1501 Certified Entertainment, an independent label in Houston run by T. Farris and owned by former baseball player Carl Crawford.

"Cash Shit" was also included on her commercial mixtape Fever (2019), which was followed by her extended play Suga (2020)—both of which peaked within the top ten of the Billboard 200.

Megan Thee Stallion earned two number-one songs on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2020 with her single "Savage Remix" (featuring Beyoncé) and her guest appearance on Cardi B's single "WAP".

The former won two Grammy Awards—Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song—while the latter became her first number-one song in several international markets, including the Billboard Global 200.

Her debut studio album, Good News (2020), was met with critical and commercial success—reaching number two on the Billboard 200.

It spawned the single "Body", which made her the first female act to release three number-one songs on the Streaming Songs chart within a year.

Her compilation album, Something for Thee Hotties (2021) peaked at number five on the Billboard 200 and spawned the Billboard Hot 100-top 20 single "Thot Shit", which received a Grammy Award nomination.

Her 2022 single, "Sweetest Pie" (with Dua Lipa) was met with similar success and preceded the release of her second album Traumazine (2022), which peaked at number four on the Billboard 200.

Her 2024 single, "Hiss" became her first solo song to top the Billboard Hot 100 and made her the first lead female rapper to debut atop the Billboard Global 200 chart.

In July 2020, Megan Thee Stallion was shot in the foot by Canadian rapper Tory Lanez in the Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles.

The shooting was a major thematic element of her debut album Good News.

In December 2022, Lanez was convicted on all counts in relation to the attack on her.

In 2020, Time magazine named her one of the 100 most-influential people in the world on their annual list.