For a good five or six years, Megan Thee Stallion has been breaking ground for more women rappers in the game. The Houston rapper mixes a dynamic flow and in-your-face lyrics in ways that most of her peers wouldn't dream - and the results are not only pure hip-hop bliss but a well-earned run of success, from her chart-topping singles "Savage" and "WAP" (a duet with fellow emcee Cardi B) to the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 2021 - only the second time the trophy went to a female rapper.
But where does she get her aliases? The emcee born Megan Pete has taken on a few names in her short but pivotal career - and not all of them are mere nicknames.
Megan Thee Stallion took her stage name based on her frame: at 5'10" and curves for days, that's just what guys called her. ("I don't know where the body came from," she told VIBE early on.) But she's used projects to push forward other sides of her personality. After freestyling around Houston, her debut EP was 2018's Tina Snow - not just a cool name, but a sexy, confident alter ego she utilized to pus the envelope. "Tina is the more pimp-ish side of me...the raw version of Megan, she just don’t give a damn," she said at the time. (It's also a gender-flipped tribute to the late Pimp C - one-half of the Southern duo Underground Kingz (UGK) who would take on the alter ego Tony Snow.)
Even her single that really grabbed mainstream attention, the Top 20 hit "Hot Girl Summer," is part of a persona. "Hot Girl Meg," she told Complex, is her answer to "the party girl, the college girl...she likes to turn up, to have fun." (Megan is a woman of letters herself; just last year, in 2021, she completed her studies at Texas Southern University, earned a B.S. in health administration.
Brains, beauty and talent...wherever Meg goes next, we know it'll be good news.