Megan Thee Stallion wasn‘t always the confident and empowering woman fans now know and love. And if it weren’t for school bullies that the rapper mentions in her new documentary, “Megan Thee Stallion: In Her Words,” the public might not have met Hot Girl Meg.

Megan Thee Stallion was born Megan Pete in San Antonio, Texas, in 1995. Shortly after giving birth, her mother, Holly Thomas, moved them to Houston, Texas. Her father, Joseph Pete Jr., went to prison shortly after she was born and was released when Meg was 8 years old.

Having been raised by strong women, including her mother and grandmothers who constantly uplifted her, Megan Thee Stallion felt empowered to achieve whatever she pursued. Until she started getting bullied for being “the tallest kid in school,” that is.

“I was a little crybaby,“ Megan Thee Stallion explains in the doc. ”You could say one thing I don’t like and I was in shambles.” Despite her mom telling her to “stop crying” and “demand your respect,” the rapper still struggled to hold her own.

When her father, who she had become “inseparable” from, died while she was in the ninth grade, she was still dealing with school bullies at Pearland High School in Pearland, Texas. Knowing her mom was “a wreck” following his death, Megan admitted she put all her energy into being strong for her mother. This inevitably led to the creation of her alter ego.

“That’s when I really started creating Megan Thee Stallion,” the “Bigger In Texas” rapper revealed in the documentary. ”When I’m rappin’, I get to pretend to be someone stronger than I actually am.”

Megan Thee Stallion’s family connection to rap music

Megan Thee Stallion didn‘t have to do much research when finding her footing in rap music. Her mother Holly Thomas, who passed away in March 2019 from a brain tumor, was heavily involved in Houston’s music scene from 2001 to 2007.

Performing under the moniker “Holly-Wood,” Thomas frequently brought Megan Thee Stallion to recording sessions with her and would rap to instrumentals “over and over” at home or in the car. Because of this, the “Savage” rapper grew up taking mental notes of her mother’s rhyme schemes and even credits her mom for teaching her how to rap.

After her father passed away and she started crafting her rapping alter ego, Megan explains in her documentary, “Everything I did, I feel like I was trying to impress my mama. I wanted her to feel like she could pass the torch to me.”

To the public, it might seem like Megan Thee Stallion rose to fame suddenly, but that’s not quite the case. In reality, the rapper had been working on her craft for nearly a decade before one of her songs — 2019’s “Big Ole Freak” — graced the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

You could say from that point on, the rest is history. But that’s not exactly the case. The Texas-born rapper has faced her fair share of hard times since her music career started popping off.

From the death of her mother who also served as her manager in March 2019, to getting shot by rapper Torey Lanez in 2020 and facing backlash for speaking her truth about the matter up until Lanez was found guilty of shooting her by a Los Angeles court in December 2022, Megan Thee Stallion has managed to rise above it all while finding herself — Megan Pete — once again.

“Megan Thee Stallion: In Her Words” is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

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