Who Is Megan Thee Stallion? Houston Rapper's Debut 'Fever' Is a Summer Banger

There's a big fire in Texas and it's quite literally setting the rap industry ablaze. Megan Thee Stallion—perhaps the hottest thing in Houston right now—released her debut studio album, Fever, on Friday, and the project is already being hailed a summer banger across the Internet.

Full of Megan's braggadocio flavor and sex-positive style, Fever—like everything else in the 24-year-old's growing catalog—isn't for the faint of heart. It's also not for the surplus of males who have historically dominated the music industry, or those who have aimed to keep women on the sidelines. Hot Girl Meg—as she often refers to herself—makes music for the ladies, the women who aren't afraid to speak their mind, and she speaks up for those who are.

All those quiet conversations women have amongst their girlfriends, complete with raunchy vulgarity that sometimes mimics the way the boys have long been able to speak so freely? The authoritative and electrifying Megan recites it all with limitless confidence on the 40-minute, 14-track album, and she's does it with a bottle of cognac in her hand.

It's that commanding attitude—and the fact that Megan is simply a really strong and skilled rapper who knows how to flow over a killer beat—that's likely going to lead the breakout lyricists to superstar status.

Read below for everything to know about rap's newest sensation, Megan Thee Stallion.

Her career launched in 2017

It was in the middle of a suburb somewhere in Texas where Megan recorded her first music video for "Stalli Freestyle" in late 2017. Over a simple backdrop, Megan's rapid-fire verses laced with cocky commentary and finesse made her an instant standout. The video, which has garnered well over 2 million views since its release, led to Megan's first mixtape, Rich Ratchet and her first EP, Make it Hot. However, it was last year's Tina Snow EP—titled in homage to late Houston rapper Pimp C's alias Tony Snow—that signaled her rising star status. The record debuted at #11 on the iTunes Hip Hop Chart and remains in the top 20 at Urban Radio. Her hit single off the EP, "Big Ole Freak," landed on the Billboard charts in April and is steadily climbing.

She's signed to 300 Entertainment

Lyor Cohen and Kevin Liles' imprint, which helped launched the careers of artists like Young Thug and rap trio Migos, established a deal with Megan back in November, making her the first woman to join the label. Megan announced the news to her growing legion of fans, dubbed Hotties, in an Instagram video, in which she popped a bottle of champagne to celebrate. "Hotties!!!! I kno y'all have been begging for this moment just as much as I've been waiting on it. Many deals were presented to me but this just felt like the right move and now I'm officially signed THEE MF HOUSTON HOTTIE IS COMING TO SHUT S**T DOWN thank you carl @1501_certified_ent and farris @tfarrismoney for sticking with me @300ent FIRST MF LADY," she wrote.

She's a student at Texas Southern University

Born Megan Pete, the rapper is no one-trick pony. While Megan's been establishing her music career for the last two years, she's also been hitting the books at the Texas university. She is currently studying health administration, which she told Vulture was inspired by watching her grandmother help her great-grandmother. "Just watching [my grandmother] take care of [my great-grandmother] made me want to create a facility for people who are older to go and have somebody help them with their end-of-life care," she said.

"I see it in neighborhoods all around Houston. You got your people taking care of your people. I just feel like it'll be a weight lifted off of family members if they had somewhere for their grandparents to go and be comfortable. I want to give back; this is what I'm gonna do," she continued. "I don't know if it's just because I'm black, but I've seen it in a lot of black households: You have your great-aunt taking caring of her mom, and you have your grandmother taking care of her mother, and then just so on and so forth. So I'm like, okay, look, we need some help. So let me put some facilities around here so we can just take care of each other."

Her mother was a rapper

Megan's mom, Holly Thomas, is essentially the person who first sparked Megan's interest in rap. That's because Thomas, who went by the moniker Holly-Wood, was a rapper herself. "I knew I wanted to be a rapper when I was like 5," Megan said in a March interview with Essence magazine. "My mom was a rapper. I would go to the studio with her, and that definitely showed me I can do this. I wanna do this. I remember my first time ever listening to rappers like Pimp C and Biggie, and being like, 'All this would sound super cool if a girl was saying it,' so I gotta go do this."

When Megan expressed an interest in rap, her mom became her manager and helped her get started. Just a month before Megan's first album released, her mother died from battling brain cancer.