Houston is well known for its very own unique style of rap after originating chopped and screwed music and birthing legends like Pimp C, Bun B, Lil Mo, Slim Thug, Paul Wall, and Mike Jones. Nonetheless, there’s a new budding star, Megan Thee Stallion, who’s been shining brightly lately. After over a million views on her ‘Stalli Freestyle’ and over 100,000 monthly listens on Spotify, Megan has caught the attention of Karen Civil who named her one of the Top five up and coming female rappers to look out for. She’s the first female rapper to garner as much respect and attention, as she has out of Texas’ southern region and her Houston rap counterparts, have taken her in with much pride ready to vouch for her talents.
We sat down with the self-proclaimed H-Town Hottie herself and discussed her newly released Tina Snow EP, her alter ego, what made her start taking rap seriously, managing to balance a rap career while simultaneously pursuing a Bachelor’s degree, and more.
Who is Tina Snow and why Tina Snow?
Tina Snow is my alter ego and she’s the pimp and the mack. Tony Snow was one of Pimp C’s many aliases, and Pimp C is my favorite rapper. He just makes me feel so cool and so laid back. I get into my act when I listen to Pimp C so I turn myself into Tina Snow, his opposite. When people listen to me I want them to feel cool as hell. I want them to get in their act when they’re listening to Tina Snow.
Your “Stalli Freestyle” garnered over a million views on YouTube. Why do you think it turned into such a big deal? What was your creative space in making that? Did you think it would be as big of a deal as it is?
No, I didn’t. I used to make videos for Instagram just freestyling on the videos. One day I was about to go to the studio to record and before I had actually walked into the studio I had just made a video outside of the studio. When it started catching on so many people were like, “Make this a song! I want to jam this every day. So I recorded it, made it a song, shot a video, and BOOM!
You have a good fan base across all social media platforms from Twitter to Instagram. They really follow you and they really support you and you can tell they consider themselves apart of your movement. What type of people do you think your fans are and why do you think they are attracted to you?
What I’ve noticed about everybody that supports me is that they feel like my cousins or my actual friends. They’re people that I would really hang out with. I was in Atlanta doing a show out there and all the hotties came out and we were all in a section chilling like we’ve been knowing each other. They’re real cool and they’re real laid back. They definitely like to turn up but it just feels like I’ve been knowing them forever. Every hottie I meet they act just like that. I be like, “Dang! Are these my friends or how long have I been knowing yall? Five seconds?” [laughs]
The people that have been supporting me since day one are who I really target when I’m making music. If you’ve been liking me since my SoundCloud mixtape, Rich Ratchet, then you’ve really seen me grow into this Tina Snow EP.
Best advice that you’ve received while you’ve been pursuing this career and from who?
I’m going to have to say from my mama. My mama tells me every day, “Kill these h*es! Go hard on these h*es.” I don’t know why my mother talks to me like that but every time I’m doing something she’s like, “Megan, go out here and wreck these h*es” and I’m like okay I guess that’s just my daily motto.
When I wake up and I’m getting ready — I’m like dang I got to wreck these h*es. Or if I’m writing a song — I’m like dang I got to wreck these h*es. Pouring up my drink — I’m like dang I got to wreck these h*es. So yes, the best advice that my mom has ever given me is “to wreck these h*es!”
Photographer: IcedUp Photography
Creative Director: Sydney Escada
I know your mom was a rapper previously. How did she feel about the sexual content of your rap when she first heard it and how does she feel about it now?
When she first heard me rap she was like, “Oh hell no! You’re not coming out until you’re 21.” When I turned 21 she was like okay just jump off the porch. So now when I’m rapping she’s like, “Okay Megan GO HARD!” —or she’ll say, “You want to say that? No, you should go hard like this”. So now I’m like, “Okay be as raw as I want to be? Cool.” My mom once stated, “If Lil Kim’s mom can sit through her cursing like that then I can do it too.”
How is your content versus the content of your mom’s rap when she was rapping?
My mama was more of a gangster rapper than a sensual rapper. I’m a lover.
Is there anything in particular that made you want to go the sensual/lover route as a rapper?
I’ve always been obsessed with myself so when I’m rapping I want to convey that. I want you to feel how much I’m in love with myself.
I used to listen to a lot of Three-6-Mafia and my favorite song when I was about 10 or maybe even younger than 10 — but it was “The Nasty Song” by Lil Ru. I used to think that if I was a rapper this is what I would sound like.
Do you think men are intimidated by you especially you being a rapper and a pretty dominant female overall?
Honestly, I call myself Thee Stallion because obviously, I’m tall and fine. So men are immediately intimidated by the height anyway. I’m 5’10. Then, when I’m rapping I come off very strong. I feel like guys don’t know how to come at me at first but they get to know me then they’re like okay maybe she’s not going to rip my head off.
You already had a good following on Instagram before you started rapping. What about that already established influence made you want to start rapping?
When I got in college I went to Prairie View A&M and I maybe had about 6,000 followers when I got there. I had already been pretty poppin’ in high school because I just love to cut up so that’s probably why I had a good following. So when I got to Prairie View, I don’t know what it was that made me tell everybody I could rap but it’s something I had really wanted to do because I had already been writing for a long time at this point. One day I was at a kickback and these guys were rapping. I just randomly told them, “I can rap too”. They were like, “No you can’t.” I said yes I can!
After I spit my verse my homegirl was like, “Wow! You can really rap. Let’s put it on YouTube”. I went in my dorm room the next day and she recorded me. It’s called “Killing Sh*t.” I was freestyling over the 8 Ball & MJG “Sho Nuff” beat. After that everybody knew Megan could rap and my following just took off from there.
Did you used to practice freestyling?
I mean in the shower I’m always rapping and singing so I guess that was my practice. But I love words. I love playing off different words. I think it’s called a homograph where one word means one thing but it also means another thing. English has always been my favorite subject so I’m always trying to figure out how to put my words and sentences together to make them sound very clever.
From starting out freestyling at college parties and in your dorm room to now you’re getting a lot of respect from a lot of respected people in the industry. Where do you think the change happened where it triggered this new found respect and this newfound influence?
I feel like when the content started spreading and the people were actually getting to see it. Like when Missy Elliott saw my Tay-K “The Race” freestyle and commented fire emojis on it I was like oh my God! My friend told me to get on Twitter because Missy had just retweeted my freestyle. I feel like that then made more people start saying, “Who is this girl?”
How has it been for you so far balancing both school and a budding rap career?
Honestly, it just started getting a little challenging. I have a semester and a half left. I didn’t get to go to summer school because summer school is every day of the week and so far I’ve been doing things with my music and music-related every day. I’m writing every day or thinking of treatments for videos. Sometimes when I’m in class I’ll be writing. I’m for sure listening but I’m like for sure writing a song at the same time.
But definitely, when school starts back I will only go to school two days a week on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s from 8am-8pm on those days. So I still have a lot of time to do my music too.
What are you pursuing your Bachelor’s degree in?
I’m working on getting my degree in Health Administration. I want to open up some assisted living facilities around my city and take care of the elderly people — well, all the people in my city.
I’m probably not going to be able to do it but I wanted to be the administrator over a hospital. Well, what I want to do is open up those assistant living facilities and I want my classmates to run it because you know when you get out of college it’s kind of hard to find a job.
You can stream the Tina Snow EP here.
