Her Mother, Holly Thomas, Was Also a Rapper

Megan grew up in a neighbourhood referred to as "Dead End" in the South Park area of Houston, which was home to the hip-hop collective known as the Screwed Up Click. Megan's own mother, Holly Thomas, was a part of that collective, rapping and releasing music from 2001 to 2007 under the name Holly-Wood. One of her biggest hits was a single dedicated to DJ Screw, the leader of the Screwed Up Click, and her mom served as a major inspiration [5] for Megan's own career. "I've been writing since I was maybe seven," she told Rolling Stone in March 2019. "I was kind of shy about telling people that I could rap for the longest."

Only two weeks after losing her great-grandmother in March 2019, Megan's mom (who also served as her manager), Holly, passed away at 47 [6] after a long battle with a cancerous brain tumor. Rather than taking time off to mourn, the artist pushed herself to keep performing and promoting her first album, Fever, because she knew that's what her mom would have wanted. "No matter what I'm going through, I still want to keep going," she told The FADER in May 2019. "Just to show people you can still be strong and you can still face your everyday life. Even when everything coming down on you. I didn't cancel none of my shows 'cause I just knew — I know — how my momma is, and I know she wouldn't want me to stop."

Her Parents Instilled Her With Confidence Her Whole Life

Megan doesn't just credit her mom for influencing her career — she also credits both of her parents for instilling her with so much confidence [7]. "All my life my parents have always told me, 'Oh, Megan, you're so awesome,' or, 'Oh, Megan, you look so good,'" she explained to Allure in September 2019 when asked about her emphasis on body confidence. "They put that confidence in me and they made me feel good about myself. There was nothing that I ever wanted to change about myself."

As a result, she wants to share that same message with her fans. "I feel like all girls should feel like that — super confident about themselves," she continued. "I don't know if nobody told them that they look good as hell when they were growing up. If I've got a voice to tell the ladies they look good and they don't need to change sh*t, then that's what I want to do. I want to make everybody feel like how my parents made me feel."

She Uses Her Music to Promote Self-Confidence in All Her Fans

In order to share her own self-confidence, Megan uses her music to help others feel just as good about themselves [8] and their bodies. "My music is me letting the world know how confident I am in myself, and me basically telling other women — and guys — how confident and how comfortable I believe they should be," she told Elle in June 2019. "I just want [the fans] to feel as good as me and know that there's nothing wrong with being unapologetically themselves."

One of Her Biggest Influences Growing Up Was Pimp C of UGK

When asked about her greatest musical influences, Megan includes the late Pimp C of UGK [9], a Texas rap icon, whom she'd been listening to since she was a toddler. She was drawn to his talk-rap delivery, and in 2006, she discovered his 2006 solo album, Pimpalation. "[Songs like] 'Take it Off' made me feel so confident and cool," she explained to Rolling Stone. "I was like, 'If a girl was saying this stuff, this will probably go even crazier!'"

Little did Megan know that, years later, she would become so big that Pimp C's wife would want to meet her [10]. "To know that I'm recognised by anyone in his family just makes me feel really good because I idolize that man," she gushed to The FADER.

She's Learned to Accept That Not Everyone Is Going to Like Her

As much as Megan loved the idea of Pimp C's lyrics coming from a woman rather than a man, she discovered that people were much more critical of her [11] and what she was saying than they were of her fellow male rappers. As she explained to Elle, "The dudes get to say whatever they want to say; they can say they want to come shoot your granny's house up, or have sex with however many women in their rap, and if I say how I'm going to come over and ride it, then I've said the worst thing you could ever say? You just can't please everybody."

Roc Nation Worked With Her School Schedule Before She Even Got Signed

In September 2019, Megan signed a management deal with JAY-Z's Roc Nation, and before she even signed, the entertainment agency worked with her schedule [12] while she enrolled at Texas Southern University. "When I was getting enrolled in school, they made sure things went smoothly," she told Billboard in December 2019. "They were supportive before I even got signed, so it feels like a family. I could really see myself being part of the team."

Her Dream Is to Open an Assisted-Living Facility

Though she's still in the process of finishing up her health administration degree, Megan's dream after she graduates is to open an assisted-living home [13] in Houston, where she is from. "I have seven more classes left — and the way this career is going, I can't fit a lot on my plate," she explained to Billboard. "So we're going to finish when we finish. But I grew up watching my grandmother take care of my great-grandmother, and I know there's other families going through that same thing, where you got two elderly people taking care of each other. I know it's hard, so I still want to make that easier for people in my community."

She Believes That Female Rappers Need to Support One Another

In the past, there may have only been room for one big female rap star at a time, but according to Megan, there's more than enough room in the world of rap for multiple females [14], and they should support one another, not tear them down. "I feel like since, like, forever, it has only been, like, one female rapper at a time," she told Essence during a March 2019 interview. "And naturally, women are competitive. So I feel like, without beef, hip-hop probably wouldn't even be what it is, so it's good to have, like, a little friendly competition here and there."

Of course, there's a fine line between "friendly competition" and ruthlessness. "I feel like eventually, we'll all realise that we're not trying to cross into each other's lane," she continued. "Just because we might be rapping about some of the same things, we're not doing it in the same way. There's enough room for all of us to eat. So as soon as we can get that together, then we'll be all right."

She Realised She Should Trademark "Hot Girl Summer" After Seeing Its Reach

Megan's decision to officially trademark "hot girl summer" came about after she realised how widely it was being used [15] without any credit going to her. "I really didn't even know that it was gonna catch on how it did," she told Allure. "It was just me talking sh*t, telling everybody I was gonna be me for the summer, and they should be them too, like as free as they can be. When I saw Wendy's and Forever 21 saying, 'Hey, are you having a Hot Girl Summer?' I was like, 'Hell no, Forever 21, you're going to have to pay me.' But I just wanted to get it trademarked because it's me. It's my thing."