Is Megan Thee Stallion the next Cardi B? From humble beginnings to road to fame, both rappers share a lot in common
Despite having female emcees in the late '80s and early '90s, hip-hop has always been a male-dominated genre. However, the case is not the same anymore as female emcees like Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion, Doja Cat, Nicki Minaj have now scaled such heights where they can easily call the shots. Whether it was for personal reasons or professional, Megan Thee Stallion and Cardi B are two rappers who were constantly in the news throughout 2020. They recently collaborated on the controversial track ‘WAP’ and also share a great bond on a personal level. Since, Megan Thee Stallion is dropping her debut album ‘Good News’ on November 20, 2020, we were wondering if Megan Thee Stallion the next Cardi B since their journeys have been quite similar on various fronts.
Humble beginnings
Megan Thee Stallion might be breathing a luxurious lifestyle right now but she had a humble beginning just like Cardi B. Megan was raised in South Park, Houston, Texas, which she has described to Rolling Stone as half "hood s- -t," half "family environment". The rapper had earlier said her dad, Joe Pete, was a “full-time hustler” who was imprisoned for the first eight years of her life and died when she was just 15. Megan’s mother Holly Thomas used to be a rapper herself but she died in March 2019 from a cancerous brain tumor. Cardi B, whose real name is Belcalis Almanzar, was born and raised in Bronx and is proud of her roots. The rapper has worked as a cashier at Amish Market in TriBeCa and she also briefly worked as a stripper before taking on a different career path.
Road to fame
Cardi B first shot to fame with the success of her single ‘Bodak Yellow’ in 2017 and it became the biggest single in the country, according to Billboard's Hot 100 chart. However, she had dropped a few mixtapes before she could taste the success and the same happened with Megan Thee Stallion. The 25-year-old rapper first started getting attention with her freestyle cyphers around 2013 and 2014 before finally making it big in 2019 with her single ‘Hot Girl Summer’ featuring Nicki Minaj and Ty Dolla $ign. Both the rappers currently enjoy a humongous fan following on their respective social media accounts. While Cardi B has been in the game for a little longer, she has amassed 78 million followers on Instagram, whereas, Megan currently has 17 million followers since she has just started out. In a short span of time, Megan’s net worth stands at $3 million whereas, Cardi B enjoys a fortune of $24 million, as reported by Celebrity Net Worth.
Interestingly, Cardi B and Megan’s first-ever collaboration became one of the biggest hits of 2020. The fan-favorite debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, giving Cardi B her fourth number-one single in the US and Megan her second. ‘WAP’ also went on to break several other records on the leading social media platforms. Since the release, the official audio of the hit single has got 117 million views on YouTube whereas, the official video stands strong with 258million views.
Strongly opinionated
Apart from her humble beginnings and rags-to-riches story, Megan Thee Stallion also shares a few other common traits with Cardi B. Both the female emcees are known for their loudmouth comments and have gained a name for calling a spade a spade. Both Megan and Cardi B have been part of controversies for their personal and professional reasons. They have also made headlines for flexing feminity on a number of occasions. According to Billboard, Cardi B speaking on the same lines said earlier, “Being a feminist is real simple; it’s that a woman can do things the same as a man. I’m equal to a Ni**a. Anything a man can do, I can do. I can finesse, I can hustle. We have the same freedom. I was top of the charts. I’m a woman and I did that. I do feel equal to a man.” Whereas, Megan has also been a strong advocate for black women. In her piece for The New York Times, she mentioned about her gunfire incident with Tory Lanez and said, “After a lot of self-reflection on the incident, I’ve realized that violence against women is not always connected to being in a relationship. Instead, it happens because too many men treat all women as objects, which helps them to justify inflicting abuse against us when we choose to exercise our own free will.”