Review Series: XXL Magazine's Freshman Class of 2019 - Megan Thee Stallion

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This article is part of a review series covering XXL Magazine's Freshman Class of 2019. For reviewing purposes any content covered is exclusive to the artist's most recent or highest acclaimed work, with the latter taking precedence.

Megan Thee Stallion is a blast to listen to. After trying very hard to come up with an accurate description, I think it can be best explained as "music to rob a bank to." Normally I listen to Kanye when I want to get pumped, but frankly with tracks like "Money Good" and "Realer" Megan's definitely entering the mix.

The cinematic cover of her most recent and first studio work, Fever, is no small stylistic choice. The tracks here feel very much like the soundtrack to a modern blaxploitation flick with plenty of booze, boobs, and bullets. Ms Stallion prides herself on her sexuality and, despite critcisms from her own rapper-mother Holly Thomas (stage name Holly-Wood) over the "ratchet"-quality of her lyrics, continues to write hyper-sexualized, confident tracks like "Cash Shit" (featuring fellow XXL Freshman Dababy), much to the pleasure of her fans.

She's actually pulling double duty as her music career starts its main ascent; she's a third year Health Administration student at Prairie View A&M due in part to her mother's insistence that she wait until she was 21 years old to start her rap career.

Megan is a strong presence in a Freshman class with no shortage of strong females, or strong artists in general. She's a big fish in a big pond and she clearly realizes it. In an interview with Rolling Stone, she explained by saying, ""I don't feel like we ever really had a female rapper come from Houston or Texas and shut shit down. So that's where I'm coming from."

With her sights set on stardom and the tracks to back her up, Megan Thee Stallion set herself up to be the next big thing long before XXL came along, but no one will blame her for icing that cake.

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