Megan Thee Stallion: Photos From the Billboard Cover Shoot

It's the first night of July's Broccoli City festival in Washington, DC, and actress-writer-producer Issa Rae has some exciting news to share with the 30,000 fans in attendance: She's releasing her first rap album. Though moments later she clarifies that it was all a joke, the Hollywood mogul reveals what could have stood in her way if she really wanted to be music's top female rapper. “Megan Thee Stallion has bars and body,” Rae says as she introduces Megan's set of headliners. “It's really intimidating. I can't look her in the eye for a long time.”

It's easy to see why Megan Thee Stallion would give anyone pause. Standing at 5ft 10in, she's bold, bright and daring – an awe-inspiring trifecta. When I meet Megan at DC's Four Seasons Hotel the next morning, her larger-than-life persona is in full force: Clutching a Louis Vuitton Murakami bag, she enters the hotel's plush suite with model-like precision as if it were her own. airport runway. But her commanding aura quickly melts away to reveal her signature spirit. When we last spoke two years ago, Megan gave me a hard time when she found out I'd never had Flamin' Hot Cheetos — and neither of us has forgotten. “So you've really never tried Hot Cheetos?” he asks before giving me a puzzled look. “What kind of childhood did you have?”

In 2020, the two Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 — her “Savage (Remix)” with Beyoncé and her collaboration with Cardi B, “WAP” — helped make her one of the biggest names in pop culture and her three Grammy Awards in early 2021 consolidated its critical bonafides.

Read the full Billboard cover story here.