MEGAN THEE INVINCIBLE

IT SEEMS THAT NOTHING CAN STOP HIP-HOP SUPERSTAR MEGAN THEE STALLION FROM BUILDING AN EMPIRE WORTHY OF HER ROLE MODEL, BEYONCÉ. THE MUSIC BUSINESS IS A KILLER - BUT SHE HAS ALREADY SURVIVED THE DEATH OF HER MOTHER, AN ARMY OF HATERS AND MOST RECENTLY A BLING RING-STYLE ROBBERY.

- Jabari Young

It's 11:30 pm in October, and Megan Thee Stallion is live from New York. The hip-hop sensation, 27, bounds up the Saturday Night Live stage, vamping for the cheering audience while wearing a tight sheer black dress and shimmering corset, her hair hanging to her calves.

Tonight, Megan will serve as both SNL's host and musical guest, joining an elite club of musicians including Jennifer Lopez, Mick Jagger, Queen Latifah, Debbie Harry, Elton John and Ray Charles who have done double duty for the show. She finishes her monologue and hustles backstage in high heels for the first of many split-second costume changes. Hot-pink scrubs for a hospital skit, then a preppy sweater and jeans for a log cabin scene. Next, the Grammy-winning rapper emerges in a Miss America-esque gown to perform her new single, "Anxiety" - a song about the stress and struggles of celebrity before again dashing backstage.

"I can't slow down right now," says Megan, whom Forbes estimates earned some $13 million in 2022 from a combination of royalties, ticket sales, endorsements and merch. Hit pause? Not for a second. "I'll take a break when I'm dead," she says. "I'm trying to really build something." She adds, "When I start sitting, I feel like I'm not doing enough or I'm giving somebody else the opportunity to pass me."

Since 2019, Megan Thee Stallion has surged ahead on hip hop's inside rail, leaping from $500 gigs in her hometown of Houston to partnering with music's biggest stars - Beyoncé, Nicki Minaj, BTS and Dua Lipa. In 2020, Cardi B tapped Megan to collaborate on "WAP," a lascivious anthem of female sexual positivity that became thee hit of the year with nearly 2 billion streams on Spotify and YouTube. “That was the song for her. I don’t think it would have made sense for anybody else,” Cardi B says. “She added that spark.”