Megan Thee Stallion graces the cover of history-making Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue

Hot Girl Summer continues as the ordained ruler of the Hotties, Texan rapper Megan Thee Stallion, becomes the first rapper to ever grace the cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.

“I have a voice, I have a platform and I get to be the first rapper on the cover of Sports Illustrated,” Megan says in a behind-the-scenes video. “I’ve wanted to do it for so long. I’ve wanted to do it all my life. Like honestly, I was the little girl who was looking at Sports Illustrated like, ‘One day, this is gonna be me.’ And I manifested it! I wanted to do it and now I’m here.”

The rapper is known for confidently loving her figure, through her music and her social media presence, and showing off her “body-ody-ody-ody” fearlessly without concern about what anyone else thinks.

“I love myself. I don’t know what you love, but I’m gonna make you love me,” Megan declares. “If you don’t that’s fine too, and you can go look at whatever you wanna look at, but while you’re here with me right now you’re looking at me.”

Meg is joined by two other Swimsuit Issue cover stars, including professional tennis player Naomi Osaka and model/actress Leyna Bloom. All three woman make history as Osaka is the first Black woman athlete to appear on the swimsuit cover, and Bloom is the first openly transgender woman to appear on the coveted magazine cover slot.

“I have dreamt a million beautiful dreams, but for girls like me, most dreams are just fanciful hopes in a world that often erases and omits our history and even existence,” Bloom says of her cover appearance. “This moment is so powerful because it allows me to live forever even after my physical form is gone. Not a lot of people get to live in the future, so at this moment, I’m proudly choosing to live forever.”

Tyra Banks became the first Black woman to appear on the cover on Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue back in 1996. Since then, only two other Black women have been on the cover: Beyoncé and Danielle Herrington.

Real hot girl shit indeed, ladies.