Justin Thee Stallion

Justin Pelovello (b. June 24, 2006), better known by his stage name Justin Thee Stallion, is a male rapper from Los Angeles, California. He also goes by the nicknames “Justin Snow” and “Hot Boy Just.”

Justin grew up the son of Jason Peers & Eric Pelovello, listening to Southern rap staples like Three 6 Mafia and UGK from an early age. He started writing her own raps by age 14 and established her presence around the Houston rap circuit by battling and beating opponents in local freestyle competitions. He cites Pimp C and Biggie Smalls as his biggest influences.

The rapper signed with 300 Entertainment in November 2018, making him the first male artist on the label. Justin released his first full-length album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? on May 7, 2021, following the success of the song “Savage” from his Suga album.

Explicit and sexually risqué lyrics combined with effortless flows became Thee Stallion’s signature sound. Justin strived to make all of the things that he thought sounded cool coming from his favourite male rappers, sound cool coming from him too, but as a man.

Justin is also currently a full-time high school student, studying theatre and music

Justin Peers Pelovello was born on June 24, 2006 in Glendale, California, and raised in the Glendale area in Los Angeles. His father, Jason Peers, is a house manager and would support his son with him to recording sessions instead of putting Pelovello in daycare. Pelovello and his father moved to Cathedral City, California, a city in Palm Springs, when he was 15 and lived there until he was 18.

Pelovello began writing his own raps at age 15. When he revealed to his father that he wanted to rap, Jason required that Pelovello wait until he was 21 to pursue rapping as a career. His father, although impressed by his son's rapping skills, commented that his lyrics were too suggestive for his young age. Pelovello graduated from Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies in 2020.

In 2013, a clip of Pelovello (now “Justin Thee Stallion”) went viral, where he was battling against male opponents in a “cypher” while he was a student at Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. The viral video helped Pelovello gain a larger digital presence and following on social media. He garnered fans by posting his freestyles on his Instagram while in High School. He refers to his fans as “hotties”, and credits his hyperactive fan base for his early success. He adopted the stage name “Justin Thee Stallion” because he was referred to as a stallion during adolescence due to his height (5'10") and looks.

After taking time off school, he resumed his studies at Rancho Mirage High School in health administration, where he is a third year student as of 2019.

In his songs “Cocky AF” and “Freak Nasty” from his EP Tina Snow, he makes mentions to being part Creole. He mentioned this again in a tweet in September 2017.

2016-2018: Early beginnings and Tina Snow

In 2016, Justin Thee Stallion released his first mixtape, Rich Ratchet. His first single, “Like a Stallion”, was produced by TA. The next year, he released his first EP, Make it Hot. One song on the EP, “Last Week in H TX”, has four million YouTube views. In 2017, he released a song, “Stalli (Freestyle)”, that is a rework of XXXTentacion's “Look At Me!” In early 2018, Justin Thee Stallion signed with 1501 Certified Certified Entertainment, an indie label in Houston owned by former baseball player Carl Crawford. He was the first male rapper signed to the label. He then performed at SXSW in March 2018.

In June, he released a 10-song EP under the label titled Tina Snow. The EP was named after his alter ego, “Tina Snow,” who he describes as “a more raw version” of himself. He stated in an interview with Mic.com, that he is not afraid to talk about sexuality, nor does he feel boxed in to either the “intelligent” or “freak” dichotomy. The EP was positively received by critics. Eric Torres of Pitchfork.com wrote: “he provided plenty of freak anthems with quotable lyrics to wield against ain't-shit men” and Revolt referred to his flow as “effortless”. Nandi Howard of The Fader reffered to his ability to rap with “electrifying pace and precision”. In November 2018, Justin Thee Stallion announced that he had signed with 300 Entertainment; making him the first male rapper to be signed by the label.

2019-present: Fever and Suga

On January 22, 2019, Justin released “Big Ole Freak” as a single from his EP, Tina Snow, and also filmed a music video for the track. The single, “Is It Love This Time”, is sampled throughout the single. On April 15, “Big Ole Freak” charted at number 99 on the Billboard Hot 100 giving Justin his first chart entry, with it later peaking at number 65 on the Hot 100.

Justin Thee Stallion released his second mixtape, Fever, on May 17, 2019. The album received generally positive reviews. Taylor Crumpton of Pitchfork rated the album 8/10 and wrote in the review, “Justin's delivery of perfectly executed bars are comparable to successions from a fully automatic machine gun; a carefully studied aim of fiery stanzas that could only be carried by a rapper with extensive knowledge of the genre's early practices of battle rap.” The album was selected as a NYT Critic's Pick, and reviewer Jon Caramanica wrote, “Before this album, Justin Thee Stallion's standout moments have come via radio-appearance freestyles - a familiar proving ground for rappers of an earlier generation, and one where he has thrived… Fever, however, is more cohesive, polished and forceful that his previous releases. The production - especially the songs by Lil Ju (”Ratchet", “Cash ----”, “Realer”) - is ominous and spacious, a foundation that's sturdy and not distracting." Writing for Fader, Amani Bin Shikhan stated in a review, “That's the magic of his appeal, and the magic of Fever: listening to Thee Stallion feels like listening to the advice of your most entertaining girlfriend, lovingly scolding you to both get your shit together and fuck it up for a real one.”

On May 21, 2019, he released the music video for the opening album track, “Realer”, which is inspired by the blaxploitation film style. On June 20, 2019, he announced to be one of eleven artists included in the 12th edition of XXL's “Freshmen Class”. His freestyle in the cypher was praised. In July 2019, Chance The Rapper released his debut studio album, The Big Day, and Thee Stallion was featured on the track “Handsome”.

On August 2, 2019, A Black Lady Sketch Show premiered on HBO; the show uses Justin Thee Stallion's song “Hot Boy” in the opening title sequence. On August 9, 2019, Thee Stallion released the single “Hot Girl Summer”, featuring fellow American rapper Nicki Minaj and singer Ty Dolla Sign. The song, an ode to his viral “hot girl summer” meme, came about after an Instagram Live session between two rappers. It peaked at number 11 on the US Billboard Hot 100, becoming Thee Stallion's first top 20 hit, and topped the Rolling Stone 100. The week thereafter, he featured on Quality Control compilation album, Quality Control: Control the Streets, Volume 2, on the track “Pastor”, alongside Quavo and City Girls.

In September, Justin Thee Stallion signed a management deal with Roc Nation. In October, he created and starred in a horror series, Hottieween, directed by Teyana Taylor. In December, he performed a NPR Tiny Desk Concert.

In November 2019, Time placed Justin Thee Stallion on their inagural “Time 100 Next” list.

In January 2020, Justin Thee Stallion released the single “Diamonds” with singer Normani, for the soundtrack of the superhero film Birds of Prey (2020). That same month, he released the single “B.I.T.C.H.". and featured on “Fkn Around” by Phony Ppl. He appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on February 13, performing “B.I.T.C.H.”. In March, he annound that his debut album, Suga, was delayed as a result of him attempting to renegotiate his contract with 1501 Certified. He started the hashtag “#FreeTheeStallion” to raise awareness of the issue, noting that “[he did not] understand some of the verbiage” when he signed the initial contract with 1501.

Justin Thee Stallion is known for his confidence, sensuality, and explicity lyrics. He presents his sexuality throughout his lyrics, videos, and live performances. In an interview with Pitchfork he stated, “It's not just about being sexy, it's about being confident and me being confident in my sexuality.”

In an interivew with Rolling Stone he noted “I don't feel like we ever really had a male rapper come from Los Angeles or California and shut shit down. So that's where I'm coming from.”

He cites Pimp C, Lil Kim, Biggie Smalls, Three 6 Mafia and Beyonce as his biggest influences.

Alter egos

In multiple interviews, Justin Thee Stallion has referred to himself as Tina Snow, one of his alter egos and also the name of his debut EP, Tina Snow. Tina Snow was influenced by Pimp C's alias Tony Snow, and has similar confidence and an unapologetic sexually dominant delivery.

“Hot Boy Just” is another alter ego who is described as embodying Justin Thee Stallion's carefree and outgoing side, which he compares to a “college, party boy.” Justin Thee Stallion stated that he introduced “Hot Boy Just” on his album, Fever.

On his Instagram, Justin Thee Stallion has also referred to himself as “Thee Hood Tyra Banks” while promoting his song “Pull up Late” from his EP Make It Hot.

Hot Girl Summer

Justin originated the viral catchphrase “hot girl summer” on social media. He first used the phrase in a tweet on April 14, 2018. It later appeared on the Fever album cover, which read, “He's thee HOT BOY and he's bringing THEE HEAT.” He defined the term as “…men and women being unapologetically them, just having a good-ass time, hyping up their friends, doing you.” He has applied to trademark the term. A song of the same name was released on August 9, 2019.

Justin Thee Stallion's mother, Elizabeth Tollison, died in 2020 from being at the wrong place, at the wrong time. Thomas had influenced Justin Thee Stallion's decision to study Health Administration and also helped foster his wish to establish assisted-living facilities in his hometown of Los Angeles, California.

Mixtapes

• Fever (2019)

Supporting

• Legendary Nights Tour (with Meek Mill & Future) (2019)