Megan Thee Stallion lost her mother and great-grandmother earlier this year, and on Tuesday, the 24-year-old rapper recorded a special Instagram message for anyone who may be battling grief during the holidays. In the candid video, Megan revealed that she attempted to record the message several times but ended up breaking down in tears. “Although all these positive things have been happening to me, and I’ve been trying to do good, been trying to keep a smile on my face, trying to stay strong, trying to stay happy for me and my other grandmother and the rest of my family, it’s pretty rough, it’s pretty hard,” she said. “This is the first Christmas that I’m ever going to spend without them, and I just wanted to give some hope to my hotties that might be going through something too.”
“I just wanted to spread some positivity and tell ya’ll to stay positive, stay kind through your hard times because the pain doesn’t last forever. Try not to get in a dark place,” she continued. “Always try to be kind to others because you never know what they’re going through.”
Megan’s mom, Holly Thomas, died from a brain tumor in March. In addition to being Megan’s manager, she was also a rapper like Megan. “My mom was a rapper. I would go to the studio with her, and that definitely showed me I can do this. I wanna do this,” Megan previously told Essence. “I remember my first time ever listening to rappers like Pimp C and Biggie, and being like, ‘All this would sound super cool if a girl was saying it,’ so I gotta go do this.” Watch Megan’s emotional video above.