It wasn’t until 2021's “Big Energy,” the lead single from her sophomore album, “777,” that she achieved her first crossover hit. It was just time for that next step,” she says) and shortening her stage name to Latto following public backlash surrounding her attempt to reclaim the racial slur “mulatto.” The reality show aired in 2016 and Latto spent the next four years working the local music scene before eventually signing with RCA thanks to the success of the single “ Bitch From da Souf” (“It comes to a point in your career where you need a machine behind you. “I wanted to wait and see my growth,” she says. It’s an achievement many aspiring Atlanta rappers might jump at, but the teenage rapper turned it down.
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I didn’t have a Plan B.”īy the time she was in high school, Latto had won the Lifetime competition series “The Rap Game,” for which she was awarded a label deal with Jermaine Dupri’s So So Def Records. No shade to whoever has, but I came up at the tail end of a different musical generation,” she says. “I didn’t sit in the studio, make a song and post it on social media go viral. She drove around Atlanta in a van with a picture of her face wrapped around it, handing out physical copies of her mixtapes and plastering posters of herself on buildings.
She performed at high school pep rallies. Under the name Miss Mulatto (a nod to her biracial parentage), she made a jingle for a video program that played every morning in schools throughout Clayton County, the metro Atlanta suburb where she was raised. For an 8-year-old to say, ‘I want to be a rapper,’ and take it seriously, that’s very realistic.” “In Atlanta, we have so many festivals and artists who have made it out of the city.
I was in the studio or doing a show after school,” she says. “From jump, I knew I was going to be a rapper. If you ask Latto, born Alyssa Stephens, about how she got into rapping when she was 8, she’ll tell you it was because her dad, a “street dude,” often commingled with local Atlanta rappers, and she loved language arts and writing poetry. "I didn't have a Plan B." (Piera Moore / For The Times) Latto always knew she wanted to be a rapper. “I’m not going to turn it down,” she finally admits after a minute or two of protesting. Her healthy dinner plans are derailed when a member of her team surprises her with a meal she’s been craving: a Kickin Chicken sandwich from the fast food chain Zaxby's. Girl, you better be in shape trying to keep up with ,” she says. She’s preparing for the demands of tour with six-hour rehearsals, plenty of exercising and mindfulness about what she eats. (Santana’s band, unbeknownst to her, is in a nearby room preparing for Lizzo’s tour too.) Latto pulls out her phone to order a green juice. As we talk, a live version of Saucy Santana’s “Booty,” on which Latto is featured, repeatedly blares through the halls. When we meet at a rehearsal studio in northwest Atlanta, she’s fresh off her first New York Fashion Week, where she vlogged “day in the life” content on TikTok and nervously asked fellow rapper Doja Cat for a photo. Over the summer, she released " Pussy" following the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision, rapping, “My ovaries ain't for you to bully” before partnering with Planned Parenthood for a social awareness campaign. We all got different styles, we all look different, we’re all from different cities and we’re all thriving at the same time.'”įor her contribution to the moment, Latto offers rhymes that are punchy, witty and distinctively Southern. “I feel like later on, years from now, we're gonna look at this time for female rap and be like, 'Wow, this was like a special moment. “I’ve been rapping since I was 8 years old and I still wouldn’t have chosen any other time to pop off,” Latto says.
When Grammy nominations are announced in November, she may hear her name in multiple categories, chief among them best new artist. In the last year alone, the Atlanta rapper has scored her first Top 10 hit with “Big Energy,” performed alongside Mariah Carey at the BET Awards and opened for Lizzo on a fall arena tour. Yet, she says, her recent achievements still feel as if they’ve happened relatively quickly. She knows she’s not an overnight success. Latto has been preparing for this moment for the last 15 years - that’s more than half of her life - and yet, the 23-year-old is still struggling to grasp the success of the past year. "Every day I'm on a new page." (Piera Moore / For The Times) "I feel like I'm in such a pivotal stage, not only as an artist but as a woman," says Latto.
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