The star proves she’s a Southern-rap stalwart who spits as hard as anyone — even if the big-love themes can feel like too much of a good thing
Since emerging from Atlanta as “Miss Mulatto” on Jermaine Dupri’s reality-TV series The Rap Game — an alias that led to accusations of trolling before she mercifully shortened her name — Latto has built a surprisingly resilient career. Her first three albums, beginning with 2020’s Queen of Da Souf, are each certified gold and yielded at least one major hit, from 2021’s Mariah Carey-quoting “Big Energy” to 2023’s “Put It on the Floor,” the latter with Cardi B.
Yet despite topping the Billboard Hot 100 in 2023 with her cameo on Jung Kook of BTS’ “Seven” and earning three Grammy Award nominations to date, Latto remains underappreciated, neither as critically acclaimed as Monaleo and Doechii nor a multiplatinum brand like Cardi. She spits as hard as anyone, and has the saucy, high-maintenance personality that’s a virtual requirement among women in mainstream rap. However, her albums can sound like a patchwork of impulses, torn between satiating her hardcore audience and designing a résumé for pop-radio rotation.
Big Mama, with its cover image of a visibly pregnant Latto, seems designed to change that. The 55-minute, 18-song track list is stuffed with lyrics about being a “baddie” in love, thanks to a messy, tabloid-ready romance with chart-topping Atlanta star 21 Savage, who left his wife to be with Latto, and the birth of their daughter last month. “Can’t believe my life right now, I feel on top of the world/Should’ve seen my face when they told me it’s a baby girl,” she raps on “Mama,” an overwrought country-rock ballad with Jelly Roll. (“Somebody,” which closes Big Mama, is a more effective arena-rap foray.) Meanwhile, 21 Savage appears on the decidedly smuttier “Hostage,” and the couple trade sex bars while Latto crows, “I dig in his bag, he dig in my guts.” Musically, Latto may still yearn for the kind of crossover success that seems quixotic in an era when rap has all but disappeared from the Billboard charts (with Drake a noted exception). But folks can’t accuse her of not making a statement.
