Latto: Basking Fully in Her Coldest Season Ever

As the finishing touches on her honey-hued baby hairs are swooped and sprayed in place, Latto snaps into focus. On set of her EBONY December 2024 cover shoot, the unmistakable whistle of Ciara’s early aughts classic, “Goodies” floats through the studio speaker, allowing the (soon to be) 26-year-old rap star to warm up to the lens. She contorts her shape and conjures her own version of opulent, rap-pop supremacy.

Twenty-four hours later, she’ll be obliging the smartphone cameras of thousands of fans at her LA tour stop. But for right now, Latto deftly switches up poses with precision – a sashay of a fur coat here, a flirty ponytail flip there, a crouch, a perch, a prowl – and pulls out a mini camcorder to capture her own image in the vintage tartan Vivienne Westwood ensemble, finding her best angles in the rear display. She gains more confidence with each shutter click. She’s at home under the lights.

Sugar Honey Iced Tea, the rapper’s third studio album, is all about a return home. It’s a project that catapults turn-of-the-century sounds of the Dirty South into the path of Latto’s Gen Z, bad b*tch revelry. More importantly, it captures a pivotal time for the artist, one she calls a rebirth. “Don’t they be saying, like, your frontal lobe is fully developed or something like that?,” she laughs, zeroing in on the mental shift she’s experienced from her early 20s until now. “It was a short timeframe, but it was like I had been through so much in that short timeframe, so I had so much to talk about.”

Latto wears a Vivienne Westwood corset, shoes courtesy of Pechuga Vintage, Bye Bambi shorts, Jeblanc earrings, Alexander McQueen bracelets courtesy of Paume Los Angeles and Alexis Bittar ring. Image: AB + DM Studio for EBONY.

Along the way, she’s given us plenty to talk about, too. As a 2024 EBONY Power 100 honoree in the Generation Next category, Latto represents a group of young Black innovators redefining success in their own image. Coming off the megawatt success of “Big Energy” in 2021 and collabs with the likes of USHER, Jennifer Lopez and K-pop sensation Jungkook, Latto could have easily stayed on the highly-lucrative mainstream pop train.

Instead, she felt the urge to tap back into the syrupy, Southern charm of trap, the same undeniable knock of her 2019 breakthrough, “Bitch from da Souf.” Her tester was “Put It on da Floor,” produced by Pooh Beatz and Go Grizzly. The track, which would become the first single off Sugar Honey Iced Tea, earned instant acclaim. It empowered us to rip ourselves outta plastic and act brand new, inspired Cardi B to hop on the remix and officially supercharged the battery in Latto’s back.

For Sugar Honey Iced Tea, Latto gained the gumption to ask her label to fall back. She locked in with the same group of producers, Pooh Beatz, Go Grizzly, and engineer Ben Hogarth, which allowed her to lean into her instincts. Together, they caramelized her passions to add her own original recipe to the Southern rap canon.

The result is an idiosyncratic ode to her city and her most comprehensive project to date; An album she herself dubs a classic on the triumphant intro track, “Georgia Peach. “I just felt the cohesion and I just knew that it was gonna translate,” she says.

This cohesion comes together best on “Big Mama,” a standout of the album and the name of an alter ego the rapper’s having fun channeling. The nickname, usually reserved for a head-of-household matriarch, lays claim to Latto’s newfound sense of self: “Everybody respect Big Mama. You don’t play with Big Mama because she’s gonna put belt to ass. That’s the energy.”

Showcasing her nimble ability to blend genres, “Big Mama” was a creative swing for Latto. The song’s switch-up – shifting gears from a pampered, heart-eyed romp to kinetic, braggadocious bars – bridges the magic of her versatility. “Big Mama” is nominated for Best Melodic Rap Performance heading into the 2025 GRAMMYs and for Latto, this recognition hits different when she considers how many doubted her at the time of the record’s initial release.

Latto wears a Defïance dress, FGM Bespoke fur, Femme LA pumps, Alexis Bittar earrings and ring. Image: AB + DM Studio for EBONY.

“I think ‘Big Mama’ has just allowed me to just redeem myself, build up my confidence to an all-time high, and just have built this wall between me and outside commentary to where it’s nothing you can say that will make me feel less than myself,” she proclaims. “This is my chance to redeem myself as in, to myself.”

The MC rides this self-assuredness of Sugar Honey Iced Tea through by making her references seen and heard. She plays the 2024 version of ATL’s New New for the album’s trailer. For her tour’s staging, A-Town institution Magic City becomes Latto City, complete with the stripper poles. Her signature style has evolved to exude a dark and moody luxuriating 1970s mama – “Heavy on the animal print, especially cheetah!” – with a layer of candy-coated, Y2K gloss.

She’s made a decision to rock her natural hair color instead of her previous bright wigs and to bask in everything that makes her unique (Let’s not forget, she is the first solo female rapper from The A to go platinum.) Audibly and visually, Sugar Honey Iced Tea era reflects a Southern woman becoming her own boss after years of being directed by others.

“I feel like my whole career has been that – growing pains – and people telling me what I should and shouldn’t do,” she says. “So many times, I would let them get in my head, like, ‘This not popping off fast enough’ or this person surpassed me. But you just really do have to trust God’s plan and God’s timing because, you know, I’m so grateful for my journey now. I feel like me having this slow and steady incline has been more beneficial to me than just blowing up super fast and then setting this high tone that I’m forever gonna be chasing in my career. You know what I’m saying? I’m grateful for the baby steps.”

A rarity for any artist her age, the entertainer born Alyssa Stephens has already spent more than a decade showing and proving in public. As a child protege, she was the inaugural winner of reality rap competition The Rap Game in 2016. Since then, the lyricist has had to adjust to a steep learning curve; Answering surgery rumors, listening to critiques of her original rap name, Miss Mulatto, and undergoing a change in stage moniker, constantly rebuffing the reductive claim that selling sex is her only talent with lyrical displays full of dexterity and wit. Since signing to RCA Records in 2020, she’s remained in streaming rotations with two strong albums. Queen of Da Souf in 2020, followed by 777 in 2022. Both proved she was capable of the Midas Touch but lacked the synthesized vision she’s finally zeroed in on with Sugar Honey Iced Tea.

Latto’s learned to set up boundaries along the way, too. Though her recent work expresses feelings of a woman clearly in love, she’s protective of her rumored relationship with a fellow rapper – a move, she’s said, to protect her peace. (Plus, in a male dominated field, this privacy allows her to prove she’s a savage all on her own.) She’s been goaded into rap beef more than once and, so far, has learned to balance holding her own (She’s traded subliminal disses with Bronx rapper Ice Spice this year, most notably on the track “Sunday Service.”) with tuning out the instigators.

Latto wears a Versace jumpsuit, bracelet, necklace and belt courtesy of Pechuga Vintage and Versace earrings and shoes. Image: AB + DM Studio for EBONY.

“I feel like it’s like a one-of-a-kind experience, especially with the way the music industry is going now,” Latto says, describing how she started her career passing out her own CDs and watched music promotion go from a physical to digital game. “It’s allowed me to have the longevity that I’ve had because I was built before the Internet, so the Internet can never break me.”

When I ask her to consider the longevity she’s been maintaining in relation to that of EBONY’s upcoming 80 years of Black storytelling, her introspection gives way to a word: “I feel like brick-by-brick is my testimony, for real. I think in comparison, legacy-wise, I would say just building in that groundwork and having commercial success, but also culture success and community success is important. I’ve seen commercial success… But none of that is guaranteed in the long run without building a love in the culture and community, like people who got your back no matter what, no matter if this song is on Billboard or not. So, I think me and EBONY can relate in that way. We for the mainstream, but we also for the people.”

Latto wears a Louis Vuitton skirt and shoes courtesy of Pechuga Vintage and FGM Bespoke fur jacket. Image: AB + DM Studio for EBONY.

TEAM EBONY – CONTENT

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Candace Rodney – @cjrodney

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Cover Team

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Sidney Madden – @sid_madden

Photographer
AB + DM Studio – @abdmstudio

Executive Producer / Creative Producer
David Wept – @davidwept

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Wyatt Whitaker – @wyattwhitaker

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Morgana Yasmeen – @morganayasmeen

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Robert “RB” Blair II – @cinemacowboys

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Alejandro Sosa – @alesosaoficial

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Khalil Bowens – @kbooggy

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Kim Tran – @kimtranaintgotnogram

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Justin Garner – @greenhousecreative__

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Brian Boehner – @brianleeboehner

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Production Assistants
Solana Campbell –@solana.campbell
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Stylist
Matthew Reisman – @matthewreisman
Reginald Reisman – @reginaldreismam

Hair Stylist
Ashanti Lation – @viphair_ashanti

Make-Up Artist
Latto – @latto

Touch-Ups MUA
Stephanie Smith – @stephanie.a.smith

This Month’s

Cover

December 2024 Digital Cover Experience: Latto

Story By: EBONY Team

This 2024 edition of “The Power Issue ” illuminates four EBONY Power 100 special honorees who “defy gravity,” lean into faith, do things their way and embody courage.

Latto: Basking Fully in Her Coldest Season Ever

Latto’s Journey: From Teen Rapper to Chart-Topping Rap Star

Covers

November 2024 Digital Cover Experience: The Power Issue

This 2024 edition of “The Power Issue ” illuminates four EBONY Power 100 special honorees who “defy gravity,” lean into faith, do things their way and embody courage.