It looks like Atlanta rapper Mulatto’s long-awaited name change is finally official, as first Apple Music and now Spotify, reflect her new, slightly less problematic moniker. While many fans expected her to start going by her nickname “Big Latto” — which also doubled as the title of her second EP — she went for a bigger chop, reducing that nickname down to simply “Latto.” It also appears she’s got new music coming soon to celebrate.
This marks the second time she shortened her nom de guerre after knocking her name down from “Miss Mulatto,” the title under which she appeared on Lifetime’s The Rap Game, where she won the show’s first season. Unfortunately, due to the historical implications of the term “Mulatto,” her increased profile over the past year also brought increased scrutiny and criticism, which she addressed at multiple points over the year, including in an exclusive profile with Uproxx, in which she explained:
“It’s not about me comparing my ‘struggles of being mixed’ to any other skin tone, any other race, anything like that. It’s just simply me explaining my story. I did experience a different type of upbringing having two completely different cultures. One side of my family cooked this way, talked this way, celebrate this way, traditions is this way, and then one of the sides is different, and as a kid, I was just confused and kind of had to find my way in my identity. It’s just about an experience, and flipping that negative into something positive.”
Some fans still couldn’t see it that way, especially after Latto made some public missteps in addressing the criticism. Now that her name change is official — at least on streaming services, if not social media, where the process can be a bit more complicated — we’ll see if she can dodge continued opprobrium as her star continues to rise. Check out some screenshots of the artist’s revamped title on Spotify and Apple Music
below.