Mulatto Officially Changes Name To 'Latto'

On Tuesday (May 18), the Atlanta-bred rapper’s Spotify and Apple Music accounts were changed to Latto while an Instagram post teasing her new single also reflected the long-awaited update.

Latto started contemplating the move last year after she was criticized for using a word that has negative connotations for people who are of mixed race.

Latto, whose real name is  Alyssa Michelle Stephens, identifies as biracial. Back in 2016, she emerged in the music industry as Miss Mulatto in the first season of Jermaine’s Dupri’s reality competition series on Lifetime, "The Rap Game."

“I’m passionate about my race. I’m Miss Mulatto. The term mulatto technically is a racist slur. It means someone that’s half Black and half white. So it’s, like, controversial,” she said during her time on the show. “I took that negativity from the word mulatto and now … everybody calls me Miss Mulatto." 

She was only 15 years old at the time. 

The now 22-year-old “Queen of the South” artist hinted during an interview with HipHopDX at the 2020 BET HipHop Awards that she was thinking about changing her name.

“It is a controversy that I hear and see every day as far as my name goes, so I would be lying to say no I never thought of that. But I can’t say too much ... right now, because it’s going to be a part of something bigger,” she told HipHopDX in 2020.

As noted above, Latto’s first single under the new moniker is expected to arrive on May 21st.