مجله آرایشی
Respectfully, I never even acknowledged mental health before being famous. It’s not that I didn’t believe in it, it just had never crossed my mind. But being in the limelight, I’m understanding the importance of mental health, me-time, and self-care.
Play the lottery. Because I’m good luck.
Does he ever fly out to a show to surprise you or do that sort of thing?
I’ve always been more alpha than the average female. I don’t know if that’s the Capricorn in me. It’s kind of by nature and then also how I grew up. Me and my sister grew up in a two-parent household. Neither of our parents went to college. I just watched them hustle and make a way for themselves. My father was very much in my life. He raised two very secure, confident, “I know what I want” females. It gave me that confidence, like anything is possible. And then it just kind of bled over into relationships too.
I’m young right now. I don’t have real responsibilities as far as kids and a husband. I feel like it’s the right time to embrace how my body looks—and before I have kids and wrinkle up, I’m showing it off while I can, boo.
I don’t let them pay for nothing. I have to tell them to take my money. Like, my mom, she bought me a diamond heart necklace with our picture in it. I know she spent some money I gave her, probably for her birthday, Mother’s Day, Christmas, something, to buy that chain.
If something is special to me, I’m going to keep it close to me because everything else has to be front and center about my life.
At first, I was feeling a lot of pressure and I think it was hindering my creative process. Then I got myself in the space where I’m like, You’ve been here. You’ve done it. People keep forgetting the fact that I’ve been rapping since I was 8 years old. My first moment was not “Big Energy.” That was just another moment. This now has been the best recording process thus far in my career.
I’ve got to make sure the following is added to my eulogy: Julee’s soaring journalism career included interviewing hip-hop icon Latto for a cover story while both women lay naked, side by side, getting a couples massage at the famed Hôtel Barrière Fouquet’s in New York City.
Yes, that’s definitely happened before, but it’s not a consistent thing. I think we find the beauty in separation sometimes because it makes us miss each other.
For sure. For sure. I get messages in my DMs all the time. Them telling me to stop responding to trolls, inviting me to birthday parties, album release parties. And a lot of DMs from Cardi especially like, “Stay focused. Don’t let no one trick you off your spot. I’ve been there before.” And just giving me insight from stuff that they’ve already seen and done.
I do not play with my massages. I get them twice a week, if I can. When I’m in L.A., I have this guy come to the hotel. He’s super flexible with my schedule. I literally just had him come over at 1 o’clock in the morning after I landed.
This is the thing, I’ll be good if I just keep working. When I’m working, I don’t even have my phone. But as soon as I get back in my bed—when my day is over with—now I’m scrolling and reading. I just got to find something else to do with my time than social media.
4. I’m obsessed with Latto’s “Soul Food Sunday” Reels. In March, she posted one of her cooking turkey wings, white rice, green beans, and creamed corn. She signed off with, “I’m starting to feel bad for you bitches. I can fuck. I can suck. I can cook. It’s not fair. What can’t I do?” Amen.
That’s it. That’s it. That’s it. I feel like a lot of my lyrics are us being the prize and them having to conform to us versus us having to conform to the man and his ways and his rules. It’s more so like, “No, this time it’s my way or the highway, buddy.”
9. Latto launched the Win Some Give Some Foundation in 2021 to provide at-risk youth with resources and offer self-esteem support. She donated more than $250K this past holiday season to families in her hometown.
I get overwhelmed and overstimulated. That’s when my anxiety is at a peak. I’ll literally feel my heart beating, and I’ll be like, Relax! But I just gotta learn how to deal with it because it’s not going to get any easier. I’m just going to get more famous. If you’re not strong enough to see stuff and not respond, then you just need to get off.
That’s a good question. I’m nervous for him to hear it. I hope he understands that I’m an artist. It’s never any ill intent. I love my daddy to death. I just don’t want him to take it as I’m trying to shit on him. I’m going through a situation with my dad right now and I made a song about it because that’s what’s on my heart.
I want to get in my acting bag, because I see myself going out like Rihanna. I don’t see myself doing music forever. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I’ve been doing it for so long already. Sometimes you just want more. I just did my first little acting gig the other day and I fell in love with that.8 I like more serious roles.
I’m so grateful for my Grammy nominations, and I really mean this. Where I’m from, I already won. That’s why I think people put more pressure on me than I put on myself sometimes. I come from Clayton County outside Atlanta—there is nobody from ClayCo doing this shit. I’m doing it, period.
I want to be a mom so bad. Let me tell you, I think moms are superheroes. Man, I literally idolize motherhood. Like, with Mother’s Day, I get all my friends that have kids, my grandmas, my aunties, cousins, anyone who’s a mom around me, I send them flowers and gifts. I don’t play. I send my assistant to Chanel to get, like, 10 bags for everybody I know. I’m obsessed. My TikTok algorithm is all moms talking about their experiences and packing like, “Get ready with me.” Moms cleaning up after their kids. It’s so weird.
That’s fire, because when I’m recording, the goal is to give you confidence. To give you an escape from reality. Like, “Okay, I go to my 9-to-5, I’m bored all the time,” and it’s like, “No, put this on and loosen up a little bit.” It gives the woman the power.
I say this all the time, I really don’t know what I would do without my mom and my sister.2 That’s probably my biggest fear—not having them with me. I go to them when I have any problems. I don’t trust other people. So it’s like they’re my escape—my only escape.
How could this be Latto’s first time posing nude?
Everyone always asks what my parents think about the sexy clothes I wear. My mama is here for it. She loves it! She’s like, “Girl, do it now!” She had me at 15 years old and wishes that she could have flaunted her body before kids. And then she turned around and had my sister at 19. She’s my biggest advocate.
Go ahead, put on one of her songs. I’ll wait. One minute you’re an overwhelmed, full-time working mom of two (just me?), the next you’re a self-assured superhero who suffers zero fools. A sexual goddess, a take-no-shit boss, a legend who can twerk like a pro while dripping in diamonds (duh). Call it what you want—self-esteem or self-delusion—but I love it, and I know you do too. It’s the kind of magic (dare I say “empowerment”…but, like, the actual kind) that makes a person think, I mean, of course I’m going to get naked for a work assignment.
8. Keep your eyes peeled for a Latto cameo on Freeform’s Grown-ish.
No cap. But let me back up: Less than 24 hours prior to this historic event, one of us (not me) was already nearly naked on the set of this very photo shoot, slipping in and out of skintight gowns, body stockings, and a stunning bespoke Chrishabana chrome breastplate with a level of “it’s givin’ bad bitch” that the world has come to crave from her. As I watched the curve-clinging clothes give way to nothing at all, I’ve got to admit, I was a little surprised.
You know what, I’m crazy, but I’m not that crazy. I let him have his time and he lets me have mine. We trust each other. When he’s at home, like now, he’s probably gambling with his friends. I let him do him. We’ve built that trust, and I think people will probably be caught off guard or shocked at who I am in a relationship versus my public persona.
My label manager hit me and asked, “Are you open to doing this?” And I said, “Yeah, I’m open. It just has to be tastefully done.” That’s why during the shoot, my eyes are glued to the monitor.5 My lyrics are vulgar and explicit but tastefully done, at least in my opinion. I wanted the pictures to be as well. Not just boom-bam right in your face but more like a tease. Like you’re imagining me being fully naked and not really seeing it for real. I like the fantasy aspect to it. I felt like the prettiest girl in the world, like that’s the best I’ve ever looked.
I have a song about my dad on there. I’m still thinking, Do I even want to put it out? I’ll just ride around by myself at nighttime and cry to the song.
You all see me with these Birkins, see me on these jets, see me post these cars, and you think I can’t afford multiple pairs of underwear? But what’s so funny is now they think that I’m trolling. I literally only wear these panties from Target. It’s the nude pair, the black pair, and the cheetah-print pair. I love them. I can afford whatever panties I want. But I like them panties from Target that are $5. Before I go on tour, I go clear the section. I’ll get all the size medium thongs from Target.
The rest of the Atlanta native’s résumé reads equally bold: There was the stint as a drag racer. The first-place trophy on the inaugural season of the reality competition show The Rap Game. The multiple Grammy Award nominations. The stage name change, from Miss Mulatto to Latto, which is both short for “lottery” (to ring in a new chapter of “good fortune,” she says) and a public declaration of her pride in being a Black woman. But all of this badassery may just be background to the real power, the real genius of Latto—the boldness she makes us feel.
Yes. Especially yell. I want to be somebody’s wife. And when they come home, I’ll be like, “Where the fuck you been at?” Yeah.
That’s not to say doubts won’t creep back in, even for Latto herself. During our massage, as I struggle to stay mentally composed between the deep-tissue kneading and kiki-ing with my confidence sage, Latto admits she has those moments too. The ones where uncertainty or anxiety momentarily take over. Her coping mechanism, her way to push through? Exactly what we’re doing right now.
6. The incident happened more than a year ago but recently entered the news cycle thanks to a remix of Mello Buckzz’s “Boom, Pt. 2,” on which Latto raps, “I got locked up in the airport / Goddamn forgot the gun.” Fans asked her to share more details, which she did on Twitter: “Went to LAX w a loaded glock 17 in my Birk got locked & let out in a few hours lmaooo.”
Yes. That’s why I love RiRi down. Cardi did it too. And Yung Miami. I feel like they kind of supersede the stigma that it’s over for women when you have a baby—like your career is over. They give me inspiration for real. They make me feel like I can do it too one day when the time is right, you feel me?
Really, this came from my little sister.1 She is my rock, my everything. But I was like, “Man, I don’t want to lie there. I’ll get bored. I’ve got ADHD. My anxiety isn’t going to let me.” But I really fell in love with it. Massages are more mental than physical for me.
I be thinking that, but my privacy is more important. I can’t have people putting two and two together. This is the longest relationship I’ve ever been in.
5. We placed a screen within eyeshot for Latto so she could see exactly what the photographer was capturing.
And I’m like, “Girl, why is you spending your money that I’m giving you for you on me?” I get mad. I’m like, “I can buy this. I just want you all to be there for me.” As mad as I was, I cried like a baby when I opened that box.
I think we can all strongly agree that inhibitions aren’t part of her brand. This is, after all, the same woman who raps in her 2020 hit “Muwop,” “Film him eatin’ this coochie / I swear my life is a movie,” and in 2022’s “Wheelie,” “Pretty, tight, and sticky / Fuck him once, he won’t forget me.” It’s that unapologetic bravado coupled with her slick Southern twang that keeps her at the tippity-top of the music charts. Last fall, her single “Big Energy” became the longest-charting rap song by a solo female artist in Billboard’s Hot 100 history. And lest we forget, *the* Mariah Carey hopped on the remix, giving Latto—or as the government knows her, Alyssa Michelle Stephens—the type of cosign many folks would do fucked-up things for.
Because it’s taken so much to get to this point where I have the freedom to rap about what I want to rap about. Versus chasing a hit. I’m finally making music that’s like, I don’t give a fuck because it means something to me. Y’all are going to feel that emotion. Whether or not you can relate to it, you’re going to feel what I’m saying just because it’s so pure. The song is me being probably the most vulnerable I’ve ever been.
2. Brooklyn hits the road with Latto a lot, while Mom mostly stays in Atlanta. But Latto texts and FaceTimes her mama every single day.
Going to the Grammys for sure. I brought my mom and my sister. Another was going to set with Mariah Carey. She put all new lyrics on the track. That’s going to be something I’m never going to let go. Like, bitches just don’t have songs with Mariah Carey.7
7. Latto said her studio session with Mariah to record the “Big Energy” remix started at 3 a.m. and ended at 11 a.m.
I’m not going to feel like I made it for real until I have my kids, I’m married, I just got my house out in the country, and I’m just ducked off with my little family.
1. Latto’s sister, Brooklyn Nikole, has a makeup line called Beauty by Brooklyn, which makes some killer lip glosses, just FYI.
