Mulatto is seemingly gearing up to unveil her new name: Latto. The Atlanta rapper hasn’t made any official announcements yet, but did tease a new single called “Latto” dropping at the end of this week (May 21). Her name also now appears as Latto on some streaming platforms, which fans noticed on Tuesday (May 18).
The Queen of Da Souf spitter is currently going as Latto on Spotify and Apple Music. However, TIDAL is still listing the rapper as Mulatto and she’s also still using the controversial moniker as her social media handles.
Mulatto first revealed she was considering changing her name last year after facing mounting backlash over the term’s racist origins.
“I can’t say too much because we’re working on something right now, but I would be lying to say it hasn’t crossed my mind before,” Mulatto told HipHopDX at the time. “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.”
Criticism over her name started when she first made her debut on “The Rap Game” as Miss Mulatto. On the Jermaine Dupri-fronted show, Mulatto explained that after being bullied by the offensive term as a child, she was trying to rid its “negativity” by using it as her own.
“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 on the show. “I took that negativity from the word mulatto and now… everybody calls me Miss Mulatto.”
On Twitter, fans reacted to her potentially changing her name to Latto. Some applauded the rapper for making the switch, while others said they believed the change wasn’t necessary in the first place.
“Y’all bullied Mulatto into changing her name to Big Latto. But the ‘Latto’ in ‘Big Latto’ still stands for ‘Mulatto’… but y’all happy as hell [because] the ‘Mu’ is gone…” one person wrote. “Y’all MFs love performative ass progress, especially when it comes with a side of humbling a Black woman.”
“L[a]tto had white music executives and corporate bigwigs casually calling her Mulatto like it’s 1821 and people can’t understand why it was a problem,” another tweeted.
See more reactions to Mulatto’s name change on Twitter below.