It’s no surprise that the new “it girl” Latto is still adjusting to her newfound fame, but in a recent interview with artist Flo Milli, she reveals she is happy the hard work is finally paying off.
According to a new Rolling Stone interview published Friday (Oct. 21), the 23-year-old artist admitted to Flo Milli that she still feels surprised when musicians reach out to her. “That junk just still be mind-blowing. You know, you see my videos and stuff, and I’ve been doing it for a long time. So it’s like, finally, the hard work’s starting to pay off,” she said. “I’m sure you be getting people in your DMs, especially when you drop projects. That’s when it be like, ‘Damn, I ain’t know you listen to me!'”
The Ohio-born musician then shared the difficulty she faced getting clearance on her sophomore studio album, 777. “Like when I dropped my project 777, it was so hard doing the clearances — making sure people got their verses back on time. I even had to leave one song off of my project that I really wanted there so bad — and me and the artist [are] cool. Their label just wasn’t clearing it, even though we both were like, ‘No, we have a personal relationship outside of this.’ That junk just be crazy,” she expressed.
Latto revealed that at the beginning of her career, she felt “out of place” and believed those in charge knew better about her music than she did. “I remember being so young starting. It had this effect on me to where I felt kind of out of place,” she said. “Like, I thought everybody else knew what was best for me. Almost better for me than I knew what was best for me, you know? So I would listen to too many people. ‘You should rap about this. You should dress like this. You should talk like this, walk like this.’ I was like, ‘Damn, I’m not even myself at this point.’ I want the people to be fans of me — not fans of what you’ve planned for me.” She added, “Now? I’m annoyingly hands-on with my career. I know my team [is] like, ‘Shut up!’ It kind of backfired. Because now, everything got to be my way.”
In September 2021, Latto released “Big Energy,” which became her highest-charting song on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 3. The track won Song of the Year at the 2022 BET Hip Hop Awards.