Alyssa “Latto” Stephens can claim to be one of the most successful Hip Hop artists to emerge from reality television. The former Miss Mulatto won season one of Jermaine Dupri’s The Rap Game TV series in 2016.
Since that time, Latto signed with RCA Records and earned a Billboard Hot 100 Top 5 entry with “Big Energy”. Plus, she began hosting Apple Music’s 777 Radio show. Her career trajectory also includes victories at the BET Awards, BET Hip Hop Awards, and iHeartRadio Music Awards.
Some fans have wondered why So So Def label founder Jermaine Dupri did not secure Latto under a record deal after winning The Rap Game. Dupri spoke about the situation during an interview with HipHopDX.
“People keep always saying, ‘Jermaine, you dropped the ball on [Latto].’ But what people don’t understand is, I put Latto’s record out. The deal was, if you win on The Rap Game, you get a single from Jermaine Dupri on So So Def. So that single came out,” explained JD.
The Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee continued, “The problem was that Latto was 16 years old, and the outlets didn’t support it. And nobody was like speaking on it. Nobody talked about it. If you watched the TV show, you saw it. But people didn’t start talking about Latto until she started making more vulgar records, dressing more sexually, and being more adult.”
Latto received her first RIAA Platinum Award in March 2021 for the “B#### from da Souf” single. The 24-year-old rapper’s “Big Energy” obtained a 2x-Platinum plaque in October 2022. “Muwop” featuring Gucci Mane is Platinum as well.
Queen of da Souf peaked at No. 44 on the Billboard 200 album chart. 2022’s 777 made it into the Billboard 200’s Top 20 by debuting at No. 15. Latto recently achieved a major milestone when she crossed the 1 billion streams mark on Spotify.