Mulatto officially changes her stage name after colourism row and fans are divided

Mulatto has officially changed her stage name after becoming embroiled in a colourism row, but fans seem to be divided by the new moniker. 

The 22-year-old rapper announced the release of her new single this Friday and subtly promoted it under her new name, Big Latto. 

Since 2016, Latto’s moniker has been heavily criticised as the term ‘mulatto’ is offensive and antiquated, stemming back to slavery when it was used as a derogatory to describe mixed race people. 

Latto, real name Alyssa Stephens, hasn’t officially announced her new alias but fans have noticed her referring to herself as Big Latto in recent weeks. 

She also declared her new chapter ‘Latto season’ in a tweet and she has ‘Big Latto’ as her social media name, although the handles remain ‘Mulatto’. 

The title of her new song is yet to be revealed but Latto shared a teaser clip of her rapping along to the lyrics, which include: ‘The blogs wanna know who I’m fu****n. Rap b*****s ain’t talking ’bout nothing. F**k it. I’ll change my name, but I’ll bet they still gonna find something. 

‘Y’all ain’t bully me out my s**t. Drop hits I still ain’t miss. New money, new crib, new whip, new name, I’m still that b***h.’ 

However, it seems social media couldn’t agree on whether the change was bad or for the good. 

Not sold on the choice, one reacted: ‘Mulatto changing her name to Big Latto is like Lady Antebellum changing their name to Lady A. It’s just an abbreviation.’ 

‘Mulatto changing her name to “Big Latto” made no difference in reference to what the name means anyway… Yall so performative,’ another agreed. 

‘Mulatto name most likely gone be big latto now, i don’t see it being much of a change fr [for real],’ another weighed in. 

Others backed Latto’s decision to update her moniker, including one who argued: ‘Mulatto changing her name makes sense considering the majority of her fan base is black women . the history behind the slur is just wildly inappropriate.’

Supporting the rapper, another said: ‘Mulatto changing her name is good because imagine hearing white people say that all the time.’

Latto first announced she would be changing her name in November, telling HipHopDX: ‘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. 

‘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 because right now, because it’s going to be a part of something bigger.’ 

Appearing regretful for her original stage name, Mulatto also told Hot Freestyle: ‘You gotta hear each other out, and if you know those aren’t your intentions and that’s how it’s being perceived, it’s like why not make a change or alter it?

‘For me, it was the name. So now I’m like, “OK, my intentions was to never glorify being mulatto”. So if that’s how it’s being perceived and people think I’m saying, “Oh, I’m better because I’m mulatto” or “my personality trait is mulatto”, … then I need to change the matter at hand.’ 

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