You can tell Latto got big donor energy. The rapper showed up to her Georgia high school last week with a $35,000 check.
The “Big Energy” singer made herself at home during homecoming festivities on Friday at Lovejoy High School in Clayton County, Ga., a suburb of Atlanta. She posed with cheerleaders, brought the students food from Wingstop, made a TikTok with the homecoming queen, whom she had crowned, and then whipped out a check — signed “Big Latto” — which she presented to the school on its football field, according to videos and photos from the event shared on social media.
“It’s always good to show love to where you came from,” Latto said on social media, according to Fox 5 Atlanta.
Responding to people who weren’t aware of her Clayton County origins, Latto tweeted Friday, “How y’all didn’t know I went to Lovejoy??? I went to Pointe South, Kemp & Rex Mill too.. Clayco baby fr,” referring to the elementary and middle schools she attended nearby.
In 2021, Latto launched a nonprofit, Win Some Give Some, “to empower at-risk young women by providing them resources and support to achieve a lifetime of success.” In December 2022, the city of Rex, also located in Clayton County, awarded her a key to the city at her Christmas charity event.
Latto, 24, whose legal name is Alyssa Michelle Stephens, was born in Columbus, Ohio. Her family moved to the Atlanta area when she was 2. She proudly represents her hometown, often rapping about Clayton County, or “Clayco.” In the title track of her album “777,” she calls herself a “Clayton County repper.” In the song “Soufside,” she declares she’s from “the Soufside / Riverdale out to Lovejoy,” shouting out her hometown and high school.
She told The Times in a 2022 interview that her career started as a child growing up in Clayton County. She made a jingle for a video program that played every morning in schools throughout the county. She performed at high school pep rallies. She drove around Atlanta in a van with a picture of her face on it, handing out copies of her mixtapes and plastering her posters on buildings.
Her original stage name was Mulatto, a reference to her biracial identity, as the child of a Black father and a white mother. She told Vlad TV in 2018 that she was often bullied in school for having lighter skin, compared to her classmates, and decided to own the term.
Latto’s celebrity has skyrocketed over the last two years, following the success of “Big Energy,” which samples Mariah Carey’s “Fantasy.” The hit earned the rapper a 2023 Grammy Award nomination for melodic rap performance. It was her first of two Grammy noms, along with best new artist. Her single with BTS member Jungkook, “Seven,” reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and is currently the most-streamed song across the globe on Spotify.
Times staff writer Alexandria Del Rosario contributed to this report.
