really should be a bigger star. That’s not to say she a fairly big star. Her hit song “ ” peaked at No.
3 on the Hot 100 and for just a week shy of a full year. Just seven months after it dropped off, she scored her first No. 1 with BTS member Jung Kook on his 2023 solo song, “ .
” But “ ,” Latto’s 2023 collaboration with Cardi B — an A-1, certified megastar, to paint the contrast — didn’t crack the top ten, peaking at No. 13 on the Hot 100. To be sure, that’s still incredibly good and difficult to do.
But, not to put too fine a point on things, Latto only has three songs that have even charted within the top half of the chart. This is despite dropping a pretty consistent run of absolute bangers including, but not limited to: “B*tch From Da Souf” (the first “grown-up” song I heard from Latto, which made me a fan), “Sunshine,” “ ,” “ ,” “ ,” and most recently, “ .” The is, for my money, one of the top mainstream rappers out now, and deserves to be ranked alongside like Cardi, Megan Thee Stallion, and yes, all three women’s ostensible nemesis, Nicki Minaj.
But until now, she hasn’t been, whether that’s a result of her , her commitment to making more rugged trap cuts than glittery pop anthems in the vein of “Big Energy,” or just bad luck at connecting with potential fans for some other, undefinable reason. The certainly didn’t help. That could change with the release of her third album, , which is out now via RCA Rec.