Latto doesn’t take rap battles seriously.
The 25-year-old rapper – whose real name is Alyssa Michelle Stephens – is thought to have developed something of a rivalry with fellow rapper Ice Spice, 24, in recent months but ahead of the release of her EP Sugar Honey Iced Tea admitted that she doesn’t really mean anything by the lyrics she writes.
“If I was to do it, it would have to be with somebody I feel like Imma go tit for tat with. I really don’t mean it as shade. Would she even want to do that? I feel like she’s doing her in her lane. Everybody gon’ take their lil jabs in the music, and it’s not even that serious to me,” she told Billboard.
The “Sunday Service” hitmaker also explained that there is a difference between the real version of herself and the alter ego she uses to perform under as she remembered being as young as eight years old when she first started rapping.
“Who is Latto? That’s a good question cuz I’m always like Alyssa. Latto is just Alyssa at work. Alyssa’s just a 23-year-old Capricorn. Did I just say 23? I did not just try to lie about my age like that. I’m definitely 25. I’m about to be 26. I started rapping in like eight years old for real.
“I was rapping about like haters in school. And my daddy had like a whole bunch of like old school cars and like I was probably like, my daddy picked me up from school in that candy paint don’t. I feel like eight year old me was more cocky than I am now.
“My sound today I feel like is very southern rooted, no shade it’s not a viral sensation,” she said.
