Reviewing Latto’s New Album:

Sugar honey iced tea

5/5

Sugar Honey Iced Tea was a very well-crafted album as it represents a nostalgic but new sound of Southern Rap from the beats to the samples and features. You can tell that Latto and her team took their time creating this album from top to bottom as she advised her listeners, " When the album drop[s], pls listen [to it] in order ... [as] I put a lot of effort into the sequence". And indeed, the sequencing and craftmanship of each song made it easy to listen to the entire project all the way through. This is commendable because many artists today struggle to create an album worth listening to all the way through.

The songs I like on the album right now are Georgia Peach, Copper Cove (feat Hunxho), Big Mama, Brokey, Shrimp & Grits (feat Young Nudy), and Good 2 You (feat Ciara). I was delighted there was balance in the sex appeal in her lyrics this time because she and other artists (male or female), tend be too vulgar in their lyrics, which can be a bit too much for some listeners like myself.

Criticism around latto’s forced ghetto persona

you have to live in Atlanta & metropoliatan areas to understand it

There's been a lot of criticism around Latto for adopting a "ghetto" persona, especially in her lyrics, and I can see why that might be off-putting for some. However, living in Atlanta and its surrounding areas, you're exposed to a diverse mix of people, including those labeled as 'ghetto' or 'ratchet' due to their environment. It’s not uncommon to hear someone from the suburbs near Atlanta using the same lingos and cadence as those from the inner city because Atlanta and its metropolitan areas function like one big community. While some might exaggerate this persona, many people in Metro Atlanta can naturally switch it on or off. I believe this duality is one of the reasons why the movie ATL became such a classic—it portrayed the reality of life in Atlanta and how people can seamlessly navigate different cultural expressions. With that in mind, I think it was clever of Latto to reenact Nunu’s character from ATL to promote her album, as it ties back to the origins and authenticity of the persona she's been criticized for.