In an interview with Hot Freestyle, host Tallie Spencer talked with Mulatto about what her possible name change might be.
Mulatto, the first female rapper from Atlanta to receive a gold plaque, joins Hot Freestyle’s ‘Chop Up’ series with host Tallie Spencer to discuss being a biracial woman in the industry, colorism, and changing her stage name. Dropping “Queen of Da Souf” in the middle of a pandemic, Mulatto has found much success, but makes it clear during the interview that she still faces many challenges in the rap and hip hop industry.
Watch the interview below.
The queen of the south also spoke on the recent backlash that DaniLeigh recently experienced last week with a snippet of her song “Yellow Bone,” sparking retaliation on social media with its promotion of colorism.
“I see both sides,” Mulatto said during the interview. “[I] genuinely believe her intentions were not to offend anyone or to like up-one skin color and put down another skin color. I feel like her intentions weren’t that. But I know you just gotta be more careful because it is such a sensitive subject. So like, yeah that might not have been your intentions, but the apology is still needed because of just knowing the sensitivity of the subject matter right now.”
Colorism is not new to the music industry, with rappers like Kodak Black, Chris Brown, and Gucci Mane mentioning their interest light-skinned women in their song lyrics.
“It’s not wrong to hold females accountable, but if that’s the case then we need to hold all counterparts accountable, not just the women,” says Mulatto. “But it’s nothing that we are not used to, that’s women in any workfield, not just music. We also got to work ten times harder.”
Mulatto’s stage name has also faced controversy with people accusing her of colorism. For Mulatto, it was never about to “glorify being Mulatto, and that is how [people] are taking it, so if that’s not my intention, then I need to change the matter at hand, which is the name change.”
Looking to change her stage name this year, Mulatto does not want the name change to be taken lightly, recognizing the sensitivity on the subject matter and stating “That is happening. The big reveal. I feel like it’s something that needs to be a bigger production, like I need to be able to speak on it and people hear me out.”
She also revealed that she would not be releasing any music under the ‘Mulatto’ moniker until the name change is complete.
“People need to understand too about hearing each other out, like my hearing the world out, the world hearing me out,” Mulatto continues. “I want them to understand, like a name change at this level in your career is a big decision with investors labels, everything has been riding on this name. It is a big decision.”
Known as Mulatto since the beginning of her career, she announced her name change in December and fans are looking forward to the reveal of her new stage name. She gave no clues as to what it could be, besides the fact that some of her fans have “definitely” figured it out what it is already.
According to the interview, Mulatto plans on dropping a new project this year and expanding outside of music with upcoming brand partnerships and acting roles.
