“Aht, aht, you not finna embarrass me!” Latto jokingly warns her pet shih-poo, Coca. The fluffy little pup — the first of several in her brood, soon, if Latto has her way — is deciding whether to use a grassy area outside a North Hollywood rehearsal studio as the bathroom. Fresh off a delayed flight and clad in a cheetah-print bonnet, matching maroon sweatsuit set and her trademark cheetah-print thong, Latto is living up to her latest alter ego’s name: Big Mama has arrived.

After a two-hour-long, energy-boosting IV drip treatment and a few vitamin C shots directly in her posterior (“It’s OK because I got a lot of cushion back there!”), the Atlanta rap superstar will head straight into hours of rehearsal for her upcoming performances at BET Experience Fan Fest on June 29 and the 2024 BET Awards the following evening, where she’s nominated for best female hip-hop artist — an honor she won last year — and best collaboration (“Don’t Play With It,” her Billboard Hot 100 hit with Lola Brooke and Yung Miami).

The 25-year-old rapper moves through the rehearsal space with a seasoned professional’s composure and a Gen Zer’s sardonic humor. At the BET Awards, she’s set to perform a medley of “Sunday Service,” “Big Mama” and “Shoutout to Me” — the latter two for the first time on TV. All appear on her upcoming album, Sugar Honey Iced Tea, due in August. Today, not a single detail gets past the artist born Alyssa Michelle Stephens — from the volume levels in her in-ears to the drums on her different live mixes to every last hair flip in her high-octane choreography.

Read the full Billboard cover story here.