Songfacts®:

• Atlanta native Alyssa Stephens is a rapper who records under the name Latto. Stephens first came to the public's attention in 2015 when she was inaugural winner of the Lifetime reality series The Rap Game. Known as Miss Mulatto back then, Stephens changed her stage name to the mononym Mulatto in 2018, and to Latto in January 2021. "Big Energy" is her second Billboard Hot 100 entry, following the 2019 single "Bitch from da Souf," which peaked at #95.
• The song name is a more radio-friendly form of "big d–k energy." The phrase means a guy exuding self-assurance, whose self-esteem is enhanced by knowing he has a huge phallus. Latto expands that personality trait to both genders: "It's basically just this confidence, this strong aura that no one can tell you, 'You not the s--t. You is the s--t,'" she told Essence. "It's about believing in yourself – how you walk, how you talk, just carrying yourself like the person that you believe you are."
• Latto wrote the song with A1 LaFlare, London Jae, Dr. Luke, SupaKaine, Theron Thomas, and Vaughn Oliver. The rapper needed a lot of people in the room so they could bounce ideas off of each other. "It wasn't a sit-down-and-write type of thing. It was more just talking out loud, playing the beat out loud," she told Billboard. "It was a lot of different opinions, even from people who aren't rappers. My assistant was throwing ideas at me, and I was asking the girls in the room, 'What does big energy mean to you.'"
• Dr. Luke and Vaughn Oliver's retro, pop-tinged production borrows its groove from Tom Tom Club's 1981 hit "Genius Of Love." Many other songs have sampled the post-disco tune's rhythm track, including Dr. Jeckyl & Mr. Hyde's "Genius Rap" in 1981, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five's "It's Nasty" in 1982, and most famously, Mariah Carey's "Fantasy" in 1995.
• Latto teamed up with Mariah Carey for the song's remix. During Carey's verse, she revisits some lyrics from her 1995 hit song "Fantasy," which uses the same "Genius Of Love" sample as "Big Energy."
• Latto first conceived the idea of having Mariah Carey on the remix back in November 2021, before "Big Energy" blew up. Back then, she didn't think a collaboration with the superstar singer was realistic. However, once the song started climbing the charts, she plucked up the courage to reach out to her. When Carey agreed to the collaboration, Latto's personal fantasy became reality.
  
  Latto was understandably nervous about the collaboration, but when she found Carey to be genuine, she relaxed. "We was sipping on her liquor Black Irish and just kicking it," she recalled.
• DJ Khaled produced the remix. This was the superstar producer's first released collaboration with either artist, though he'd been photographed in the studio with Carey earlier in the year.
• "Big Energy" was named Song of the Year at the BET Hip Hop Awards 2022.