Despite early work with well-known collaborators such as Silentó and Janelle Monáe, I’d never heard of Latto until her breakout smash, “Big Energy.”

And if you’re looking to get recognized (and winning TV reality show The Rapper doesn’t do the trick), you might as well go to the well and sample one of the most popular dance tracks of the 80s, in this case Tom Tom Club‘s 1981 banger “Genius of Love.”

“Big Energy” was officially released as a single in September 2021, but I heard it for the first time in December of that year while visiting a going-away party for a journalist friend who was leaving town. A group of 8 or so of us hit up the clubs in Eugene, Oregon, and I was immediately put in the mood to dance when I heard the DJ crank up “Genius of Love,” one of my all-time faves. But it wasn’t “Genius of Love,” of course; it was Latto‘s “Big Energy.”

Some nice production goes a long way in modernizing the sound of the Tom Tom Club sample, and Latto proves herself capable of delivering the down-and-dirty goods on the rap. Essentially a club banger at inception (those risky R- to X-rated lyrics about “big d*ck energy” and “make ’em sing to this p*ssy like a melody” spell it out), the song has taken on a life of its own, reaching the top 10 on many charts worldwide and peaking at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. You’re gonna be be hearing it for a while!

Also worth checking out are remixes featuring Mariah Carey and DJ Khaled.

Fun-lovin’ and hedonistic for all, “Big Energy” is just what the post-pandemic world ordered.