FLO MILLI’S HO, WHY IS YOU HERE?

Nearly two years removed since the rough draft of the now-iconic “Beef FloMix” freestyle went viral, Mobile, Alabama native Flo Milli has arrived with her RCA backed debut mixtape “Ho, Why is You Here?” In 30 minutes the 20- year-old eviscerates haters, exposes hoes, and asserts her dominance with a dignified charm that is sure to ignite the bad bitch inside you as Leo season rages on.
Lyrically, this project is nearly exclusively about Flo Milli flaunting her bag, rising ranks, and curbing lame dudes that try to stand her way. And while thoroughly amusing with witty one-liners, these themes are pretty standard in popular rap and destined to come across as repetitive or fodder for a montage on Insecure, but Milli pulls it off by expressing a nearly different version of herself through her performances on every track.

Determined to warrant the respect of everyone in the rap game, Milli playfully switches styles and flows and consistently does so in a little over 2 minutes each time. She can melodically mumble like Playboi Carti and Future on a track like “Pockets Bigger,” and ad-lib like she’s all three Migos at once on “Pussycat Doll.” But the references and knowledge of music culture extend to the sonic feel of the project as well as of course “Beef FloMix” was birthed from a Playboi Carti beat, but more interestingly is the interpolation of SWV’s “Weak” on Flo Milli’s track of the same name. But Milli’s “Weak” flips the iconic love-sickness anthem into a SZA, “Doves in the Wind-“esque kiss-off to simps far and wind.

Oh, and did I mention there are no features? At 20 Milli is completely confident and self-assured as made evident by the project’s centerpiece “19.” Equal parts origin story and mission statement, Milli takes a lyrical machete to a harmonic piano-laced trap beat. The track, like the mixtape at large and the rapper herself, is at once brutal, witty, and focused on getting rich. Suffice to say, it goes hard as hell.

This project endlessly serves as an empowering and a much-needed jolt of bad bitch energy during a time when it seems like nothing is for sure and has effectively planted Flo Milli’s spot as that bitch.