The rising rapper from Mobile, Alabama, spins rhymes that sound like schoolyard taunts.
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The rapperFlo Millihad given herself a deadline: She was going to be famous by 18.
Not rapping by 18 famous by then.
As a tween, shed seen Nicki Minaj rapping on BETs106 & Park.
She decided to get a pen and paper and be a rapper instead.
I want to be a rapper!
She missed her deadline by a year.
I feel like, as young women, you deal with haters, you deal with insecure men.
Sometimes you just have people trying to bring you down.
So its like, Ho, why is you here?
Are you contributing to my success, or are you, like, taking from it?
Nothing has contributed more to Flo Millis success than the opening rhyme scheme on Beef FloMix.
She raps with the disarming, cutesy facetiousness that has become her trademark.
I like caaaash and my hair to my ass!
/ Do the dash, can you make it go fast?
The lines are punctuated with single-word ad-libs, like audible notebook-paper scribblings passed during class.
She smiles to reveal a mouthful of braces.
(She clarifies that shes a fan of his.)
With me, my voice is very unique.
Part of the effect is her voice, its youthfulness and brevity.
Megan Thee Stallion makes bodacious triple entendres; Doja Cat makes horny radio-ready hits.
Flo Milli sounds like your overconfident little cousin.
Their live performances as Real and Beautiful, and later Pink Mafia, are still somewhere on YouTube.
I worked at Metro [PCS, the cell-phone retail store], and it had a speaker.
Like, This girl is rapping all day at work!
A beat later, in her own defense, she adds, But nobody would come into the store!
Flo Milli approaches everything in her life with the same brash buoyancy as the opening of Beef FloMix.
When I was like 15, I used to be a player.
I used to be thicc when I was younger, she continues.
Like around the time, I was 160 pounds, I had a fat ass, everything, girl.
I looked like I was 19 and 20 when I was really just 15 and 16.
I would get a lot of guys trying to talk to me.
All [older guys] want to do is just fuck.
So let me just play yall ass!
She wasnt very interested in them, let alone what they wanted.
She just wanted to see what the hustle could be.
She had a Rolodex of admirers she kept at a distance.
It was really funny to me!
But you know I forgot where I was going with that story.
What was the question again?
In middle school, she set out to become IG famous.
I used to have a tactic when I was in middle school.
Little sneaky tactics to get followers, she admits.
This means they also tend to send you a follow request back.
By 17, shed amassed 20,000 followers.
She posted snippets of it on Instagram, and her fans begged her to record it properly.
It stalled at 20,000 listens on SoundCloud when she uploaded it in October 2018.
When it came on RCAs radar, they called Flo in.
[People say] Rico, you have this personality.
She has that shit.
[Flo is] making music.
Not fucking bops, she continues, dismissing short-lived viral hits.
Beef FloMix got her attention, but Weak is the beginning of a body of work.
Ho, Why Is You Here?is an imperfect debut.
Maybe she likes it that way her lyrics are inspired by her life and her own puckish confidence.
People automatically think Im going to be insecure because Im dark skin, and thats not the case.
She makes music to show people can be happy in their own skin.
Flo Milli is young enough to describe her dreams in lofty generalities.
Shes inspired by Minaj and wants to be a role model for another younger girl.
I would love to be doing shows, getting endorsements, she says.
I want to eventually get into modeling.
I want to be inside fashion shows.
I want to be in movies when I get older.
The day she was signed felt bittersweet.
It was scary for me, coming up religious, hearing stuff about the industry, she says.
She keeps a close circle because shes leery of clout-chasing friendships.
Im not going to lie I barely have friends, she says.
But I have one best friend that I talk to every day.
Her fans, though, are dedicated.
Were going to get lit, she says.
Were going to listen to that shitall day.
