FLO MILLI – HO, WHY IS YOU HERE? REVIEW

“It’s Flo Milli shit, Bitch!” Man, I have been patiently waiting for this moment since the first time I heard Flo Milli’s first song. Every time she would release a new single, it would make me crave a full project from her even more because every track she releases is so damn fire. Flo Milli was actually one of the first artists I wrote about on this blog; one of the first articles that I posted was about all of my favorite up and coming female rappers(a couple of which, Megan Thee Stallion and Rico Nasty, have blossomed into full-on stars in the rap game over the last year), and when I wrote about Flo Milli in that piece, she actually only had one song out at that point. That one song was so good though, I knew she was going to be a superstar; Flo Milli just has that “It” factor. Hailing from Mobile, Alabama, Flo Milli totally has her own style and sound; a lot of her beats and instrumentals have these sort of old school Trap sounds to them that are so fun and bouncy, and her voice exudes so much energy and power and attitude that it makes all of her songs so fun to listen to. Every single one of her songs makes me want to dance and have a good time. Every single that she has released so far has been so fun and fire, and every feature she has been on has added so much to the original sound. With that all being said, here is how I feel about Flo Milli’s opening project Ho, why is you here? Please let me know in the comments what your favorite songs from this project are, and if you agree with my review of it!

Bitch, I’m better, it ain’t up for debate. When you shine how I shine, you get a whole lotta hate. I’m the shit and that’s my mood everyday. If you tryna fuck with me, it’s a lil’ too late… – ‘Mood Everyday(Intro)’

Flo Milli’s debut project starts out with a little intro sort of mini-cut which has a hard and dark instrumental and beat that reminds of very dirty Memphis Trap music, with Flo Milli rapping an extremely catchy hook on it. ‘Mood Everyday(Intro)’ gives off the perfect amount of and style of energy that one would want and expect when they throw on a Flo Milli mixtape. Flo Milli knows that she is the shit and knows that none of the other up and coming rappers can compete with her, and she wants to make sure that we all know that too. ‘Mood Everyday(Intro)’ is only 50 seconds, but is easily sets the attitude and tone that Flo wanted this mixtape to start off with. Following the intro, we get ‘Beef(FloMix),’ which is the track that started it all for Flo Milli. This is the first song that she every uploaded to any streaming sites(like Spotify or Apple Music), and it is the song that made her career start to pop off. ‘Beef(FloMix)’ has this super obnoxious and awesome piano riff that is just so fun. This track truly has an old-school Trap feeling to it with this kind of melody and overall instrumental. Flo Milli hops onto this track with so much attitude and intensity that it is impossible to not start bopping your head and getting into this track. Flo Milli lets you know exactly how she feels about the opps right from the start of this track, and especially in this little hook: Who got beef with me? Bitch I’m too fast on my feet, you don’t want to compete. And you know where I be. Making you mad is my specialty. I’m the petty queen, I need you to have a seat. My dad will drill you like a cavity… If you love super hype Trap music that is equally good workout music and party music, ‘Beef(FloMix)’ is a track you need to download. Flo Milli’s cockiness and attitude comes out in full force on the next song as well, which is called ‘Like That Bitch.’ In fact, her attitude and in your face personality might be even more present and even more abrasive on this song than it was on the last, which should not be possible. ‘Like That Bitch’ is another track that has a super distorted and bouncy old school Trap sort of instrumental that makes the song bump. The super dark and heavy piano riff along with the distorted synths and super hard beat remind me a lot of the kind of music made by artists like The Crime Mob or Lil Scrappy back in the day. This is a song where Flo Milli’s flow and hilarious bars just shine through. Flo Milli can definitely spit with the best of them and her flows are so nasty; ‘Like That Bitch’ is a great example of her prowess as a spitter at such a young age. ‘In the Party’ is the first song from this record that has an instrumental that sounds modern; as I have said, a lot of the instrumentals for this record have kind of had an old school feeling to them, but ‘In The Party’ definitely feels like a Trap song from 2019 or 2020. I really like how Flo Milli’s attitude is so permeable that it can even be heard when her voice creates the melody. ‘In The Party’ has an instrumental that is provided my Flo Milli just repeating the phrase: la, la, la, la, la…; even though it is obviously low key and subtle, the way she sings it just gives the song so much life. ‘In The Party’ is a song that I could see being a favorite of all her female listeners out there. This track just has so much arrogant emotion and life and is so fun to listen to. Flo Milli knows how great she is and how much better she is than the girls around her that want to be her, and ‘In The Party’ is just another way for her to express these feelings.

I know they mad ’cause I got money in the bank. I get a new hater every single day. If another ho try me, I know I’ma blank (I’ma lose it). I don’t hesitate and I won’t even think… – ‘Pockets Bigger’

Like so many songs from this project, ‘Pockets Bigger’ is a song that has immediately become a huge crowd favorite. This track is the second one in a row that has a super modern sort of instrumental, and it is pretty unlike the instrumentals we heard on the first few songs from Ho, why is you here? Flo Milli can constantly switch up her flow and style and she can sound good on literally any kind of instrumental, and this track is an excellent example of that. ‘Pockets Bigger’ has a super distorted and Bass-heavy sound that reminds me a lot of some of Kenny Beats most popular instrumentals(even though he did not make this instrumental). I really love this abrasive and hyper-aggressive instrumental, as it only adds to Flo Milli’s own intensity and attitude. On ‘Pockets Bigger,’ Flo Milli is just as audacious as ever, explaining why all of the guys surrounding her want her so badly and why all of the girls around her hate her and want to be her. ‘Pockets Bigger’ is only about one minute and fifty seconds, but it packs as much as a punch as any song on this mixtape as it just goes so hard. Next, we get the song ‘Weak,’ which has completely taken over my playlist over the last half month or so and has quickly become one of my favorite songs. This track features the 1990s smash R&B hit ‘Weak’ by SWV, and it kind of flips the meaning of the original track on its head in a really cool way. The original ‘Weak’ by SWV is about the singer of the song feeling so weak in love that they will give in and do anything for their lover, which in the grand scheme of things is not the best because it is easy to get taken advantage of this way. On Flo Milli’s sped up Trap version, she raps about how she is the strong one and how all of the guys around her are weak. In the music video, she dances around throwing money with a bunch of men surrounding her lifting weights, which really gets the message of the song across even more. This song is really fun to listen and it builds up women in an awesome way; ‘Weak’ is one of the many major highlights on this record. I love how the instrumentals on this project keep switching from old school to new school and vice versa; the sound of this record really keeps you on your toes, and no two songs in a row are very similar to each other. ‘Send the Addy’ is another very modern-sounding Underground Trap song that reminds me a lot of artists like Key or Father. It has that super bass-heavy and distorted sound that Kenny Beats is known for making(it is surprising to me that he produced none of this mixtape considering some of the beats on it). On this track, Flo is rapping about how all of the boys around her want her to come over to their place and kick it because she is the baddest. I love the way she raps with such confidence and arrogance, and I love how she shouts out where she is from so often. Flo Milli represents Mobile, Alabama in such a great way, and I am sure the people from her city are very appreciative of it. As I keep saying, no two songs in a row sound-alike on the record. The next track, ’19,’ completely switches it up once again. This track is a bit softer than the one that precedes it, and has a melody that sounds like it is being played on a Mandolin; It is the type of melody you would expect to hear while walking around in a really pretty Asian garden. It reminds me of some of the instrumentals that rappers like Lil Baby and MadeinTyo love to rap on. ’19’ has some of the most wicked flows from this record on it. As far as Flo Milli’s technical rapping skills go, this track has some of her best and nastiest rapping to date. Every song on this project has something different that makes it awesome and unique, and ’19’ is no different in that regard because of the reasons mentioned above.

Do you know how I keep saying that no song on this record sounds similar to the one before it? Well the next track, ‘May I,’ sounds absolutely nothing like ’19.’ ‘May I’ has one of the sickest and most interesting instrumentals on this record. It has an underground club type of beat that is bound to get literally anyone super hype and excited. ‘May I’ is one of the most fun and energetic songs on this record, and that is obviously saying a lot because it already has so much energy. This is yet another song where Flo Milli exudes this level of confidence that is awe-inspiring and motivating as hell. Listening to Flo Milli will make anyone want to be the baddest bitch around. ‘Pussycat Doll’ is another song from this project that has quickly become a major fan favorite. A lot of people are saying that this would be the perfect song for the City Girls to hop on and contribute to, and I have to say that sentiment is correct as hell. ‘Pussycat Doll’ has a super bouncy Trap beat that sounds a lot like some of the club-style Miami Trap beats that the City Girls typically love to rap on; I would love to see one of those two hop on the remix of this track. Regardless, ‘Pussycat Doll’ will be super fun to dance to and jam out to when the bars open back up because it is yet another track from this project that exudes palpable levels of high energy. I really love how Flo Milli switches up her vocal style on this record a bit, as the softer vocal tone that she uses provides an even higher level of sass than she usually has in her songs, which I did not know was possible until listening to this one. I could definitely see ‘Pussycat Doll’ becoming an anthem hood girls all over the country. The second to last track on this mixtape is another single which did really well for Flo Milli and helped get her name on the map. ‘Not Friendly’ has a somewhat similar sound and style to ‘Beef(FloMix).’ The instrumental for this one again reminds me a lot of the music by artists like the Crime Mob and Lil Scrappy back in the day. It has a super foreboding melody which is provided my these super dark sounding piano keys, and with the beat being super tough and distorted, this track sounds very menacing. Flo Milli sounds super harsh and mean on this track, with her vocals and her flows matching the harsh energy of the song very well. Even though she is very pretty and a lot of her music is very fun, ‘Not Friendly’ is the type of song which makes me know Flo Milli is not someone that anyone should be messing with or pissing off. Flo Milli’s debut mixtape closes out with the song ‘Scuse Me,’ which may actually be the most abrasive and aggressive song on the whole mixtape, which is obviously saying something. Flo Milli’s attitude and emotion punches through as soon as the song starts. Right when this track starts, we get this super-tough chorus: Scuse me, bitch? Scuse me, bitch! Scuse me, bitch! You look sick! Why you mad? Because I’m the shit? Flo delivers these lines and all other lines in this song so harshly and with so much heaviness that it is super obvious she is not the person to mess with. Similar to ‘Not Friendly,’ ‘Scuse Me’ makes me think that Flo Milli is the last person that I would want to get angry. Regardless of how scary it makes Flo seem, ‘Scuse Me’ is a total banger and it is a really fun and great way to end this mixtape.

There is a reason that there has been so much buzz around Flo Milli’s Ho, why is you here? throughout the music industry right now. If you follow a lot of people involved with the Hip Hop game online, you have to have seen this music from this tape mentioned by at least one person because it has been everywhere. I personally have seen about 15 artists or producers praising this mixtape and hyping it up since it came out. In my opinion, everyone should be hyping this tape up and trying to get as many people to hear it as possible. Flo Milli has some of the most fun and creative flows and rapping styles that I have heard in a while, and every single one of her songs has so much emotion and attitude. There is no way to not have fun while listening to Ho, why is you here? For a debut mixtape from a young, up and coming star, I do not think anyone could have asked for more from this project. Flo Milli’s Ho, why is you here? is an awesome debut project from an artist that I think is going to keep getting bigger and better for years to come. I can’t wait to see what she does next, but until that time, I will definitely be bumping this project profusely.