After Flo Milli scored a viral TikTok hit in 2020, the 22-year-old Alabama rapper capitalised on the influencer-era commodification of the self in her debut mixtape Ho, Why Is You Here?, receiving widespread critical acclaim for her playful, boastful take on Southern rap. Her debut album, You Still Here, Ho?, opens with Tiffany Pollard, one of US reality TV’s most-memed personalities, exclaiming “Get in line, peasants!” Clearly, Milli has no intention of abandoning the amped-up vanity that defined her breakout year – and You Still Here, Ho? drips with egoism and opulence.
As on her mixtape, Milli integrates the core elements of Southern rap with dexterous lyrics full of caption-worthy one-liners. “I only talk in bags / So it better be a Birkin,” she raps on On My Nerves, which samples genre heavyweight Nelly’s 2002 hit Dilemma. Bed Time is back-to-back disses, Milli gloating: “Ho keep it cute / Before I embarrass you.” Even in Tilted Halo, where she sings and shows her vulnerable side (“You say I’m the one you pray for / But I ain’t nobody’s angel”), she’s still flexing, “I’m on the winning team / Up early in the morning, no snooze.”
While Milli’s song topics don’t range beyond her sex game (No Face), getting what you want (Pretty Girls) and her elite stature (Come Outside), her desire to be seen as the top prize, despite life’s hardships, is aspirational for a generation that closely aligns with luxury despite the ever-widening class gap. Her debut is a great, carefree soundtrack to dancing through the struggle.
