The Alabama rapper’s official debut brings her sharp-tongued bars and bassy 808s into a glittery world of early-’00s pop culture and reality TV nostalgia.
If Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion are seniors in the school of pussy rap, then Flo Milli, Kali, Lakeyah, and Yung Baby Tate are the well-known sophomores. The grandchild of legends like Lil’ Kim, Trina, and Missy Elliott, modern-day pussy rap comes equipped with a sharp eye for sexual prowess, deprioritizing men, and getting to the money, a recipe that’s already elevated stars like Latto, Saucy Santana, and City Girls. Among the later class, Alabama’s Flo Milli has brought cutting bars and knocking singles that demand attention, moving at her own pace with performance, freestyle, and artistic direction chops. The 2021 XXL freshman’s best-known tracks—“Beef FloMix” and “In the Party”—have become bad bitch summer anthem mainstays.
Her 2020 mixtape Ho, Why Is You Here? solidified Milli’s bravado and lyrical clarity. Tracks such as “Weak” off the debut were a flip of SWV’s classic and showed off Milli’s love for Southern snap music, punctuating her ability to insult you and degrade men in the same breath. Milli’s official debut, You Still Here, Ho?, pursues various channels through Milli’s colorful world of boasts and empowerment anthems, but at times misses the mark of showing her range.
Alluding to a Southern girl’s dreams of superstar fame, Milli welcomes us to a glittery world of early-’00s pop culture and reality TV, complete with an introductory cameo by Flavor of Love alum Tiffany “New York” Pollard. Milli’s formula of contrasting her higher-pitched voice with bassy 808s and sharp-tongued bars serve her well on this project. Early single “Conceited” feels like a thudding Southern revamp of Remy Ma’s 2006 classic with Milli rapping, “Please don’t bark cause Milli bite back.” Even a slower tempo song such as “No Face” illuminates Milli’s knack for a simple yet effective chorus: “Put that pussy on his face/No face, no case.” Oddly enough, one of the second strongest moments is “Titled Halo,” where Milli plays the slow, syrupy storyteller as she contemplates the possibility of falling in love again (“You say I’m the one you pray for/But I ain’t nobody’s angel”). It’s the perfect song for a late-night drive of yearning and indecision.
The only time we lose the power of Milli’s pen is on “Pretty Girls,” an OG Parker-produced track whose stock power-pop guitar riff feels numb to the song’s bubbly, sunshine-filled mood. “Hottie” and “On My Nerves” run into similar problems: In theory, these should be big moments, but the beats lag behind Milli’s vocals and the predictable choruses don’t hold their weight. Some of the awkward shifts feel like understandable growing pains: In an industry hellbent on insisting that women in rap can only be caricatures, it’s refreshing to see Milli step out with both her classic approach and new attempts at claiming selfhood. You Still Here Ho? meets Flo Milli in her most adventurous form yet.
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