Review Summary: #172 Rolling Stone: The 200 Greatest Hip-Hop Albums of All Time
The first time I heard of Flo Milli was in music critic Anthony Fantano’s rant video about The Rolling Stone’s updated Top 200 Hip-Hop Albums of All Time list for 2022, in which Fantano voiced displeasure about Flo Milli (among many other artists, mostly more recent ones) being added to the list before being able to prove that their music has enough longevity. Her debut mixtape
Ho, Why Is You Here? was placed at #172 on the list, and although Fantano complimented Flo’s flow, delivery and verses, he went on to say that the mixtape was not even one of the better hip-hop albums of 2020, let alone of all time. Immediately curious, I put on the mixtape after finishing the video and was impressed by what I heard.
Ho, Why Is You Here? is a fun little trap album, which, although it may not have staying power in the long run, is still an enjoyable listen for the time being.
The intro track
Mood Everyday sets the tone for the mixtape, with a brooding, piano-based beat, and a few verses in which Flo exudes confidence about being better than her competition. Although almost each track has a different producer, the dark and bass-heavy beats which are a staple of trap music are ever-present, giving the mixtape a consistent mood. The two most distinct of these beats are on the song
Weak, which samples R&B trio SWV’s song of the same name (although Flo raps about the men in her life being weak, in contrast to how SWV sings about how love makes them weak), and the track
19, which features a rather pleasant, oriental string-instrument sample.
The main lyrical topics on
Ho, Why Is You Here? include success, self-sufficiency, and putting haters in their place. Her verses are solid, but where I think Flo Milli shines is in her delivery. From track to track, verse to verse, and even from line to line, Flo has a knack for conveying whichever emotion she’s feeling through her flow. The most prominent example of this occurs on
Like That Bitch during the second verse, where the listener can perceive Flo’s anger crescendo from line to line until she finally pops off toward the end with some of her quickest bars. Another one of my favorite examples, which is a shorter one, occurs on the track
Send the Addy, when in the midst of Flo rapping about being in her bag 24/7, the topic of her man comes up, and she delivers the line “I might let him hit if I get a lil’ horny” in an uncharacteristically girly, almost secretive way, before returning to her agitation toward those hatin’ bitches.
I agree with Fantano in his belief that
Ho, Why Is You Here? will not stand the test of time, but I nonetheless feel that Flo Milli is a talented artist, and that her mixtape is a lot of fun. I don’t know the origin of the alias “Flo Milli”, but I do know that she is more than deserving of having a word that derives from “flow” in her name, as she has a very distinct and enjoyable one. I’ll conclude by responding to the question that Flo presents in the title of her mixtape, to which I must answer: I am here because I was interested in hearing the 172nd greatest hip-hop album of all time.
