Posted by A rapper from Mobile, Ala. hasn't appeared on an XXL Freshman cover since the very first Freshman issue in 2007. At the time, Rich Boy, known for his hit "Throw Some D's," was the first Mobile native graced the cover alongside Saigon, Plies, Lupe Fiasco, Boosie BadAzz, Gorilla Zoe, Joell Ortiz, Crooked I, Papoose and Young Dro. This year, the 2021 XXL Freshman Flo Milli is the second rapper from the city, and the first woman, to be inducted into the coveted roster of artists.
"I remember Rich Boy, he was the first one from our city to be on XXL, which was a while ago," shares the budding RCA Records superstar. "So, you know, even seeing him, it was like, Damn, now I'm the first female on it. So, it's very like, it's a humbling experience and I think it's a milestone."
While poised, Flo also offers an abundance of fearlessness and self-assurance in her rhymes. Flo is talented and she knows it, but the 21-year-old rapper doesn't take her craft lightly. She began to capture attention and turn heads in the hip-hop space in 2018, after repurposing the beat for the Playboi Carti's "Beef," produced by Ethereal, and and making it her own. She calls it "Beef FloMix," which she didn't expect to transcend into the rap stratosphere the way it did, but Flo embraced the response she received. The track is now at over 80 million Spotify streams and more than 13 million YouTube views.
The burgeoning rhymer's music is entwined with positive affirmations, plenty of sass and lyrical tools for empowerment, especially heard on her feature for Yung Baby Tate's "I Am." This is a stance Flo has been taking on many of her loose singles as well as her 2020 debut mixtape, Ho, Why Is You Here?. Her cadence is higher-pitched than her counterparts; her pen game is fierce and unapologetic. The reverence she has for her rap predecessors—Lil' Kim, Nicki Minaj, Eve, Diamond of Crime Mob, Missy Elliott and MC Lyte—could have something to do with that.
"Nicki proved that you can do this for a long time, you can be on top for a long time and, you know, not fall down," she said of Nicki Minaj's influence in XXL's Spring 2021 issue. “You could persevere and make history as a Black female." Something Flo aims to do in her own career.
Flo Milli is intrepid and spunky, which oozes through her rhymes. She brings this exact vitality to her 2021 XXL Freshman freestyle.
"How could a broke boy ever play me?/You ain't made shit, God made me/I'm a Bugatti and she a Mercedes/Money so long it go back to the ’80s/I'm at the top ’cause you bitches is lazy/Beef with a ho?/I ain't makin' ’em famous/I ain't see you on none of these playlists/You can see I don't care and you hate it/He say he real, but I know he fakin'," she flows—no pun intended.
Flo caps off her freestyle with some sexually charged lines. "Pull out the steel, my shooters is aimin'/Up in the hills, community gated," she delivers. "Throw on that ice, still ride on me naked/This pussy a milli' and he wanna taste it/Come with a billi', I might let you take it/Make love on a jet/Fuck on a check/We makin' movies when we havin' sex."
Watch Flo Milli's 2021 XXL Freestyle, powered by BODYARMOR, below.