Watch Flo Milli perform a six-track ‘Tiny Desk Concert’
This month, the popular Tiny Desk concert series is celebrating Black Music Month with a feminine twist. The concert organisers are focusing on Black female artists, including some who have been in the business for several decades and others who are just starting out in the industry. In the latest episode, Tiny Desk invited Flo Milli to take the small stage.
Flo Milli is a unique hip-hop singer. She commands any stage, big or small, with uncompromising self-confidence that matches her energising and compelling lyrics. Born Tamia Monique Carter in Mobile, Alabama, Flo Milli began rapping and writing songs as a child, inspired by genre innovators from Biggie Smalls to Nicki Minaj.
At just 24 years old, she has already released three albums: 2020’s Ho, Why Are You Here?, 2022’s You Still Here, Ho?, and 2024’s Fine Ho, Stay. Her recent single ‘Never Lose Me’ struck a particularly resonant chord with US fans, becoming her first to enter the Billboard Hot 100.
At the NPR headquarters, her recent Tiny Desk performance was her first with a live band. Her set, six tracks in length, celebrated each of her albums with discerning highlights. The set opened with a ‘Conceited’ and ‘Bed Time’ medley, reimagined with heavy key bass and electric guitar. She then revisited her first album with a guitar-adapted version of ‘Beef FloMix’, the song that initially lifted her to fame with a viral presence across social media platforms.
Milli’s performance also featured the popular songs ‘May I’ and ‘Like That Bitch’ from her debut mixtape. For the finale, the band stripped down to acoustics for a unique reimagination of ‘Never Lose Me’, bringing the audience up to date with a new, previously unheard verse.
NPR’s Tiny Desk series has been held at the desk of former All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen in Washington, DC, since 2008. In October 2021, the series reached the impressive milestone of 800 performances with a collective view count of two billion. Other Black female artists who have been celebrated in recent episodes include Chaka Khan, Tierra Whack, Tems, and Lakecia Benjamin.
Flo Milli desk concert setlist:
- ‘Conceited’
- ‘Bed Time’
- ‘In The Party’
- ‘Beef FloMix”
- ‘Weak’
- ‘Never Lose Me’