Flo Milli Rules the Stage at SXSW as Her Album Drops — Literally
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On Wednesday night, Peso Pluma headlined a night of music that careened from música mexicana to urbano to Norteño-inflected folk at Rolling Stone’s Future of Music showcase, causing lines around the block. The next evening, the showcase pivoted in another, no less potent, direction, mixing up hip-hop with innovative sounds from Ghana, South Africa, Nigeria, and more.
Preacher, a.k.a. Keite Young, came out and showed he wasn’t messing around. Flanked by a five-piece band and 10-member choir, the singer launched right into a cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” It was a bold way to kick off the evening — and effective, as Preacher, who was in fact an ordained preacher many years ago, rode the contours of the song while the choir helped give the right emotional oomph. Preacher, dressed in a sparkly black suit, then delved an energetic mix of funk, blues, and rock, as the singer explored the peaks and valleys of his deeply soulful voice.
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DJ L3ni, who spun raucous hip-hop and other sounds between sets all night, then gave way to Pheelz. “If you live Afrobeats music make some noise!” he shouted just after he took the stage, and the crowd complied. The Nigerian star began as a producer — at one point he reminded the crowd that his resume includes Burna Boy, Davido, and Wizkid — then scored a hit in 2022 with the fantastic “Finesse” and now has a burgeoning solo career. (He just made a track with Usher.) Tonight the tall, rangy Lagos native bounced around the stage, tried out his supple croon, and tossed in partial covers of “I Want it That Way” and “Young, Wild & Free.” Pheelz played a drum machine one minute, then sat on a stool and strummed and acoustic guitar for “Stand By You,” which he introduced as “one of the most beautiful love songs I’ve ever written or ever heard.” He closed with “Finesse.” “This song changed my life,” he said, before singing a chorus good enough to change yours, or at least get lodged in your head for a few days.
Flyana Boss were pure light and energy — and fun as hell. The duo of Bobbi LaNea and Folayan Kunerede make gleefully raunchy songs that rewire the bar-trading zip of early hip-hop for a new, fully online generation. They introduced “Mango Bananas” with a brief discourse on potassium (“You can’t spell potassium without ass,” they noted, which is true), then they traded lines like “Boys fall from the trees/Straight to they knees/Wanna be my main squeeze/Juice me, juice me.” Elsewhere they did synchronized dances, kept holding up heart-hands to the crowd, and told the world they were besties. They played “You Wish,” the excellent 2023 viral hit where admirer Missy Elliott jumped on the remix. Then they asked “Is that Queen?!” It was — or, at least a sample of Freddie Mercury’s “mamma mia” from “Bohemian Rhapsody,” powering “Mamma Mia,” a track Flyana Boss have played on TikTok and almost nowhere else (“Aint no way we’re getting this sample cleared lmaoooo,” read the caption when they posted a clip on the app.)They closed, naturally, with a big hug for each other.
Ghana’s Black Sherif brought a different, but no less potent, energy. Dressed in all black, with big boots and shades, the stage all to himself save a DJ, he came off like the coolest person in the room, then brought 40 minutes of intensity, bouncing around like an athlete. Delivered in English and Twi, his music mixes traditional Ghanaian sounds, highlife especially, with modern ones, drill especially, for a deeply effective blend. He closed with “Oil in My Head,” a soulfully meditative one on which he says “All I see is blessings.” Then, in one of his few bits of banter, he told the crowd, simply, “I love you guys.”
Uncle Waffles, a Swazi-born DJ and record producer based in South Africa, came on and changed the vibe again, in a cool way. Waffles, born Lungelihle Zwane, has become a big name in amapiano, the South African style of dance music that’s exploded in recent years, and on Thursday night she kept the crowd moving with a hypnotic, free-flowing set. A hype man interjected here and there — “Go Waffles, go Waffles go!” — but mostly this was about grooves that felt like they could extend forever. Waffles did mix things up by coming out from behind her DJ setup to bust some loose-limbed moves for the crowd. Since she was making everyone else dance, she may as well, too.
Flo Milli took the crowd at a pivotal moment — and not just because she was the night’s headliner. “This night is so special to me,” she told the crowd, “cuz the album is dropping in a few minutes.” It’s true: The Alabama rapper’s second LP, Fine Ho, Stay, literally came out while she was on stage in Austin. It’s a more vulnerable set of songs from the rapper, but tonight Flo mostly displayed her preternatural self-confidence. Wearing cut-offs and knee-high boots, hair extending beyond her waist, she dived into anthems such as “Like That Bitch,” which rides boasts like, “Her boyfriend in my DMs saying, ‘Oh, I need your fine ass’.”
Milli has been a rapper to watch — and wildly fun to listen to — since her breakthrough hit “Beef FloMix,” released when she was still a college student. But this year she scored a chart hit with “Never Lose Me,” a more chill love song. Tonight she introduced it as a song “for all my lover girls,” then delivered a spirited performances to close out her set — or so it seemed. Then, she said, “I got a little treat for y’all,” and played the brand-new remix — featuring Cardi B and SZA — while hopping offstage and taking photos with fans for several minutes. And just when it seemed the night was over, the confidence came back as “In the Party” blared. Flo hopped back on stage to perform the 2019 track, full of not-so-love-song boasts like “I smoked all his weed and I told him to leave.” It was one more hyperconfident moment in a career that should be full of them.
(Full disclosure: In 2021, Rolling Stone’s parent company, P-MRC, acquired a 50 percent stake in the SXSW festival.)
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