Making history is nothing new for Thai rapper, MILLI. This young and vibrant, but seasoned performer has graced many stages from the Head In The Clouds Los Angeles Music Festival to the Coachella stage. Now, it might seem that she wouldn’t get “wowed” often given her extensive experience, but that was not the case recently in New York.
When she took to the stage she was certainly stun by the crowd’s energy. She recalls, “Wow, it’s amazing right now.” She adds, “It is my number one crowd, the best. Everybody just responding… this is like wild, crazy. I’m so happy to be here.” She explains, “everybody just screaming [or] singing.” Acknowledging that singing along to her music is not easy, she joked, “if they can sing! Because I rap in Thai a lot.” She also noticed a special group of fans in the crowd singing along that day saying, “for the Mirror Mirror [song]… there was one group of teenage boys.” She was so shocked by their enthusiasm and passion for her music, she remarked, “I have to run into them again. It’s like saying thank you so much because this means a lot to me.” For MILLI her fans mean everything. She explains, their love feeds her soul. “As an artist, I have energy when my crowd has energy…they send [it] to me [and I] give it back more [to them]” She says.
As for where her music comes from, MILLI gives credit to many things that inspire her to create melodies. She states, “Everything, you know. I love to watch memes… from my friends, people around…[and] when I have a good mental conflict with someone, even my mom.” Now, MILLI can speak many languages. She is known to rap in Thai, English, Japanese and trying for even more, but when it comes to writing her music she remarks that “I don’t hear languages,” but instead hears rhythms before rhymes. She explains, “For me, I feel like I’m a musician… I heard the melody and I can sing.” That being said she knows her biggest enemy in the studio is “pressure” and that is why she prefers to collaborate with others. “I don’t want to write things alone. I want to have my friends, my team, because… sometimes I just think thinking about things too much, you know, overthinking. And I just want someone who’s not a musician to stop me.” Collaboration is key for MILLI, she has so many artists she’d love to work with. She cites, “Tyler the Creator, Doja Cat [and ] if I can only make Rihanna come back… comeback to the music industry.”
As for new music, MILLI has big plans on the horizon. However, for 2023, she is thinking of a single and then an album next year saying, “Maybe just a single collaboration featuring with artists like Korean Japanese [artist]. Oh, I’m a spoiler now… with the album-maybe next year.” Noting that she still has one more year of university still so she is having to balance a lot.
Being so young and so talented means that MILLI will have many years to express herself as an artist and develop her craft. However, she remarks that self-discovery is a big interest for her no matter how daunting. She says, “I’m scared, sometimes, as scared [as] I’m [I am] going to figure[it] out, but I got my team. I got my family.” One thing that MILLI does know about herself is her taste palette, joking in true MILLI fashion she says, “I’m Thai. But I don’t eat spicy that much. But I love it sometimes. I don’t like it.”
It was just announced that MILLI will be returning to Head In The Clouds Los Angeles Music Festival in August 2023. The Head In The Clouds Los Angeles Music Festival runs from August 5th-6th 2023. This year will be the festival’s 5th anniversary.
