Artist Spotlight: Queen Millz

Leicester’s Queen Millz epitomises energy. Confident, focused and playful, Millz has been steadily building a loyal fan base through an assortment of silky singles, delving into different sub-genres within UK rap to maintain relevance and refine her sound. 

2021 was a busy year for Millz, as she dropped the lively MiLL$, the hard hitting Hear Me Out and collaborated with hotly-tipped grime young gun sbk on On Sight. She has started the year strongly with her latest single Winner, which sees Millz offer a more melodic and trap-infused sound that highlights her budding versatility and chameleonic ability to immerse herself within prominent genres and popular trends. 

I caught up with Millz to discuss her constantly evolving style, the exciting Leicester scene and what is to come from the starlet. 

Who is influencing you at the moment? 

I’m very American influenced. I like Doja Cat, Trippie Redd, Chris Brown. I love Chip too, I grew up listening to him.

You’ve been around for a while now. How have you seen the UK rap scene evolve?

I started on grime. When I first started in the music scene it was pretty much all grime, or pop. It was either pop bangers or underground grime. I was in the ‘sending’ culture, we used to send for each other on Facebook haha. Then slow rap and trap took over for a bit and now it’s obviously drill and afrobeat. I try and evolve with the moving of genres, so every time that I go to the studio, I try and do something in a different genre to try and fit the times. 

I think it’s important to do. You see some old grime heads stuck in the sound and not getting the clout they deserve. 

Grime’s the culture though. I didn’t really succeed in grime, I just kind of peaked into the culture a little bit but I know people in the culture and it’s hard to let go. You can’t say grime’s dead to a guy that loves grime!

Do you think that there has been steps made in the right direction with how female rappers are received in the scene?

I feel like back in the day when I was on grime, there was tooo much competition to name yourself a female rapper. I tried to not box myself, I love too sing too. Even though I can bar, I try to do it with a little bit of melody behind it. I try to not be classed as a rapper. When you self proclaim your name as ‘Queen’, it’s hard to be beefing and calling out rappers. There’s space for everybody to win, I’m in competition with myself and that’s all I need. 

With the new single ‘Winner’ there is definitely a switch up to a more melodic flow. Why did you choose to bring that out now?

Every single that I’ve released lately is different to each other. I’m trying to see what sound my audience likes the most, and finding my feet and find the right path. I just experiment when I go in the studio, if I hear a good beat I just run with it.

Being from the Midlands, do you think it allows you to stand out or do you think it’s harder to gain fans because you aren’t from London?

If you aren’t from London and aren’t big on social media then you are going to struggle. I think the only reason that I’ve now gained a London audience is because I’ve pushed my social media so hard. I try and put a lot of different content out at all time and catch people’s attention. My manager is from London and he found me on instagram. Socials is the way, especially outside of London.

I think it can be quite thankless with socials if you aren’t getting anywhere. What would your advice me to anyone who is pushing the socials heavy but isn’t getting any traction? 

Make the journey down to London. I went to a BBC introducing event in London. I came down with a couple of CD’s that I’d ripped off my laptop. Met Kenny Allstar, met DJ Target, gave them the CD’s, told them who I was etc. At least then you are putting your name in people’s heads and putting a face to a name. I’d say go to every available event and perform at every opportunity that you can. Don’t be that money orientated at the start because it takes a while for it to pay off. I’ve been performing since I was 10 years old on stage because I love it. Because I’ve been doing it in Leicester, there’s people around who will come and see me and book me in different cities. Get on stage, get your name out there and get your voice out there! 

Have you got your eye on anyone in Leicester who is musically standing out?

Obviously Trillary Banks, she’s holding it down for the Queens! Sainté is coming up, he’s cold, I’ve known him since young. I rate his vibe, he’s one to watch. 

I really enjoyed your track with SBK. Where did the collaboration come from? 

I met him at the Igloo with Wiley. I already knew about him as a grime spitter. It just happened naturally, he had the studio free and I turned up and I wanted to get working to show off. I think he had a song already ready and I just jumped on it. We did a TikTok and that went kind of viral. We sorted out the video, the bikes and cars etc, brought SBK to Leicester and yeah, it was cold!

Yeah the video is sick, I really like all your videos. I think thee visuals match the energy and vibes of the tracks really well. How do you work on maintaining your aesthetic through aspects of your art?

I’m just unapologetically myself. I’ve got ‘love yourself and you will succeed’ tattoo’d on my back in Chinese. I don’t actually go for a set aesthetic, I just be myself and work with a lot of the same camera teams. 

Are you looking to collaborate a lot in the future?

Yeah if it’s right then it’s right. Obviously we only make moves that make sense but I’m open to collab with anyone, I don’t have beefs or squabbles with anyone. I just wanna make some bangers and some money!

Is there anyone in particular that you’d love to work with?

Definitely Chris Brown, it has to happen one day. Chip as well. 

What are the themes and ideas behind ‘Winner’?

I just wanted to show the progression and talk about what working hard can get you. If you have a winners mentality then there’s nothing else that can happen but win. I wanted to show that I’m upping the levels. 

You’ve accumulated a loyal fan base at this moment, have you thought about how you are going to take it to the next level and reach a larger audience?

I don’t even think about it too much, I just push. I’m going to release a new single soon and then I’m going to release a mixtape hopefully in Spring. I’m trying to collaborate more, I’m trying to do shows, I’m trying to fly out. Just push push push. I want to make sure that all the material that I put out is quality. It’s been a process, I don’t rush it. 

If you were introducing a new listener to your music, what track would you play them?

Unreleased, the best is yet to come!

What’s to come from you? What’s the plan? 

The plan is to be worldwide. I’m trying to do my thing and spread my message. I don’t know where I want to be, I just know what I want to be known as Queen Millz and be doing my own thing. I want to change my families life, that’s what motivates me really!