
Small town boy with big city dreams, Milli released his promising single titled “Hold You Down”. “Hold You Down” was an unforgettable vibe that we don’t mind becoming addicted too! The intro of “Hold You Down” begins with an emotional dialogue that sets off the tone of the song by its vulnerability and unguarded theatric. This was the perfect buildup for “Hold You Down” to deliver a hear-rendering love bop atmosphere that will have you thinking of that special someone. The special element to “Hold You Down” was most certainly the purity in songwriting. Milli expresses himself through his lyrics. Everything he writes comes from a place of authenticity and true thoughts/feelings. Therefore, we just knew the passionate lyrics in “Hold You Down” represented the sentimental emotions that Milli felt. Although personal to him, we were able to connect with the lyrics which brought together chemistry for the fan and the song.
“Hold You Down” had poignant melodies with an assured ability to captivate you into the song. Milli manages to move you with “Hold You Down” through his refined harmonies. The vocals and the production of “Hold You Down” were cohesive with one another, while the smooth arrangement helped us follow along with the music and become lost within the song.
You can listen to “Hold You Down” by Milli here
Welcome to BuzzMusic Milli! Tell us about your upbringing. Growing up in a small town, were you surrounded by enough influence or resources for your music? How did you discover your inspiration?
Well, I had a pretty awesome upbringing, grew up in Oklahoma City, I have 5 brothers and no sisters so I always had company to keep me sane. My mom is a single mother and raised all of us herself so that showed me that we had strength in our blood because she always made sure she hustled to get what we wanted and kept a smile on our face. Growing up I can always tell I was gonna have some kind of ties with music, I have always been pretty artsy, I’ve always known how to draw and paint, and I always loved writing and words for some reason, in English class, I was always the one who went above and beyond on essays or anything that had to do with writing.
I also remember learning so many new words from doing crossword puzzles and I would write them down and learn the definition later. In the city, there was the inspiration but only if you made yourself inspired, we still don’t really have that established artist come out of OKC so everyone wants to one-up the next artist in town so there is no support system really. I got a lot of inspiration from my mom, she always played her New Jack Swing music on the loudspeaker in the house so those melodies always been put in my head, and I would always sing along under my breath at the time. She finally noticed so that’s when she bought me a Walkman for Christmas, keep in mind that at this time, Walkman’s were the modern-day iPhone, so I was a kid in a candy store. Next, I remember we went shopping and she let me buy 3 albums for it to start off with, I remember getting Ja Rule’s 3:36 album, Nelly’s Country Grammar album, and a Fabolous album.
Those were some of my earliest inspirations and as you can see I always been a fan of the singing and rapping fuse in songs. Those are some of the early pioneers of it. My aunts and uncles absolutely loved Ja Rule and that’s where I picked up meshing rapping and singing together.
I remember discovering inspiration just writing a rap and folding it up and making a whole Arts & Crafts paper album type thing, so you would write the raps, fold them neatly, design your cover with markers and stuff make it look all official and you would put those songs folded in that album and Boom, you have an elementary kid album haha sounds dumb now, but definitely helped me get inspired.
This song “Hold You Down” was beautiful! Can you tell us about the production of this single? What was the vision behind the introductory dialogue?
First off, thank you so much! I really appreciate that… My best friend in real life is actually my producer (Quezo Beats), so before we officially stepped into music we sat back and developed and learned each other sound and what we wanted, we didn’t just release something out of nowhere, so he knows that I like really lo-fi production with hard kicks and a melody that can get stuck in people’s emotions, we love a lot of the same vibe of music which made things so easy since we with each other all the time. We are at the point now where I can literally text him and say “send me this type of mood” and he will say “say less” So with this song, I had the hook before anything else so with the way the hook sound and production.
I knew instantly that I wanted a skit at the beginning to fit the mood even more, so I had a friend act it out for me, made herself cry and sent it, she’s amazing, to say the least!
Considering most of your songs are written from personal expression, what inspired you to write “Hold You Down”? What is this single about?
Definitely years and years of situations that I had to go through, nothing like putting your own pain into a song, makes the feeling and tune so much better. I also connect with my supporters, I actually make time for them and DM them personally and talk to them, and some of them open up and tell me some situations they go through, and if it's one thing that brings the world together, it’s music, so the best thing for me to do is take their pain and put it in a song so then it’ll help that person and thousands of others going through that same thing and they can feel involved.
The single is about a guy talking to a girl who has been torn apart by love and a guy but can’t seem to let that guy go or seems lost without that person, there was actually somebody going through that whole situation from the song, and they gave me details and the okay to put it in a song and I went through it too so it made the song so much easier to write, and we came out with Hold You Down. A relatable tune for everyone!
What was the most challenging aspect for you when creating “Hold You Down” and how did you overcome the obstacle?
The most challenging aspect for me was the melodies, and I know that might be easy for some, but I like to make sure every melody flows within the lyrics and beat and I like to make sure the melodies hit the heart and I overcame that obstacle because I took my time with every ad-lib or backing melody to make sure people feel it, I have some people who listen to it and memorized every background melody before the actual lyrics. That plays a huge part, I overcame that by just taking my time and not being worried or trying to copy other artists melodies, I just went with what my ears loved.
What’s next for you Milli?
Still growing so lots of new music, music videos, tons of new relationships with new supporters, lots of new places to see around the world, and hopefully build up enough of a following to drop an album. Eventually, I want do some merch too, but not the usual merch, I want to be able to personally handcraft and make merch myself because I’m big on fashion and then pass it out to kids in need around the country, and that would be the brand, more of a positive and charitable move instead of throwing a price on it and telling people to buy it it will also be a movement. There’s definitely a lot in store as you can see, and I can tell whoever supporting me that it's about to be one hell of a journey. So thank you to everyone and I love all of you.