Finding Your Sound: DJ Miss Milan
The Fairy Vibe Mother talks early influences, working with Doechii, and how “the music has always been within me.”
by Brad Farberman
In 2019, near the end of a four-year stint with Saweetie, DJ Miss Milan was curating a playlist called “GIRLGVNG GLOBAL.” The idea, fleshed out by more than 100 artists, was to bring attention to female MCs still in the underground.
“I just remember wanting to highlight, and put people on to, more women rappers than, of course, the average Megan, Cardi and Nicki that was popular,” says Milan in an interview with myself and fellow curator Philipp Senkpiel. “It was like, so many women are out here that need a voice. So I decided to be that voice.”
One of the artists, a Tampa-raised rapper named Doechii, reached out to say thank you. In return, Miss Milan made an offer: Let me know if you ever need a DJ. The pair started working together in 2020, and things started moving. Doechii signed to TDE in 2022; released the critically acclaimed Alligator Bites Never Heal in ’24; and won Best Rap Album at the Grammys in ’25. Milan took home a trophy, too — she appears on the LP’s second single, “BOOM BAP.”
“It was just so surprising,” says Milan, “because me being a DJ, I had vocals on it, I had scratching — which is considered some of the production on it as well, channeling my legendary DJ Premier-esque and Spinderella vibes into just being not only a DJ, but somewhat of an MC with her as well — and having those contributions to that and then the song actually making the mixtape, and that being one of the songs that people perform and sing word for word when we do perform it, is such an amazing feeling. So for it to be a part of the Grammy-winning Alligator Bites Never Heal makes me a Grammy-winning DJ. So shout out to the culture.”
Milan figures into more than just the music, though. During widely seen Doechii performances at the Grammys and Tiny Desk — the latter of which has 17 million views on YouTube — Milan functions as the second-in-command, serving as a perfect foil, for instance, on the platinum “DENIAL IS A RIVER.” Both gigs were the “creative brainchild” of Doechii, not to mention wildly different from one another.
“We want to give the fans, and new viewers, an element of surprise,” explains Milan. “When the mixtape dropped and people were taking it, it was a good thing, but when the Tiny Desk performance dropped for it, it really brightened it up and it brought a whole new audience, which is always the goal with every performance that we want to do. It’s not only giving the fans something new, but also wanted to capture a brand new audience. And for our jazz kind of vibe of our Tiny Desk, we’ve brought in a lot of jazz fans — people who love the genre — and infusing it with hip-hop is just something that they absolutely love that we did. And then the Grammys having that theater, very much so Broadway feel to it, those that love Broadway were like, ‘Oh my gosh. I’m a theater kid. This is my thing. I love this.’”
The onstage rapport between Doechii and Milan is brimming with tradition, recalling classic MC-DJ team-ups like Gang Starr and DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince. And it’s done with intention, down to their recent “School of Hip-Hop” performances, which feature classroom-like stage design.
“Once again, the brainchild behind Doechii is to give people the lessons of hip-hop, hence why we have been doing this whole performance of the ‘School of Hip-Hop’ and showing everyone the elements, including the DJ, which, honestly, started with us,” says Milan with a laugh. “I keep trying to tell people, there would be really no hip-hop if it wasn’t for the DJ that started it first. So that being said, her just highlighting that and giving me the opportunity to showcase my skills as a DJ, and saying, ‘Hey, you know, we’re more than just looking at our laptops. We scratch, we MC, we back the artists up, we hype the crowd.’ So for me, it was very important for her to show that.”
Milan moved to Atlanta during the pandemic, but she was born in Brooklyn and grew up in Queens — she has a New Yorker’s “hustler’s mentality,” she says. Her parents moved to the U.S. from Barbados, so she was exposed early on to calypso, soca, reggae and dancehall (plus jazz, classical, hip-hop and R&B). Her decision to become a DJ was partially inspired by her parents. She remembers her mother playing DJ Mister Cee on the radio — he later became a mentor — and her father was a reggae selector himself. Today, he refers to Milan as “basically him in final form.”
“It’s funny, because the music has always been within me, and I always wanted to perform,” says Milan. “I used to be in talent shows. I went to dance school and performed, and I would win, you know, yearly trophies, and just be one of those kids that was like, ‘I wanna perform. I wanna perform.’ So music and performing has always been something that’s in my background.”
In addition to Mister Cee, Milan cites Kid Capri as an early influence. But it was discovering female voices behind the decks — Cocoa Chanelle, DJ Jazzy Joyce, Spinderella — that really set her on her path.
“I personally didn’t see a lot of newer, younger DJs like me, to be completely honest,” says Milan. “You know what I’m saying? Like, shout out to them, but it’s like, ‘Where’s the fresh meat? Where’s the new blood?’ And I just didn’t see a lot of women, at least in my personal space. So I was really inspired by those DJs and then to just really be like, ‘OK, let me be one of the DJs of the new school, and start my own leadership in that.’”
