Scared money don’t make none

Montreal MC Milli Millz talks rhyme and reason

You can’t dumb it down if what you say isn’t dumb.

It’s been suggested to area rapper Milli Millz that he tone down skills in favour of bills. Despite what his name may suggest, Millz puts the message over money, and he correlates the two on a level that the game isn’t used to.

“I’d say there’s five things in my life I have a passion for, that I’ll devote my time and my money to. This is one of them. So even though sometimes I wanna just lyrically assassinate the track, I gotta make sure the average Joe and the people that are listening to me can understand me,” Millz says frankly. “But at the same time, I gotta keep the hip hoppers happy, ’cause they love that metaphorical shit. It’s not a hard process, but you gotta balance it out.”

With nearly 50,000 accumulated downloads of his free “pre-tape” The Detour, hosted by DJ Rockstar, it’s safe to say that he’s found that balance as he prepares to release the full-length Highway to Millz.

“The shit I rap about is real life. People are gonna relate because at some point, they went through that same shit,” Millz explains, with the same honesty that colours his gritty lyricism, in tones representative of inner-city life in Montreal. “But there’s sometimes when you gotta make the party music for the party goers!”

Starting out at 15, battling “anybody on the so-called block,” 23-year-old Millz earned mentorship from a notable shortlist of scene veterans, including the late Bad News Brown. YouTube his name today and find him rapping with the Dipset, and over world-renowned Jahlil Beats, developing a star quality that could transcend the local stages he’s learned to rip.

But who truly weighs Millz’s scale of rhyme justice? His mom, acclaimed R&B chanteuse Coco Thompson.

“She’s definitely my major influence and my biggest critic,” says Millz. “She’ll tell me if a song’s shit. Sometimes she doesn’t have the best understanding of that street shit, but she grasps the concept. It’s a big difference, when you think about it.” ■

WITH DAVID HODGES, BOY6LUE, LEAVING FOR LA, STYLE & SUBSTANCE, TYCO AND DJ PASSAN AT CLYDE’S (POINTE CLAIRE) ON FRIDAY, AUG. 5, 9 P.M., $10

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