Mia Lailani Is Going with the Ebbs and Flows
At just 21, the Puerto Rican musician from The Bronx has spent more than half her life finding identity through her voice.
Photography by Kevin Antoine
The Bronx is known as the ‘last place’ where New Yorkers reside. With their artistic forces and wholehearted, loyal personalities, musician Mia Lailani is proving this to be even more true. At just 21, the Puerto Rican multi-genre artist has spent more than half her life finding identity through her voice and craft.
“The Bronx and New York City in general have so much culture,” Lailani says. “There’s so much swag and aura with being Puerto Rican as well. I love repping The Bronx. You can feel it in the culture, fashion, food, and hear it in the music. I carry the culture with me wherever I go, in my photos, fashion, music taste, and the sounds I choose. It all comes from The Bronx and being Puerto Rican.”
Photography by Kevin Antoine
With hundreds of thousands of streams across her discography, Lailani doesn’t confine her sound to one genre. She makes music across R&B, pop, hip-hop, and soul—acquiring much of her musical knowledge from her older brother and longtime producer, Devan Ibiza.
“I’ve been making music since I was 10 years old with my brother,” Lailani says. “My dad is an audio engineer, and we’ve always had a studio in our basement. I grew up surrounded by music, and my brother and I made our first song together, ‘Be With You.’ I sound so young in the song, but I’ve kept making music ever since. It wasn’t until high school when I really locked in on music because I realized how powerful songwriting was, and how I can turn my emotions into art and have it resonate with other people.”
Confidence is at the forefront of Lailani’s music. She emphasizes her constant evolution and coming of age, telling stories of heartbreaks, bounce-backs, womanhood, fleeting moments, hardships, and overcomings. Lailani’s vulnerabilities make her stronger; feeling lost helps her get closer to finding herself; and trusting her instincts sets her up for future self-assurance.
Photography by Kevin Antoine
Lailani isn’t afraid to take up space, empower herself and other women, and express her individuality and self-worth. She proves it in her tracks with “Substance,” “EBB & FLOW,” “You’ll Never Know,” “SOCIOPATH,” and “Do It For You.”
“‘Substance’ is a song about having standards in a partner and knowing what you’re looking for,” she says. “I wrote it after people kept messaging me in my Instagram DMs, and I kept telling them, ‘I’m not interested, respectfully.’ I wrote it as a funny little dig, and it’s more ‘pop’ than my usual music. I like the world I’m building around it. It’s very Y2K and 2000s.”
She recently partnered with ROC Nation Distribution and performed her discography, including the highly anticipated song “Your Love Is Like Christmas” and the EP Mia Mia.
Photography by Kevin Antoine
“Mia Mia is an EP that I wrote after my first breakup, which happened almost two years ago,” Lailani says. “It was awful. It was very painful. After the fact, I was able to write so many songs about how I felt, and Mia Mia is an introduction to who I am. If you’ve never heard my music before, it spans so many different genres. This is a representation of my art, sound, and how far I’ve come in the past ten years. It’s about optimism, moving on, and knowing your worth.”
Despite being a young artist, Lailani has faced highs and lows, ebbs and flows, that have made her a tough-shelled woman who expresses herself through music that has made her magnetic. She won’t let anyone or anything discourage her or push her off her path.
“Stay true to yourself,” Lailani says. “It’s easy to get misguided or fall into trying to fit in. Be yourself and make whatever feels good to you, because if you make music that you love, you can only go up from there. When you try to cater to a certain audience, that’s when you can mess up and lose who you are. Stay true to yourself, make what you love, believe in yourself, and have a good support system around you.”
