walking upstream…
Young Miko
photo: latinos en pelota · cc by 3.0 ↗Young Miko
Young Miko (María Victoria Ramírez de Arellano Cardona) is a rapper and singer from Añasco, Puerto Rico, who turned freestyles recorded over downloaded beats into one of Latin trap and reggaeton's most distinctive new voices, mixing playful hooks, unbothered flexes and queer visibility on hits like "Lisa" and "Classy 101." A former semi-pro soccer player, she came up in the same 2016–2019 Puerto Rican SoundCloud wave as Bad Bunny and Rauw Alejandro before breaking out solo with the 2022 EP "Trap Kitty" and her 2024 debut album "att."
the sound in question
2023
LisaYoung Miko
walk the tributaries ↓
Ivy Queen2000s · Reggaeton / Hip hop / Latin
Miko has put it directly: "Ivy corrió para que nosotras caminemos" (Ivy ran so we could walk) — crediting Ivy Queen, one of reggaeton's only prominent women through the '90s and 2000s, with clearing the space for someone like her to headline the genre at all.
listen: upstream & heresource: 25gramos/fleek interview — Miko on Ivy Queen ↗
2003
Quiero BailarIvy Queen
2022
RiriYoung Miko
listen forThe blunt, unbothered sexual confidence Ivy Queen claimed on "Quiero Bailar" — dictating the terms of a dance instead of being led — resurfaces in the swagger of Miko's breakout "Riri," a track about being wanted and staying entirely in control of it.
Missy Elliott2000s · Hip hop / R&B / Neo soul
Miko has named Missy "one of my biggest inspirations," and it shows in how unafraid she is to bend a beat into something odd and hooky instead of playing a genre straight — the same irreverence Missy brought to blending rap, R&B and left-field production.
listen: upstream & heresource: Billboard — Young Miko interview citing Missy Elliott, Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber and Lauryn Hill as inspirations; SoundCloud-era background with Bad Bunny, Rauw Alejandro ↗
2001
Get Ur Freak OnMissy Elliott
2023
wiggyYoung Miko
listen forListen for how "Wiggy" flips a decades-old pop earworm (Las Ketchup's "Aserejé") into a bouncy trap hook — that anything-can-be-a-hook, crate-digging instinct, delivered with a half-sung, half-rapped confidence, is straight out of the Missy playbook.
Lauryn Hill1990s · Hip hop soul / Neo soul / R&B / Reggae
Alongside Missy, Miko has said she grew up admiring Lauryn Hill as an artist who treated rap as confession as much as performance — writing from her own life rather than only a persona.
listen: upstream & heresource: Billboard — Young Miko interview citing Missy Elliott, Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber and Lauryn Hill as inspirations; SoundCloud-era background with Bad Bunny, Rauw Alejandro ↗
1998
Doo Wop (That Thing)Lauryn Hill
2024
rookie of the yearYoung Miko
listen forOn "rookie of the year" Miko narrates her own unlikely rise from soccer fields and SoundCloud uploads to festival stages in plain, first-person language, trading flexes for reflection the way Hill balanced vulnerability and bravado on "Doo Wop (That Thing)."