Laila! Premieres New Single ‘Miss Mango’ & Talks Inspiration Behind Idea & Creative Directing the Video: Exclusive
Categoria: Musica
Two years after dropping her impressive debut album Gap Year!, Laila! is back with a new single and music video. Check out our conversation.
Por Billboard | 26/06/2026
The Baby Genius is back. Brooklyn producer, singer and rapper Laila! has returned two years after dropping her impressive debut Gap Year! in 2024. “Miss Mango” — the new single — tells the story about a love that was lost, an unlikely friendship, and the road to revenge. She wrote and produced the song herself, of course, while adding creative director to her already growing resumé as she creative directed the music video herself. Speaking of the video, she traveled to Saint Thomas — where she once lived for six months during the pandemic — and incorporated natives from the Caribbean island into the Moldyroom-directed clip as cast members. “I feel like St. Thomas was probably the perfect place to make these videos,” Laila! told me before revealing that she first started making beats out of boredom during her stay. “And it was cool to be able to get people that I already knew from the island involved with the process of making the music video too.” The new music she’s been making has a warm, summer vibe because she wanted to invoke the the feeling of making memories with friends, and what better time to do that than when the sun is out and the weather is perfect? While she wouldn’t confirm whether or not a new album is coming this year, she did admit that she’s been in the lab cooking up since getting off tour with Kali Uchis and Mariah the Scientist . We talked about her experience on tour, “Miss Mango,” and much more. Check out our convo and the premiere of her new song and music video below. This single has an island vibe to it. Could fans expect more of that sound from you this year? I feel like I just wanted to make something that people could enjoy during the summertime. I just wanted the music to feel really warm and pretty much highlight memory-making, and when you’re with people that you care about, or just all the different things that can happen over one summer or one stretch of time. I just wanted that to be the energy, and I felt like what better place to make visuals for that than on an actual island. You’re away from home, you’re making new experiences, you’re meeting new people, and you’re feeling more free than you normally would. So, yeah, that was the goal, and that’s the whole world of the music I’ve been making. Was there a particular trip that inspired this? I actually lived in Saint Thomas for half a year during the pandemic, and that’s where I started making beats. I didn’t have anything else to do during my time, other than go to the beach every day. I had family that lived there at the time, so we were just with our family, and I didn’t have much friends, I was pretty new to living there. I would visit occasionally when I was a kid, but I never lived there, so it was a huge shift in my lifestyle going from being a city kid to now living on an island, and I had to figure out what I wanted to do with