Derrick Milano

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Derrick Milano, born Derrick Carrington Gray on December 24, 1993, in Philadelphia, is an American songwriter, rapper, and singer. He grew up in Philadelphia and Delaware and moved to Florida to study entertainment at Full Sail University. He started making music as a recording artist in 2013 but began focusing on songwriting in 2019. Milano has written songs for Justin Bieber, Pop Smoke, Nicki Minaj, and Megan Thee Stallion. In 2021, he won the Grammy for Best Rap Song as a co-writer of Megan Thee Stallion’s “Savage Remix” with Beyoncé.

In his early years, Milano called Virginia and Jeff Gray his parents and sang in his church choir. His family moved to Brandywine Hundred, Delaware in seventh grade, and he attended several schools before graduating from Concord High School in 2012. He battled rap with friends in high school and was part of the school choir. He studied at Valencia College and Full Sail University in Florida, where he was involved in Business Professionals of America. He started releasing mixtapes in college, with his breakout being the 2014 SoundCloud single “#ThatAintYaBitch,” which led to opening for artists like Young Thug and Future. A later dispute with management slowed his releases.

Milano’s first writing credit came on Kevin Gates’ 2019 album I’m Him. In May 2019, Juicy J invited him to help with Megan Thee Stallion’s song “Simon Says,” which led to uncredited writing on “Hot Girl Summer” in July 2019. He continued to work with Megan Thee Stallion, co-writing “Savage Remix” (featuring Beyoncé), released in 2020. He won the Grammy in March 2021 for Best Rap Song as a co-writer of that track. By March 2021, he was working on his debut album, with plans to feature Juicy J, Ty Dolla Sign, and Wiz Khalifa. In 2023, Milano was featured on a Ciara remix of “Da Girls,” released on May 12, 2023.