Kaiya Milan

High Performance Coach For Artists & Creatives 🔌 Founder @nxprintcitizen 👩🏾‍💻 Manager @afronautzu, @steamdown_ & @ahnanseofficial

[Madonyoza @_KayTheLame_]

Black British people don't even appreciate their Black music culture of the 80s and 90s and honestly that breaks my heart. What a movement man.

[Kaiya Milan @KaiyaMilan]

Never stop learning/trying new things. That’s the whole point ✨

[Kaiya Milan @KaiyaMilan]

If you are an artist or creative - or anyone working in the creative industry for that matter… don’t forget to see people when you are not being paid to be in their presence.

If you only see your friends when someone is paying you to be around them… are you really friends?

[Kemi SmallzZ @kemismallzz]

We’ve reached a point where everyone is a marketer, a critic, a publicist, an A&R exec ,all at once. So who’s just listening to music for the love of it. When the audience becomes the boardroom, nobody’s left in the crowd.

Yall need to go back to just enjoying things without feeling the need to tell them how their “roll out”” should look like and what their “branding” should be.
Just press play and jam and if you no like that one, find the one that you like

[Kaiya Milan @KaiyaMilan]

I spend a lot of time thinking about stewardship.

The “scene” we inherited was built by people who often received very little recognition for their labour and for their contributions.

What responsibility do we have to leave something stronger for the next generation?

[Kaiya Milan @KaiyaMilan]

@wanguwamajani Honestly the answer is buy the music, buy a ticket to their shows and post/talk about them relentlessly - share everything you’d favourite artist/band are doing. Don’t just focus on artists signed to major labels - support on a grassroots level too.

[Kaiya Milan @KaiyaMilan]

Trust me… The future of UK jazz won’t be built by algorithms, institutions, gatekeepers or trends.

It will be built by people showing up for each other.

The musicians. The community. The organisers. The photographers.The aunties bringing food.

A scene is a community first. 👈🏾

[MOBO Awards @MOBOAwards]

It is with immeasurable sorrow that the MOBO Organisation announces the passing of its Founder and CEO, Kanya King CBE.

Kanya passed away peacefully on 3 June 2026 after a courageous and characteristically determined battle with colon cancer. She was surrounded by her family, close friends and love.

Thirty years ago, Kanya King remortgaged her home, alone, without institutional backing or industry support, to build a stage that would transform British music forever.

She was a single mother from a Kilburn council estate who was told that Black music was too niche, that there was no market and that the industry was not interested. Instead of arguing, she built. Six weeks later, the first MOBO Awards was broadcast to the nation, and nothing was ever the same again.

What Kanya created was never simply an awards ceremony. It was an act of cultural justice. MOBO did not just celebrate Black music; it legitimised it, amplified it and transformed the cultural landscape of the UK.

From Stormzy, Little Simz and RAYE to Craig David, Ms. Dynamite, Amy Winehouse, Central Cee and countless others, generations of artists have benefited from Kanya King's vision.

She built a platform that reached hundreds of millions of people around the world. She was awarded a CBE and received an Ivors Academy Honour in 2025. She never stopped. She never asked for permission. She never accepted that the word “no” was final.

When she stood on the MOBO stage in Newcastle in February 2025, just months after her diagnosis, she told the audience: “I never allowed someone to define my limits. Not in life. Not in business. And I’m certainly not going to have that happen now.”

That was Kanya King. Right to the very end.

The 2026 MOBO Awards, held during the Organisation’s landmark 30th anniversary year, will be dedicated entirely to her memory.

The world was a profoundly better place with Kanya King in it. The MOBO family is heartbroken, but endlessly grateful, proud and inspired by everything she gave to music, culture and future generations.

Rest in power, Kanya.

You built this.

All of it.

[Elijah @eli1ah]

If you care about DIY / independent / Underground culture you shouldn’t also long for the days of monoculture and media centralisation

[Kaiya Milan @KaiyaMilan]

Whatever you do not transcend will remain your biggest limitation ‼️

[Kaiya Milan @KaiyaMilan]

Remember - sold out shows are not a true measure of audience engagement.

[PJ Somervelle 🌱 @PjSomervelle]

artists, the more successful you become, the more middlemen will be added to your decision/action making process.

[Kaiya Milan @KaiyaMilan]

The sync and the sync placement in #LoveIsBlind this season is awful. High profile shows should use their sync budget as an opportunity for music discovery… it feels like the sync team have crammed every trending song into each moment of the show. It actually feels forced.

[Elijah @eli1ah]

traps that a lot of modern black british music / artists fall into

1. Introspection used as an excuse not to make accessible songs to fit for our biggest collective listening traditions here - clubs, radio, festivals and carnival

2. Artists not mining the histories of the music in this country that came before them beyond the most popular songs

3. Trying to serve a 'fanbase' stunts more artistic growth than development. Most artists should bypass this as a concern for the most part project to project work with the idea you are starting at zero.

4. Lyrically artists are too vague as it's impractical for most to work outside 'the system' at any scale, so there's an underlying agreeability everyone has, that doesn't make good 'resistance' or counter culture music.

5. We can't make the distinction between 'fun' and 'stupid' which in turn pushes people to the infinitely worse 'mid'.

[Kaiya Milan @KaiyaMilan]

Absurd is the word… thanks for always articulating my exact thoughts so beautifully ❤️🥹

[Elijah @eli1ah]

I’m happy I picked this song to make my point. It’s nobody’s favourite song, from nobody’s favourite rapper from 22 years ago, and still getting played outside. It’s a good example of how absurd it is to participate in black british music culture

[Dusty Ohms @DustyOhms]

@eli1ah @SteamDown_ are up there. Complete roll of the dice at every weekly session, but always sick 🔥

[Kaiya Milan @KaiyaMilan]

Heard you’re changing your menu 👀 time to bring it back? 😏 @wagamama_uk

[Kaiya Milan @KaiyaMilan]

Seriously @wagamama_uk …what happened to the Cod Mokutan Soba…??? 😭🥺💔 Pleaaaase can we have it back!?

[Kaiya Milan @KaiyaMilan]

You are the architect of your own existence…

[6 🇯🇲 @AwinoE5]

The way she hugged her daughter after she got found out asw she needed a slap

[6 🇯🇲 @AwinoE5]

The mum on that unknown number catfish documentary is tapped in the head larddd