Travis Miller was born on May 13, 1984. Little is known about Miller's personal life. He rarely grants interviews and has openly expressed his disinterest in maintaining a physical presence. He is originally from
Virginia, having lived in
Virginia Beach and
Richmond. Miller's early musical interest came up in the
hardcore punk music scene where he attended shows and collected albums. In a 2024 interview with comedians
Brandon Wardell and Jamel Johnson, Miller said that he had previously lived in
Philadelphia,
Baltimore, and
Los Angeles. As of 2024, Miller lives in
Asheville, North Carolina.
2000s–2014: Beginnings and Mista Thug Isolation Miller began performing in the mid-to-late 2000s, playing with local
noise and
punk acts in Richmond. He started recording
Southern hip hop-inspired tracks as Lil Ugly Mane in 2010, initially only releasing
demos and
remixes on the music distribution platform
Bandcamp before releasing his first full-length project,
Playaz Circle: Pre-Meditation (The First Prophecy) Preview Mixtape (Real Murder Posse Underground Version), in 2011. During this period, he collaborated with Florida hip hop collective
Raider Klan, designing the group's
album art and appearing on the song "My Hood" from group founder
SpaceGhostPurrp's 2011
mixtape Blackland Radio 66.6. In January 2012, Miller released the
EP Criminal Hypnosis: Unreleased Shit, featuring cut tracks from
Playaz Circle. On February 11, 2012, Miller released his first
studio album,
Mista Thug Isolation, exclusively on Bandcamp. The album was produced by Miller under the alias Shawn Kemp, and contains a feature from rapper and Raider Klan member
Denzel Curry on the song "Twistin". It received a limited
cassette release through the record label Ormolycka, and a
vinyl pressing through Hundebiss Records. Despite a lack of promotion by Miller, the album gained attention primarily through
word-of-mouth marketing, and was praised by
Odd Future members
Earl Sweatshirt and
Tyler, the Creator. The album's sound has been described by music writers as being influenced by
East Coast hip hop,
Memphis rap,
horrorcore, and
chopped and screwed music, and has drawn comparisons to the works of
Three 6 Mafia,
Gravediggaz,
Smif-N-Wessun,
DJ Screw, and
Wu-Tang Clan.
Mista Thug Isolation has since been acclaimed as a landmark and a classic in
underground hip hop; in a retrospective review for
Pitchfork, Andy O'Connor called it "one of the decade's most defining underground rap albums".
Mista Thug Isolation was followed by a number of smaller releases, including the EP
Uneven Compromise in October 2012 and two volumes of the mixtape
Three Sided Tape, consisting of unreleased songs and
instrumentals that were recovered from Miller's broken computer, in August 2013. On August 30, 2013, Miller released the
single "On Doing an Evil Deed Blues", in which he outlined his grievances with the music industry and his intention to retire the Lil Ugly Mane project. After the release of the single, Miller labeled Lil Ugly Mane as "defunct" on his Bandcamp page, and largely withdrew from the public eye. He infrequently returned to upload new music, including the 18-track mixtape
Absence Of Shitperson and the EP
The Weeping Worm in 2014, but remained quiet on social media.
2015–2018: Oblivion Access, Secret Circle, and Bedwetter On April 29, 2015, Miller released
Third Side of Tape, the third and final volume of the
Three Sided Tape series, featuring a compilation of tracks recorded from 1999 to 2012. In a statement made alongside its release, Miller announced that a physical
box set of the trilogy would be distributed and suggested that his listeners "shouldn't be so
Stratfordian". The
liner notes of
Third Side of Tape implied that it would be Miller's penultimate project. In September 2015, Miller and fellow Richmond rapper
Nickelus F released a collaborative mixtape titled
Trick Dice. Miller's second album
Oblivion Access was released on December 18, 2015; he described the project as "the last of the filthy water funneling out of the bathtub I've been soaking in for 5 years". An
experimental hip hop album, its lyrics were characterized by music publications as the darkest thus far in Miller's discography; they explore topics such as
existentialism, boredom spurred by the
Information Age, and the
cycle of violence. Joe Sherwood of
Tiny Mix Tapes appraised it as a "
eschatological/
scatological compendium of life and death in the rap game", and highlighted the stylistic contrast between the album and
Mista Thug Isolation, commenting: "There's no self-serious reinvention to be found, and maybe that's the point — what started as a jokey pastiche of Memphis rap is coming to an ironic conclusion, even with the former veneer stripped away."
Bandcamp Daily Christina Lee described the album as "bleak" and noted feelings of
claustrophobia, particularly on the track "Grave Within a Grave". Jots of
Sputnikmusic called it "an album of dealing with... ugly,
real baggage" and "a collage of Miller's capabilities, and a lament of what he is incapable of." In 2016, Miller formed the underground hip hop
supergroup Secret Circle with rappers
Wiki and
Antwon, releasing their first track "Keep It Low" on June 8. The group released the single "Satellite" featuring the rapper
Despot in early January 2017. On January 29, 2017, Miller released his third album
Volume 1: Flick Your Tongue Against Your Teeth and Describe the Present under the alias Bedwetter. The following day, he posted a statement on
Facebook in which he recounted a three-month-long struggle with finding
psychiatric care, eventually leading to his admittance and discharge from a hospital after asserting he was not
suicidal or at risk of hurting others. In the same post, he criticized the
American mental healthcare system as "absolute shit" and said that it had a "very real potential to turn people who voluntarily seek help ... into violent suicidal monsters". After the release of the album, Miller continued working with Secret Circle, releasing the single "Tube Socks" in May 2017. In June, Miller made a guest appearance on the song "Zeltron 6 Billion" from Denzel Curry's EP
13. In July, Secret Circle followed up with the single "Tonka Truck", produced by Left Brain of Odd Future, and later released "Ounce Of It" in February 2018. In April 2018, Miller released a new project titled
Thing S Thatare Stuff, a compilation of four tracks recorded from 2006 to 2011. On May 17, 2018, Miller announced on his
Instagram account that Secret Circle had disbanded and that all shows and an upcoming album were canceled. The following night, Antwon posted a statement on
Twitter in which he addressed unspecified allegations, admitting to selfishly using his platform and mistreating women. In a subsequent post, Miller expressed regret for initially trying to protect Antwon and reacted to his statement: "This is all about the people you hurt. These aren't 'allegations' and 'accusations.' This is shit you did."
2019–present: Volcanic Bird Enemy and the Voiced Concern Miller greatly reduced his output from the latter half of 2018 through 2021. In a 2023 interview with
Spin, he attributed the break to a need to discard creative ideas, likening the process to that of painter
Francis Bacon: In April 2019, Miller and Wiki were featured on the track "Smores" from
Your Old Droog's album ''It Wasn't Even Close''. In June, Miller appeared on
Culture Abuse's song "War Time Dub, Culture City". He appeared alongside Denzel Curry on the track "Grim" from Wiki's album
Oofie in November. In 2021, he resumed publishing music on his Bandcamp page for the first time in over three years, releasing the singles "Headboard" and "Here I Am" on July 27, followed by two more singles, "Porcelain Slightly" and "Into A Life", on September 14. In early October, he released a
black metal demo project titled
Obedient Form under the name Vudmurk. On October 12, 2021, Miller released
Volcanic Bird Enemy and the Voiced Concern, the first Lil Ugly Mane project since 2015. In an interview with Jesse Taconelli of
Rate Your Music, Miller said of the album: Music writers noted the album's shift from Miller's hip hop background to a
lo-fi and
indie rock sound, and likened it to the music of
Beck,
Eels,
Sparklehorse, and
The Folk Implosion. Tom Breihan of
Stereogum called it an "unexpected and pretty-great take on Folk Implosion-style '90s
breakbeat-
slacker indie rock", while Patrick Lyons of
Spin labeled it "something resembling a specific corner of
'90s alternative music". Miller appeared with
Billy Woods on the single "Meteor Man" from Your Old Droog's album
Space Bar in November 2021. In 2022, he released a number of singles, beginning with "Low Tide At The Dryin' Out Facility" on July 19. On September 12, he released the track "Blue Sand", along with two songs as Thermos Grenadine, "Christmas Cowboy" and "
Poisoning Pigeons in the Park". In October, he released "Pink & Rose", "Easy Prey", and "Split Ends". On November 20, Miller released "Redacted Fog" and "Unassisted". On January 9, 2023, the single "Ricochet" was released. He released the tracks "Orange Over" and "Spill" on December 5. == Artistry ==