“I’m so excited,” Yung Miami says, less than 48 hours from releasing her debut solo album, Watch Dis. The former City Girls rapper, posted up inside a New York City hotel, is wearing a black-and-white polka-dot fit by designer Jacquemus. She smiles wider when she tells me it’s from his runway collection. Her black bob is perfectly coiffed and there’s a palpable buzz in the air as she talks about the forthcoming release.
“I have butterflies but good butterflies. I’m just like, ‘Is it Thursday yet? Is it Thursday yet?’ I’m very excited. That’s the word—excited.”
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To roll out Watch Dis, Yung Miami did two scavenger hunts—one in Atlanta and another in her hometown of Miami. Whoever found the prize was treated to a USB with two unreleased tracks from the album.
“I’m just outside,” Miami says. “I’m doing some listening events with fans, a bunch of interviews and just connecting with the people. I’m doing a lot of fan engagement. They are loving it.”
It’s been a somewhat tumultuous road to get here. After more than six years together, City Girls parted ways in 2023, shortly after the release of the duo’s third album, RAW. It’s nothing she feels inclined to discuss now (she’s clearly moved on), but when she talks about JT in other interviews, a lot of love remains. After all, they had been friends since middle school. Yung Miami held it down for nearly two years after JT went to prison in 2018 for aggravated identity theft. She remained by JT’s side as she readjusted to normal life and got back to recording.
But, as Yung Miami told Complex in 2024, “It just wasn’t connecting, it just wasn’t working no more.” They ultimately decided to split and focus on their solo careers. Meanwhile, Miami had launched a popular podcast with Revolt TV, Caresha Please (named after her birth name Caresha Brownlee), where she could be in the driver’s seat. Being on the other side gave her a new perspective on interviews and taught her what made them compelling.
For two seasons, Miami swapped stories with the likes of Megan Thee Stallion, Summer Walker, Kevin Gates, Trina, Rick Ross, and Saucy Santana. Though it wrapped in 2024, she says she’s open to doing another one.
“It was very interesting because it’s a lot of homework,” she says. “I think that’s very important. Now that I was able to be on the other side of the fence, I know how important it is to know who you’re interviewing and know as much about that person as possible.
“Because when I do interviews, I now know when a person don’t know nothing about me. I can know if they’re just asking generic questions versus when they going deep. For me, the most important thing that I learned is if you want to interview someone, make sure that you really know something about this person, their project, what they’re working on, what they’ve been through, and a little bit about their story.”
Miami acknowledges that most of the guests she hosted on Caresha Please were already her friends, so it made it easier to let the conversation flow more naturally. But there were some tough moments that stemmed from the podcast, including criticism from The Breakfast Club’s Charlamagne Tha God, who questioned the podcast’s two consecutive wins for Best Hip Hop Platform at the BET Hip Hop Awards. He also insinuated that Diddy, who owned Revolt at the time and was previously romantically linked to Miami, rigged the awards.
Miami eventually sat down with The Breakfast Club and addressed Charlamagne’s comments directly to his face, saying, “I just feel like people always saying that I don’t deserve stuff. I work hard, I deserve everything. When I just did my first live podcast, we in a new time, we in a new generation. I’m bringing something new, so how do I not deserve it?”
That moxie continues to serve Miami well. She weathered another storm in July, when her single “Spend Dat” sparked a wave of controversy online. Lyrics like, “This for all my scammers and my get-money bitches” caught the attention of “Video” singer India.Arie, who called the song “a rude awakening” and a signal that “not everybody wants to get free.” Though she denied calling for the song to be “boycotted,” she argued that glorifying theft and scamming negatively impacts the Black community.
Fellow Miami rappers like Trick Daddy and 2 Live Crew’s Uncle Luke came to Miami’s defense, with Trick Daddy accusing Arie of being “jealous” and “outdated.” The chatter only propelled the single further up the Billboard Hot 100 chart and it soon became Miami’s first Top 20 hit as a solo artist.
“I was like, ‘What the fuck is going on?’” she says. “It’s done been so many things lyrically. This was deep. It was a great debate at the end of the day. Everybody have their own opinions, but I just think that it’s music. It won’t stop with ‘Spend Dat.’ That song was just one of the ones that came up in the conversation, but I think that music is entertaining and fun. It’s not to be taken so literally. I was just like, ‘Whatever.’ I ain’t said shit that nobody else ain’t said.”
Miami was more impressed by what “Spend Dat” did for her fans. The song was everywhere—even the New York Knicks celebrated their first championship since 1973 with “Spend Dat.”
“Everybody was getting together,” she says. “I felt like the world was united again. You saw people actually dancing and enjoying themselves when that song came on at weddings, barbecues, graduations, or proms. That’s what made me feel good.
“When I saw people online using the violins and other instruments for an instrumental of the song, I was just like, ‘Wow.’ People were really having fun enjoying this music. It was no violence attached to that song, even though they said I tried to promote violence, it was nothing but love.”
I first interviewed Yung Miami in 2021 for Variety’s Hitmakers issue. It’s evident she’s grown significantly over the last five years. She’s been able to tune out the negativity on social media that once baited her into unwanted interactions.
“I learned that you cannot get caught up in that stuff because it’s not real,” she says. “Social media is not real. The comments is not real. People just do things and they probably won’t even meet you. You don’t even know these people. You don’t know if you would ever even come in contact with these people. I learned that it’s not real and to not let those things get in my head. It’s just keep going no matter what.”
That confidence comes across in everything Yung Miami does. She’s a mother, an artist, her own brand ambassador, label owner, and actress (to name a few roles). Though she’s currently focused on Watch Dis, there’s no ceiling for her.
“I want to do another album, I want to tour, potentially start Caresha Please again and do some more acting,” she says. “I want everything that’s under the sun—whatever God has in store for me.”
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