Miami-based hip-hop duo City Girls were the hottest female rap group in the late 2010s, taking over the charts with hit tracks like "Act Up" and "Twerk."
City Girls quickly emerged as one of the biggest mainstream female hip-hop acts after the release of their debut studio album Girl Code in 2018, which went on to sell around 13,000 copies in its first week and produced RIAA platinum-certified hits like "Act Up" and "Twerk."
Just as City Girls was hitting new heights on the charts and on social media in the late 2010s, JT turned herself in for aggravated identity theft charges, according to XXL.
Yung Miami and JT found two very different versions of solo success
Two of City Girls' biggest tracks, "Act Up" and "Twerk," were supporting singles for the debut studio album Girl Code, which garnered nominations for BET Single of the Year and Best Hip-Hop Video. City Girls were also nominated for the Billboard Music Awards Top Rap Female Artist and the BET Awards Best New Artist and Best Group.
The second City Girls album, City on Lock, continued to see the duo receive positive critical and fan reception and succeed on the charts and streaming services. City on Lock peaked at No. 29 on the Billboard 200 albums chart and No. 17 on the US R&B/Hip-Hop Billboard albums chart, hitting new marks as their most commercially successful project in 2020.
When City Girls went their separate ways following the commercial decline of 2023's studio album release, RAW, JT quickly emerged as the member of the duo best positioned for mainstream solo success.
Her solo releases and collaborations in 2023 and 2024 with other top female acts, like Doechii and Kali Uchis, have garnered over 150 million streams each on Spotify.
JT also saw solo success in 2024 with her Billboard-charting solo hits "Sideways" and "Okay," which led up to her debut studio mixtape, City Cinderella.
"I feel like I just had a baby," JT said. "No, for real! It’s that joy. You feel all the pain before you push it out, and you just be nervous and scared like, 'I’ve never had this before. I don’t know how people would take and react to it.' But the first night, everybody was loving the project. And then you get your postpartum. Then you find the joy because you never had it before; you don’t know what to do with all of it."
By the end of 2024, it seemed like JT was primed to take over the rap game just 18 months into the start of her solo career after the split of the City Girls group. She had a Billboard-charting solo project, multiple charting singles, and collaborations that were raking in tens of millions of streams on Spotify with A-list features.
JT even received nominations for the BET Awards Best Collaboration with Doechii in 2025 and a nomination for her collaboration with Kali Uchis and El Alfa on the Spanish awards show Premios Juventud in 2024.
But the influence JT was establishing as a solo artist extended well beyond music. She now has over 10 million followers across all social media platforms, including over seven million followers on Instagram. JT has boasted brand deals and partnerships with Timberland, Snipes USA for back-to-school commercials and campaigns, and MAC Cosmetics.
JT said, "It was easy to bring my fans in (emotionally). Now, it’s time for us to turn up and celebrate."
After the success of her debut mixtape City Cinderella in 2024, JT embarked on a 22-show solo North American tour that started in Kansas City, MO, and ended in Los Angeles, CA, in late September 2024.
But success doesn't always follow the path that fans expect. JT continued to build one of female rap's most dedicated fan bases of the 2020s, yet it was ultimately Yung Miami who delivered the biggest mainstream breakthrough of either member's solo career.
Yung Miami's fortunes have taken a dramatic shift in 2026 with the release of "Spend Dat."
"Spend Dat" is the highest-charting track ever for Yung Miami as a solo artist or as a member of the City Girls, peaking at No. 17 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for the week of July 18. The track has quickly entered the conversation as one of the songs of the summer in rap and pop, introducing Yung Miami to a much broader audience than ever before.
More important than its chart position, "Spend Dat" changed the public conversation and persona surrounding Yung Miami as a solo artist. It demonstrates that she could carry a crossover hit on her own, earning attention from listeners well beyond City Girls' longtime fan base.
While JT appeared to immediately embrace the traditional path of launching a solo rap career and touring, Yung Miami's route following City Girls was much less predictable. Her celebrity and influencer profile continued to grow beyond the group, but there were still questions surrounding what her identity would look like as a solo rapper without JT alongside her.
What really makes the success of "Spend Dat" even more significant is how differently the two artists' solo careers have appeared to be developing after City Girls. JT followed a more traditional album-and-tour rollout in this past couple of years while steadily building a dedicated fan base around her.
Yung Miami took a less conventional route, only to eventually land the type of mainstream crossover hit that some expected JT to achieve first.
Yung Miami told Complex that she didn't have any hard feelings over the separation of City Girls, but that it was a hard split for her and JT.
"We (are) older now," Yung Miami said, "and she was doing her own thing. She [is] on the West Coast; I’m in Miami. I’m doing my own thing. And I felt like naturally, when she [was] doing her own thing, it just worked for her. And when I’m doing my own thing, it worked for me. But when we get together as a group, it just wasn’t connecting.
Yung Miami explained that the decision wasn't driven by hostility or bitterness between the two, but rather by the realization that their individual careers had naturally started moving in different directions.
"It just wasn’t working no more," Yung Miami added. "So, I think we both was at a point where we were just like, ‘We probably should just do our own s***."
This all comes as JT is reportedly preparing to release her debut studio album, Club Cheetah, which she says is an experience that "everybody is going to be able to relate to."
Some of the singles leading up to her debut studio album release, including "Girls Gone Wild" and "Numb," have introduced more of an experimental and electronic sound on the production while maintaining those fierce and iconic Southern hip-hop flows that we've known from JT for years now.
The City Girls split didn't produce a clear winner between Yung Miami and JT. Instead, it showed that commercial success, cultural influence, and fan loyalty aren't always the same thing. Yung Miami found the crossover hit with "Spend Dat" that many people didn't expect, while JT has built a core audience and fan base that has remained invested in her music and cultural influence.
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