As the first weeks of summer began to swelter, Yung Miami thought she had finally finished recording her long-awaited debut album. Then “Spend Dat” upended her plans. The infectious, pro-scammer anthem that she “always knew” would be a hit soundtracked the season, making its way from the New York Knicks’ locker room, where the song blared in a post-NBA Finals celebration captured on social media, to the Billboard charts, topping Rap Airplay for five weeks across July and August. Now, the MC from Opa-locka, Fla. — part of greater Miami — has her sights set on owning the fall, too.
The rapper born Caresha Brownlee, 32, will soon unveil that as-yet-untitled solo album, nine years after she and JT first burst onto the scene as City Girls. Over the past two-and-a-half years, Yung Miami has locked in with a team of writers and producers — including J. White, Cheeze Beatz and Go Grizzly — curating “one big family” to help craft the album across recording sessions in Atlanta and Miami. “I’m finally in a safe spot, and the energy is great,” she says. “I’m ready.”
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Before beginning work on her solo set, Yung Miami famously held down City Girls throughout JT’s incarceration for fraudulent credit card charges from 2018 to early 2020. (City Girls split in 2024 after a seven-year run, while both rappers remain supportive of each other’s solo careers.) Yung Miami launched her solo career the year after JT’s release with “Rap Freaks,” which reached No. 81 on the Billboard Hot 100. That buzzy track, which adapted The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Just Playing (Dreams)” from a woman’s perspective, laid the foundation for the pair of songs that, half a decade later, would formally introduce her solo era: “Tea Time” and “News Flash,” both of which arrived this February.
Neither earned a fraction of the commercial success “Spend Dat” has accrued, but they both helped Yung Miami reprogram listeners who, as she tells it, called her “the outcast” of City Girls and claimed that she “couldn’t rap” — allegations she never let get to her. “I’m the first successful person that came out of our family; I do this for my kids and my mom and my brothers and sisters,” she says. “I’m focusing on the people who want to see me win, because at the end of the day, it ain’t gon’ stop. I’m not going away.”
She calls “News Flash” a reintroduction, while “Tea Time” was meant to start the conversation and get a viral moment. “It was a cultural reset to show that I have influence. I had everybody clocking their fingers!” And then came “Spend Dat,” which dropped in April and earned Yung Miami coveted cosigns from New York rap icons Fat Joe and Jadakiss, the latter of whom hailed the song as a “hit off rip.” Thanks to its singalong hook, along with nuanced social media discourse concerning the lyrical depiction of the fast life in Miami and recent viral moments (like with the Knicks), “Spend Dat” has reached No. 17 on the Hot 100, her highest entry on the chart — including her City Girls hits. According to Luminate, the single has earned over 83.8 million official on-demand U.S. streams through July 30.
The positive reception to “Spend Dat” didn’t just inspire Yung Miami to trust her intuition — she insisted it become her album’s lead single — it also pushed her to get back in the studio and reshape the project around a burgeoning, hometown-honoring narrative. “I wanted to go back to my roots and what inspires me about being from Miami; the culture and the music and the environment shaped me to be who I am today,” she says. “This album is about everything I’ve been through and pulling myself out of survival mode to get back to a space to create. I’m definitely going there, but also having fun. I surprise myself whenever I listen to it; I cry, I dance, I’m actually gagging myself. I really created an album! People are about to eat their words.”
A few songs survived the transformation, including “Freak Like Me” — “It gives you Miami 2.0; it’s a fun record, and I address some tea on there,” she teases — and the Quavo and G Herbo-assisted “Take Me to Chanel,” which she previewed over a year ago. Meanwhile, “Put Me Together” and “F–k You” (the latter was the final addition to the album) remain the two tracks she’s most excited to share. “I’m the most humble person ever,” she says. “But sometimes you need to feel yourself.”
With her debut solo album arriving later this year on the recently resurrected Uptown Records, Yung Miami hopes to tap into the label’s storied legacy to display her own maturation. Part of that is being transparent with her process; eagle-eyed fans will remember her teasing a debut project titled Yams two years ago, but she’s the first to admit that it “just felt so lazy and wasn’t creative enough.”
“When the City Girls first came on the scene, I was so young and new to the industry,” she reflects. “I didn’t understand it and didn’t care. I’m a little wiser now, and I’ve experienced a lot of things since I was in a group, and with time comes growth. I’m in a different headspace and the music reflects that.”
Having signed with WME for global representation in July, Yung Miami is hoping for a U.K. promotional run — and is even manifesting a solo tour after some festivals. And though she’s looking ahead, that doesn’t mean the “Spend Dat” era is over. “The door is not closed,” she teases of a potential remix to come. “Sometimes you got to keep it a little cracked.”
This story appears in the Aug. 22, 2026, issue of Billboard.