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Before last year, one half of thegrouphad never even thought to rap.
Brownlee cackled at the idea, but still believably faked her way through it.
(Miami appears inthe songs videoalone, wearing a #FreeJT jacket with her image on it.)
For any other group, losing a member to the Feds might curtail their whole operation.
But City Girls are no amateurs.
Is it fair to say yall finessed a rap career?No, I swear to God, listen.
Me and JT say that all the time.
We be like, We scammed our way into the music industry.
Were the biggest scammers of all time.
Honestly, I had never been in the studio before.
JT had grown up rapping with her father.
[Chuckles.]Exactly.
That was my reaction.
I was like, Whaaat?
She was like, Caresha, for real.
She wanted to make it fun.
So you enter the studio, but youd never even written a rap or attempted to spit before.
Howd you do it?I didnt even know the process of having an engineer or producer.
I never knew the behind the scenes of music.
And we didnt have a producer, we just had an engineer, who was my cousin.
So now when you go to the studio It takes me a long time.
Like Swerve, which is onGirl Code, took me a day to write that song.
Or sometimes if I say something, Ill voice-record it like, Yuh, its Yung Miami and …
I put it all together.
It comes more naturally now that youve developed your flow.Yeah, its more like a freestyle.
I dont really write.
Sometimes I just go in there, put on my headphones, and start saying stuff.
And then well just make it.
He helped us get noticed by his fan base.
These girls gotta be from Miami.
Cause he said we reminded him of Trina.
He said he loved Miami music.
He called Pee [Pierre Thomas, QC co-founder] and said he had a record for us.
We was like, Stop playin with us.
Bitch, we made it.
And we were putting them up on the internet because we had a little cameraman to make the videos.
He came to Miami and we met up.
Its incredible that he still decided to sign you despite JT having already caught her case.Right!
That was another thing, too.
But we were like, We got a situation.
But thats what made him love us more.
This is real what theyre rapping about.
This is a story.
And they always say people love when you have a story to tell.
They feel like they can relate to you.
I think that was the perfect way to address it on a song.
Every day it was something.
We did all these videos in a week, every day waking up and doing hair and makeup.
And if the video was from 12 to 8, at 8 it was time for studio.
At some moments it was just like, Im not in the mood.
But the day came and it wasnt that.
She was sad and crying.
This is the longest youve been apart?Yeah.
It wont be like, City Girls were here, but Yung Miami couldnt balance it.
Im still doing what I gotta do.
Were you able to involve her in the process of releasing this album?
Right before I came in here, we were on the phone.
When we were recording, we didnt know it was gonna be an album.
And we still got songs.
If we wanted to do another album, we can.
We worked our asses off.
She was very involved.
Thats also how she was able to do the intro.
She called [from prison] and I recorded her.
She was very hands-on.
But I think this is a good process.
It goes to show what I can do and what I can bring to the group.
Has it dawned on you yet that youll probably end up Grammy-nominated for In My Feelings?Listen.
You know what, I never thought about it.
You got me excited and inspired.
Im about to get on my knees and pray.
This interview had been edited and condensed for clarity.
