Yung Miami, one half of the popular girl rap group the City Girls, born Caresha Brownlee, had a sit down on The Jason Lee Show recently. The rapper spoke to Lee about life, career and motherhood.
Lee asked the trendsetter whether she wants her daughter Summer, 3, to be a “city girl,” and her response, in summary, was no.
“I want her raised totally different. I don’t even want her to see the light of day like that. Like I just really want her to be like, level-headed, a school girl and just on a whole other wave,” she said of being a protective parent.
What is a “city girl” anyway? Although there isn’t a single definition, for the most part, it seems to be a woman who prioritizes her bag, is sexually empowered and only deals with men who can help uplevel her financially. Some people compare them to gold diggers and others see them as empowered women throwing deuces to the patriarchy.
Urban Dictionary offers a few definitions, with one being, “A woman who doesn’t have the funds to support the lifestyle she dreams to live so she hunts down wealthy men to help.”
The other half of the actual City Girls, JT, born Jatavia Johnson, gave some insight into what being one is about during a Harper’s Bazaar interview. When asked to break down what her lyrics on their song “Top Notch” are about, she had the following to say:
“I really feel like everybody should know their worth. If you want somebody to pay for it, make them pay for it. If you are cool with whatever agreement y’all got going on, be cool with that too. But for me, I stand for getting what I deserve,” she said. “I require a lot, because I give a lot. I feel like there are women out here that give so much of themselves and don’t get much in return.”
As for the interview with Lee, Yung Miami expanded on why she doesn’t want her daughter to take up the city girl lifestyle.
“I kinda was raised different, so I don’t wanna raise her up like how I was raised,” she said. “You know I’m a city girl, ain’t nothing wrong with it, but I don’t want that for my daughter.”
In terms of the rapper being raised “different,” she may be referring to her sometimes less than ideal upbringing in Miami. She was raised by her mom, Keenya Young, who went to prison when the rapper was a young adult. Young was released in 2021 after serving five years.
“My mom left me with 2 kids plus Jai I was 22 going on 23 I didn’t know what to do I had to figure it out. Look at me now God is so good,” Caresha said in a past tweet about that experience.
Caresha is a mommy of two. She also has a son, Jai, who is nine.
The rapper has been trending for the past year for reasons ranging from her public relationship with Sean “Diddy” Combs to her podcast, Caresha Please, which is hosted on Revolt TV, Diddy’s media platform. She’s no longer known solely for being a City Girl. Yung Miami is an “It” girl. However, her most important title, it seems, is mother.