The City Girls were reunited this week when JT, born Jatavia Johnson, was released from jail after spending more than a year behind bars in a Florida prison on credit card fraud charges. She didn’t waste any time in getting back to work, as she unleashed her “First Day Out” freestyle less than 24 hours after regaining her freedom on Wednesday (Oct. 9).
Yung Miami did her part in holding down the duo while her partner was locked up, with the group’s ascension toward stardom and the Billboard charts not missing a beat in her absence. But JT getting out couldn’t have come at a better time, with Miami preparing to give birth to her second child to close out the year. Read More JT Celebrates Her ‘First Day Out’ In New City Girls Song: Stream It Now
Here’s everything that happened to the City Girls while JT was away.
August, 2018 – Yung Miami Appears in Drake’s “In My Feelings” Video
The City Girls notched vocals on Drake‘s “In My Feelings,” which would rule the Hot 100 last summer for 10 weeks and break several streaming records thanks to a viral dance challenge that took over social media and helped jumpstart the careers of Shiggy and DaniLeigh. The clip boasts over 200 million views and pays homage to the New Orleans bounce scene.
When Scorpion dropped, Drake saluted the artists that inspired him while crafting the project by posting screenshots of various albums and tracks to his Instagram story. One of those happened to be the City Girls’ Period project, which may have propelled Drizzy to shout-out the Quality Control duo on “In My Feelings.”
August, 2018 – Release Point Blank, Period Documentary
With the City Girls bubbling, they released their Point Blank, Period documentary on Aug. 30. The 23-minute clip gave fans a behind-the-scenes perspective of what the pair was really like on a day-to-day basis. Just 11 months after jokingly making a diss track about girls from their neighborhood, the Miami duo landed a deal with Quality Control/Capitol Records, which set their meteoric rise in motion as the first women of QC.
August, 2018 – Yung Miami Apologizes for Homophobic Tweets
Homophobic tweets from 2013 began to circulate around the internet with fans outraged at Yung Miami. “Boy Oh Boy. If I Ever See Any Gay Shit In My Son Imma Beat That Bo So Baddd,” she wrote in 2013. Going back even further, tweets were dug up of her taking aim at Haitians in 2011. “Haitians Are Black Ugly and Cheesy Don’t Matter What They Have On,” she said.
Miami would then issue a heartfelt apology to those she offended. “My deepest apologies and heart goes out to those who have that tweet and were offended by that. The City Girls appreciate all of their support no matter what their sexuality is,” she wrote. “The comments I made about Haitians I was wrong and immature to even let my opinion about an individual person be my opinion about an entire culture. I love all my City Boys and City Girls PERIOD.”
November, 2018 – Release Girl Code Debut Album
Even with JT behind bars, Girl Code was still released in November, as most of the project was already recorded around the same time as their Period mixtape. Their debut featured assists from fellow QC associates Cardi B and Lil Baby, and boasts an appearance by Jacquees. Girl Code peaked at No. 55 on the Billboard 200 and hit No. 31 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.
November, 2018 – Yung Miami Doubles Down on Homophobic Tweets
Miami stopped by The Breakfast Club in support of Girl Code last year, where co-host Charlamagne Tha God pressed the 25-year-old about her previous homophobic tweets that sent social media into a rage, giving her a second chance to explain herself. “I didn’t tweet nothing about them [the LGBTQ community],” she said. “I was just talking about my son. I just said that if I saw anything gay in my son, that I would beat him.”
She continued to explain that she has nothing against gay people, however, she wouldn’t want her own son to be gay. “I have absolutely nothing against gay people, but I wouldn’t want my son to be gay,” Miami said. “I’m around a lot of gay people all of the time; my stylist is gay, my cousin is gay.”
