City girls have the world on lock – A phrase that has been used to describe the women who live in big cities and manage to simultaneously look stylish, be successful, and have active social lives. But is this true? Do city girls really have the world on lock? If so, how? Let’s take a closer look at what life can be like for the city girl who has everything.
Rock star antics are pretty typical for any shoot: arriving hours late to a wardrobe fitting, decked out in Birkin bags, submitting a rider with Casamigos tequila and Blow Pops in a Hollywood Hills home designed by Axel Vervoordt, cramming in phone interviews while tearing through Calabasas in a pink Lamborghini, and delaying Zoom calls due to jet lag from a last-minute trip to Paris. JT and Yung Miami, also known as City Girls and going by their real identities of Jatavia Johnson and Caresha Brownlee, respectively, are poised to become internationally famous and are acting as such.
Yung Miami claims, “I’ve always been a rock star.” “But I’m a well-known rock star now. Rockstar 2.” The pair are broadening their horizons, developing into legitimate stars, refusing to take crap, and taming environments that they previously could only imagine occupying. Even though their lives are changing quickly, JT and Yung Miami continue to uphold the City Girls philosophy.
It’s a classic story: two gifted friends from modest backgrounds establish a sisterhood, pen some lyrics, and go out to rule the world (think of Boyz II Men, Destiny’s Child, and Outkast). Brownlee from Opa-locka and Johnson from Liberty City were simply two ordinary young women until the Floridians transformed into City Girls. They collaborated on a song in the latter part of summer 2017 while simply having fun and not really intending to take music seriously. The song “Fck Dat Ngga” made the pair famous for their boastful, high-femme tone. The song gained popularity. A year later, a sound clip of their vocals could be heard on Drake’s number-one track “In My Feelings,” which gave them their big break. What follows is history.
However, JT and Yung Miami are establishing themselves as solo stars, much like the aforementioned groups, and the music is only the beginning. JT is dipping her toes into modelling and hopes to go out into the beauty industry. “Caresha Please,” Yung Miami’s wildly popular podcast show on Revolt, is preparing to make its acting debut.
I’m at POPSUGAR’s Culver City studio on the Monday evening following the 2022 BET Awards for our cover-shoot fitting. Despite the fact that JT and Yung Miami come separately, their synchrony is obvious in everything, including their attire. JT is the first to arrive after a night of celebration (the two partied until five in the morning at Diddy’s afterparty), donning a stylish off-duty model outfit consisting of black joggers, a grey sweater, and Manolo Blahnik x Birkenstock flats, as well as a muted grey Birkin bag and black Saint Laurent sunglasses. An hour later, Yung Miami shows up, maintaining the same look with a black bodysuit, red Chanel sandals, and a necklace and pair of earrings from Van Cleef & Arpels.
At first, Yung Miami, 28, has a guarded demeanour that borders on coyness. But make no mistake, she speaks with a fierce confidence once she gets going. She frequently brings up the split between Caresha and her alter ego, Yung Miami. She compares Miami to Beyoncé’s wild attitude Sasha Fierce; Caresha is the homebody who enjoys watching Lifetime Movie Network. “I will always be Caresha. Always being me. However, my [stage] name is sort of like my alter ego, and I believe that when it’s time to perform, conduct an interview, or give the fans what they want, I bring out Yung Miami.”
