City Girls uphold the legacy of Miami predecessors MC Luscious and Trina through their equally fearless and commanding style of hip-hop, while tapping into the city's enduring fondness for booming bass lines. Yung Miami and JT initially aimed for nothing more than capturing a diss track in 2017, yet before 2018 closed the pair had inked a deal with Quality Control, dropped their opening pair of releases, and appeared on Drake's chart-topping pop single "In My Feelings." Their ascent accelerated sharply in 2019, when they notched Top 40 platinum-certified successes via "Twerk," featuring Cardi B, and "Act Up." The duo kept accumulating gold and platinum singles through 2022 with "Jobs," "Pussy Talk" featuring Doja Cat, and "Twerkulator," a track that underscored their lasting ties to Miami bass. Promotion for their 2023 album RAW centered on the energetic "Piñata" and the Diddy-assisted summer hit "Act Bad."
Having known each other since their early teens, Miami natives Yung Miami (Caresha Brownlee, born in Opa-locka) and JT (Jatavia Shakara Johnson, from Carol City and Liberty City) turned to recording after facing problems with former partners. They reached out to producer and mutual friend MajorNine, bought a beat built around Khia's risqué 2002 single "My Neck, My Back," and laid down "Fu*k Dat Ni**a" in August 2017. The song, aimed at financially lacking admirers and envious spectators, gained traction through Yung Miami's online posts and club spins. By year's end it landed on the compilation Quality Control: Control the Streets, Vol. 1, which opened at number one on Billboard's R&B/hip-hop chart and reached number five on the Billboard 200. Its official video, which included an appearance by Trina (Yung Miami's godmother), surfaced the following January. In May 2018 the duo issued their debut mixtape Period; led by "Where the Bag At," the project registered on Billboard's Heatseekers chart. Two months afterward their international visibility surged after they supplied songwriting and vocals to Drake's "In My Feelings," a number one pop hit across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and additional markets.
That momentum paved the way for City Girls' first studio album. Girl Code arrived in November 2018, debuted at number 63 on the Billboard 200, and yielded major hits in the Cardi B collaboration "Twerk," which peaked at number 29 on the pop chart, and its follow-up "Act Up," which reached number 26. Yung Miami and JT moved quickly into preparations for their second studio album, City on Lock, slated for release in June 2019 right after they joined Layton Greene on "Leave Em Alone" for Control the Streets, Vol. 2. City on Lock entered the Billboard 200 at number 29. Additional hits followed with the gold-certified "Jobs" and the platinum "Pussy Talk," which featured Doja Cat. The duo put out several singles across 2021 and 2022, securing another gold plaque with "Twerkulator." The next year they collaborated with Diddy on "Act Bad," then released the LL Cool J-sampling "I Need a Thug" and the seductive "Piñata." RAW, their third album, appeared that October and included Usher on the Latin freestyle-flavored "Good Love," entering the Billboard 200 at number 117.
