Miami, FL · rap

JT

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City Girls' JT gone solo — Miami rap precision with main-character energy and fashion-page confidence, solo bars sharpened by a decade in the game.

JT is Jatavia Shakara Johnson, a rapper from Miami who grew up in Carol City and Liberty City, one of eighteen siblings. Her mother's addiction led to incarceration, and JT moved in with her father at age five. As a child she rapped with her siblings in a group called the Protegees, and she briefly studied fashion merchandising before turning fully to music.

She met Caresha Brownlee, later known as Yung Miami, in middle school, and the two formed City Girls in Miami in 2017. Their first track, 'Fuck Dat Nigga,' a diss aimed at ex-boyfriends, spread online and led to a deal with Quality Control Music that December. The duo signed to Quality Control Music and had a run of singles including 'Act Up,' and a vocal from 'Fuck Dat Nigga' was later sampled on Drake's 'In My Feelings.'

City Girls released the mixtape Period in 2018, followed later that year by a debut album featuring Cardi B, Lil Baby and Jacquees. JT served a prison sentence for credit card fraud beginning in 2018; the group kept releasing music, including the 2020 album City on Lock, before she returned that year. A third album, RAW, followed in 2023.

JT released early solo material as 'JT First Day Out' in 2019 and began her solo career in earnest in 2023 with 'No Bars.' She had already featured on Summer Walker's 2021 single 'Ex for a Reason,' her first entry on the Billboard Hot 100, and later on Nicki Minaj's 'Super Freaky Girl (Queen Mix)' and Kali Uchis' 'Muñekita.'

Her 2024 collaboration with Doechii, 'Alter Ego,' preceded the single 'Okay,' which charted and led into her debut solo mixtape, City Cinderella. Her solo work leans on the blunt, punchline-driven style she developed with City Girls, paired with a strong interest in fashion and image.

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