Album Review: Yung Miami – Watch Dis!
From the go, you can tell the architecture of this album is built to make you feel like you’re in Dade County, Miami. It’s atmospheric, it’s hot, the sun is down, and it’s creepy (in an atmospheric way). You feel like Don Johnson from Miami Vice is about to pop out on a modern-day Grand Theft Auto mission. The whole thing has an underworld, sexual feeling to it, like you’re cruising through South Florida at night, neon lights reflecting off the streets, cars pulling up outside the club, and something questionable happening in the background. This is one of the album’s biggest strengths. It has a sense of place, and that place is unmistakably Miami.
The intro starts with horns blowing. Yung Miami comes through with aggression and some recognisable wordplay framed by the artists who inspire her, from the UK to ATL. She is making her intentions clear from the jump. This is Miami telling people who she is, where she comes from, and the kind of energy she brings to the table.
F U captures her persona perfectly. When Miami raps, “I’m a mami, I’m a thotty, I’m a badass bitch. Got an ocean for a pussy, suck a mean ass dick,” you understand exactly what kind of artist you’re dealing with. This is Yung Miami in her element: sexually unapologetic, outrageous, funny, and completely unbothered. She isn’t trying to be the most respectable woman in the room. She wants to be the baddest bitch in it. Raw honesty is her appeal, and when she commits to it, she is entertaining.
2008 pays homage to her favourite rapper, Jeezy, and Miami is going HARD. The record taps into that era of Southern rap when the production was cold, the street narratives were larger than life, and the whole aesthetic felt like a declaration of war against the world. You can hear the respect for the music that shaped her.
Then there’s Spend Dat, a certified Miami strip club hit. This is what the city ordered. The beat, the energy, the attitude, everything is designed to get the club moving. You can practically hear the money being thrown and the asses shaking in the building. Miami has pinned down the relationship between her music and the culture that consumes it.
Put Together is fun, and it sounds like the theme music for a Thottie Barbie Movie. The record leans into Miami’s feminine playful materialistic sexuality. It is colourful without losing the attitude that runs through the project.
Dade County goes HARD. THEY REPRESENT! This collaboration gives the album its regional identity, bringing together artists whose names mean something in Florida hip-hop history. Trick Daddy is TRILLLLL! His presence carries that unmistakable Southern street-rap spirit, and the whole record feels like a celebration of Miami’s musical lineage. Trina adds to that sense of history, making the record feel authenticated and not just a collection of guest appearances.
But the real surprise comes with Dear JT.
Now, I am not a City Girls fan, but this makes you want to see them back together. And I think that’s important, because there are too many female rappers in the game right now, too much noise, too many people competing to be the baddest bitch in the room. Everybody is talking their shit, everybody has the body, the look, the lifestyle, the designer, the controversy. And with the amount of BBLs flying around, we don’t even know whose body is whose anymore, lol. The market is saturated with artists trying to convince us that they’re the hardest, the sexiest, the richest, and the most untouchable. At some point, the question becomes: what separates you from everybody else?
For the people who like Yung Miami, this album gives them more of what they came for. But for the people who have been switched off for whatever reason, Letter to JT might be the record that switches them back on.
This is not just another rap girl making a song about being that bitch. This is Miami addressing a very public fallout with somebody we never really anticipated she would fall out with in the first place. City Girls was a partnership that felt inseparable. Their chemistry, their friendship, their music, everything about the duo suggested that these two women were in it together. They built something that became bigger than either individual record, so the idea of them falling out carries a different kind of weight.
And that is what makes Dear JT so important.
Dear JT gives us something beyond the usual rap girl theatrics. It acknowledges that there was a real relationship here, one that mattered, one that helped shape both of their lives. Suddenly, you’re not just listening to Yung Miami trying to establish herself as a solo artist. You’re listening to somebody processing the fallout of a partnership that helped define her career. That’s more compelling than another diss record.
Take Me to Chanel is another moment where Miami delivers. After the back-and-forth with Tyla, the culture was waiting, hoping she’d bring it, and she did. The features make sense, they complement her. Miami isn’t being overshadowed by her guests; she’s using them to bring a different flavour to the music while maintaining her own identity.
Yeah, it’s a wrap. Letter to My Pussy, Yung Miami wrote a letter to her pussy. She is officially one of the hardest female rappers out, lol. There is a level of audacity involved in making a record like that and committing to it. Miami understands that her outrageous personality is part of the product. She isn’t interested in pretending to be somebody else to earn respectability points. Yung Miami’s “Letter to My Pussy” is a notable female hip-hop moment comparable personification to Nas’s “I Gave You Power” and 2Pac’s “Me and My Girlfriend,” in which objects associated with power and identity are given a voice or relational role. Yung Miami’s track applies the method through a female perspective.
The international remix of Spend Dat is truly good, too. Shenseea left NO CRUMBS. She comes through with a performance that gives the record another dimension, Davido is smooth, and Vybz Kartel brings raw perverted sexual energy. The combination works because everybody brings something different to the table without losing what made the original enjoyable. It’s a proper international linkup, and a video is needed.
Blink Twice, Just Might Go featuring Travis Scott, and Old Time Sake featuring Bryson Tiller help broaden the album’s sound. Ride For You featuring Summer Walker brings that softer, relationship focused energy, while Chasing Sunsets gives the album room. These records prevent the project from becoming one long exercise in talking shit.
However, at 21 tracks, there is a lot going on, and not every moment carries the same gravity. The atmosphere is strong, the personality is undeniable, but the project doesn’t maintain the same level of impact from beginning to end. A tighter track list could have made the best moments hit even harder.
Final Thoughts
Watch Dis! is a celebration of Yung Miami’s personality, Southern rap influences, and the unmistakable atmosphere of her hometown. From the cinematic opening horns to the late-night underworld feeling of the production, the album establishes a world that feels hot, dangerous, and unapologetically Miami.
F U captures her outrageous persona. 2008 pays respect to Jeezy. Spend Dat is a certified Miami strip club hit, Put Together brings the Thottie Barbie energy, and Dade County is a proper representation moment. Take Me to Chanel delivers, and the international Spend Dat remix deserves a video.
But Letter to JT is the record that elevates the conversation.
We’re in an era where there are so many female rappers competing for attention that it can be difficult to distinguish one from another. Everybody wants to be that girl and everybody seems to have something to prove. Sometimes, the music becomes so consumed by competition, sex, and image that we lose sight of the people making it.
The album isn’t perfect. The track list could be tighter, and there’s still room for Miami to develop as a solo artist. But there is personality here, there is a strong sense of place, and there is a willingness to let real life experiences become part of the music.
Continue to grow, Miami. Put God first!
6.8 out of 10.
Review: Yung Miami – Watch Dis
Rating: 6.8/10
By Kwasi Addo
