JT's Solo Era: From City Girls to Cultural Icon

Cosmopolitan

2 days ago

'I am not into the shit y'all think I'm into.' Rap star JT1 is lounging on a couch in her stylist's Lower Manhattan wardrobe studio. It's the night before her Cosmopolitan cover shoot and nearly a dozen people move through the room, sidestepping racks of clothes and shoes stacked to the ceiling. But she isn't actually addressing any of us—that pointed 'y'all' is directed at her haters. Or more specifically, at the people who refuse to accept her growth, those who can't move beyond the 20-something member of the hip-hop duo City Girls they first encountered years ago. Back then, JT was hungry for stardom, a bit gritty. 'I'm really just not in that era no more,' she confesses.
1. Full name: Jatavia Johnson. We might be cousins! (You never know, right?)Make no mistake, she's not disparaging her early career or City Girls, which she founded with Yung Miami. When they really took off in 2018, they were the biggest female rappers to come out of Miami-Dade County since Trina, and their impact on music and culture has been undeniable. If you ever verbally punctuate a sentence, a point, or a cosign with 'period,' you have them to thank. If you go to a party or club where Southern hip-hop is played, you'll undoubtedly find yourself screaming the lyrics to their hit 'Act Up' at some point in the night. City Girls' 2023 album RAW, anchored by their hit 'Good Love' featuring Usher, was their final project together.
'It's not what I wanted, but it was what was destined to happen,' says JT about their split. 'But I don't feel regretful about it. I feel happy, in control, and like I'm where I'm supposed to be.'
These days, that might include a few hours of coquettish leisure in Central Park. JT has plans to get a bike at some point, she says, and take an unhurried afternoon ride. (The bike must have a basket, she specifies, for the vibes.) Her excitement is so palpable, I want to grab a tiny bit of it for myself, to tuck away for the next time I need a pick-me-up. It's at once totally endearing and completely different from what I'd expected.
When you grow up with an artist—especially during the trials and tribulations of your 20s—it's easy to lock them into a fixed time and perception. But it's also unfair. I had this realization in real time during our interview and had to adjust accordingly. Because while JT's early music absolutely found its audience, and many of her OG fans, myself included, still feel deeply connected to that version of her, she's ready to evolve. She wants her fans (including her 7 million Instagram followers) to see this new side of her, one that looks softer, moves steadier, and feels more settled, and to join her for the ride. 'I'm really ready to push myself to take them into another world,' she says. 'We've been at the club together—let's go somewhere else.'
I got a preview of JT 2.0 this past winter. It was Valentine's Day Eve in New York City, at The Standard Hotel High Line's BOOM. Hundreds of revelers had gathered for Cosmopolitan's inaugural Love Ball. JT glided through the sea of partygoers toward the VIP section like a swan in open water: serenely poised, in her quintessential full glam,2 possessing the kind of pinup-girl pretty that makes you stare at someone for way longer than is socially acceptable.
2. That night, it was sandy brown hair down to her butt, cleavage up to her chin, and a minidress straight off the runway.
Then came her performance. With a yellow Hermès Kelly on her arm, JT stepped onto the bar3 and moved across the glossy wood with intention, maybe even a hint of demureness, while rapping 'Okay' and 'JT Coming.'4 At one point, she expertly slipped out of her pink vinyl stiletto mules, à la Patti LaBelle, and finished her set barefoot. At minimum, it was a master class in reading the room, in demonstrating that not every setting calls for the same kind of showwomanship. But more than that, it felt like a revelation: This was JT in her solo era.
3. With the help of an extra-buff bodyguard who lifted up her 5'2" frame.
4. Sample lyrics: 'You know I'm vicious / Fenty lip gloss and I'm blowin' kisses / Pullin' up with forty bitches....I'm never tired of Birkins / Add a Louis lingerie and Fendi curtains.'
'I'm in a good place with myself,' JT says now, making this all make sense. 'People think that I'm talking about material things when I say that, but no. I just wake up so beautiful and excited. I just know that everything that I want to happen is already waiting on me.'
In other words, the self-professed rap diva has range and has been showing it off in this latest chapter. So far, that includes preparing to put out new music this summer, recently dropping 'Ran Out' remixed by Kaytranada, having an ultra-viral TikTok and Reels track with 'Okay,' and releasing the July 2024 mixtape City Cinderella that cemented her solo artist status. The latter, a kind of reintroduction that offers a deeper sense of who she is, left her firmly rooted in this new world but with her core self still fully intact.
'I've always been who I am, which is a very powerful, talented, vocal, say-what-the-fuck-I-want-to say person,' she explains. 'I never not did what the fuck I wanted to do.' If there's one ideal quality to be consistent about, it might just be that.
I'm always challenging myself, trying to be what the powerful women before me were. All the real icons really cared about the vision, the art, what they were putting out in the world. I want people to look back at my looks in 20 years and be like, 'She was so fab. She was so diva.' Like, 'Oh my god, remember JT?' I don't want to be dressed down no more. I want to get onstage in a gown and rock out. I want to be the moodboard.5
5. At a recent performance at Brown University (like we said, the girl has range), JT wore a flowy white number that had fans referencing the viral 'She was a fairy!' meme.
I spent a lot of time with myself a couple years ago, and I was like, Outside of rap—because I'm an excellent rapper—what else about yourself do you think? And I was like, I really do love beauty and fashion….We don't have many options in Miami because it's hot, but Miami people are going to be in their known designer. We always look like we got our income tax down there, I swear to God.
My boyfriend6 is from Philly, so we've always had this dynamic when it comes to fashion. I remember the first outfit I ever pulled up on my boyfriend in: I wore this Chanel set, these Chanel sneakers, and a Chanel cardigan. I think I was tea, still to this day. I wish I could call him right now because he always makes fun of that outfit.
6. JT has been dating rapper Lil Uzi Vert for six years. The way she gushes (and literally blushes) while talking about him will make you believe in love again.
But I know I was eating. That is just the style of Miami. We are very designer happy. So when people say, 'You was never a fashion girl…,' I always had shit. People get a misconception because the biggest thing they know about me, the most publicized thing, is my mug shots.7
7. JT spent two years in prison for credit card fraud.
What has it been like to navigate that?
I remember the embarrassment—imagine being this hood It Girl and then you got this terrible mug shot. When they posted it, I was already embarrassed, right? So once I got famous and people posted it, I was like, 'That's really the only read people have on me.' Now, though, I love my mug shots because they tell a story; they're eras. They show me how far I came, and it's just so beautiful to see what you could become.
I think so. You can work hard, but you don't have to fight. Meaning, you can work hard and fight hard for what you want, but if you really believe that something is for you, it's going to be there for you. Everything that I ever wanted—even down to Cosmopolitan8—I wanted to do that. I remember saying to friends, 'I want to be a model.' And it's like, Girl, you 5'2", what makes you think that you can do that? But I just put myself in that narrative and in that space.
8. 'Growing up, I would see all the It Girls in Cosmo,' she later adds. 'The one that comes to mind was when Mariah Carey was standing next to her cover at a reveal party.'
I'm not married yet, but we definitely are going to marry each other. That's my best friend. That's my dog. Uzi is such a cool person. We've been together since 2019, so we've been growing together. We just look at each other and are like, Damn, we really cool. We really know each other. We really can exist and still like each other. It's beyond love. He be wanting me to come hang with him. I'm like, 'Boy, we live together—why do you want me to come to the studio and hang with you?' He likes me. He likes me.
It was October 2019. He was like, 'Let's make a song.' It was very business, very professional. I was like, 'What do you want with me?' Not me dissing him but basically dissing myself. He had fit pics and was flexing.9 I thought he was out of my league, to be honest. I was fresh out of jail, I didn't have my BBL yet—I was just jail thick. Then we just connected right away. I was in a halfway house and used to talk to him so much. And when I met him, he was such a good time. It was nothing I never experienced.
9. 'I remember I had a magazine of Uzi when I was in prison. I loved this magazine. I want to say it was Rolling Stone, but he was in a grocery store and he had these two braids going to the back. I thought he was the coolest person ever, but did I think that six years later I would be dating him? No.'
Like I can do and be anything. He tells me when he thinks stuff is cool and when he doesn't. Every day, Uzi is fresh; he goes to sleep fresh. That is a clean motherfucker. He carries himself like a star. I really admire that about him because he will take so much from the outside world, and I'm always going to be the one to defend him because he's not going to do it—he's very older star in that way. He does not like me to argue on the internet, but I think he's come to know that I'm going to do it anyway. And he just got to take me as who I am and love me for me.
My man knows me like a book. It cannot be ghetto. It cannot be nobody with no ugly outfits. It can't be nobody standing in the way with too many phones. It needs to be very elegant. I need to have soft glam, short nails. Because imagine me doing like this10 with it—no. It don't have to be as big as my wedding is going to be, but it needs to be aesthetically pleasing.
10. She holds out her hand with perfectly manicured extra-long, pale-pink stiletto nails as if she's showing off an engagement ring.
No, and I kind of don't want it to be on Instagram after. I don't want my engagement to be announced on The Shade Room. I don't want that energy. Oh my god, I would die. 'Uzi proposed to JT,' and the people come. This is not for y'all.
Yes. I want it to be how Beyoncé did it, with a little video of it and the people see it years later. Let's keep some things to ourselves.
Anybody who was ever in a group will say how hard it is to go into a solo career. I feel like we were doing our own thing for so long and it was like—and I don't mean this harshly—but it was bound to happen.
I started City Cinderella in March of 2024. People think I was working on this project for years but it was a very quick turnaround. I felt a lot of pressure, I didn't even have a real chance to perfect it. Every day, I'm working to fight a narrative.
I'm fighting to be myself versus what the consumer who knows me from back then wants me to be. If, when I put new music out, my first fan is like, 'What the fuck is this?' I'm ready for that. If only 10 people resonate with the song, these are my 10. If only 30 people resonate, there's my 30.
It just felt so beautiful. I wrote 'Hope' myself. I wanted an opening track that talked more about me and where I come from. When I become the megastar that I will be, I want people to be able to go back to City Cinderella and feel a sense of nostalgia and a sense of, 'Wow, she sounded like this before?'
I grew up in a time when people were still working off of the structure of 'My kid has to be something.' My dad forced track and cheering on me—I did the shot put, long jump, 800, and 1600. It was torture; there was no joy. It was just another outlet for me to get in trouble. I've always been mouthy, problematic, and in charge. I never thought rapping would be it, though.
My dad is the reason that I got into music, too. I don't know who inspired him—maybe Joe Jackson—to think that he was going to have this supergroup11 of kids. It was like, 'Sir, relax.' Fame was not really my choice of words growing up—the word 'popular' was. Every year, my New Year's resolution was to be popular. I was always hood popular, but I wanted to be worldwide popular, like what I am now.
11. JT and her 16 brothers and sisters had a family band called The Protegees. 'I had this song—it's called 'Daddy Can I Get a Tattoo?' I just always wanted to be on my own.'
I'm so into it, just so happy about it. I remember when I first started rapping and we rented this Rolls-Royce to go to the club. I own a Rolls-Royce now, and it is just like, Girl, what? Look at you. It's just different to see everything come to life. I just love where I'm at right now.
I'm just naturally a shit-talking person. I'm cocky and confident, and I put that inside of my music in a world that tells us we shouldn't be. People be swearing, 'Oh, she thinks she's bigger than the program.' I hate when people say that—bitch, I am the program.
I make music for the divas, the It Girls, and the gays. They want so much for themselves. I see them elevating, I see them sending me their graduation announcements. My fans are at work, they're at school, they're handling their business. I have a little army of smart kids and I'm like, 'Look at y'all.' I don't even want you to be my fan if you're not doing shit with yourself.
I do not make music for none of these raggedy-ass bitches.12 Why would you ever get online and tell me how I should live my life or how I should do anything when your shit ain't together? You mean to tell me you care more about me than you care about yourself? Something ain't right. My music can never resonate to you.
12. After JT said this with a lot of emphasis, she looked me square in the eye and added, 'Please put that in there.'
I do want a Grammy before it's all said and done. But even if I never get a Grammy in my life, I'm still going to feel like I'm successful. And you know what I will do? Get one of those humanitarian awards for doing something really good for the community.
My calling is to really build community for children who want to be something but don't have that many options, who don't have a choice because a lot of people don't have one, like how I told you I didn't. That's what 'Hope' was really for. I know there are so many people who are young and lost and probably don't think they're ever going to be nothing, but you could be. It ain't impossible.
(Title Image) All-In sweater and skirt, shoes from Albright Fashion Library, Swarovski sunglasses, Nicole Rose Jewelry earrings, Tarina Tarantino ring. (Cover Image) David Koma top, Norma Kamali swimsuit, René Caovilla shoes, Nickho Rey bracelets.
Styled by Briana Andalore. Hair by Tevin Washington and Dylan Silver for True Indian Hair. Makeup by Eden Lattanzio for MAC Cosmetics. Manicure by Tiana 'Tiny' Hardy. Shot on location at Ocean Casino Resort.