JT

If there is one thing a rap fan will do, it’s criticizing female rappers for outlandish standards they refuse to hold anyone else to. Case in point: City Girls, the fun-loving Miami duo whose music is all about living the high life on someone else’s dime and turning up in the streets, has gotten more than their fair share of criticism that their music isn’t deep enough. While this echoes complaints that other women in hip-hop have made that they aren’t taken seriously enough as artists, City Girls defended themselves in a new interview with Complex.

“I feel like a lot of times, people tend to forget and try to discredit us and say we make bad music,” JT told Complex’s Speedy Morman during their interview. “And I never, ever, ever feel like that. I feel like everything we put out is fun and is a bop.” She took it a step further, insisting that the duo could just as easily switch up for a more socially aware style, but that it wouldn’t suit their true musical philosophy. “It’s not conscious rap, but I could definitely do a conscious rap,” JT insisted. “I feel like our music is for freedom and fun and partying and to make women feel good and to pop they sh*t.”

For what it’s worth, their approach is much more lucrative, as Cardi B once pointed out, reminding fans that when she made emotional, vulnerable songs like “Be Careful” she was rejected, but when she made “WAP,” the song went No. 1 basically overnight. ““When I did ‘Be Careful,’ people was talking mad sh*t in the beginning,” she reminded her fans on Instagram. “So it’s like if that’s what people ain’t tryna hear, then, alright, I’mma start rapping about my p*ssy again.” Meanwhile, Rapsody had an even better take on the “conscious rap” argument, saying that “[artists like] Cardi B makes conscious music — that’s conscious to what she was doing.”