Caresha ‘Yung Miami’ Brownlee, once a member of the multiplatinum selling rap group the “City Girls”, has been under fire for months after Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs was exposed for being an abuser. In May of 2024 a video from 2016 was released showing Diddy physically assaulting then girlfriend Cassie Ventura. Cassie, due to the Adult Survivors Act in New York, was able to sue Diddy. One day after the civil case was filed the two “amicably” settled the case. Days prior, Diddy and his Lawyers vehemently denied Cassie’s claims of abuse maintaining Cassie only wanted money. After the 2016 video was released, that tune changed, and Diddy had no choice but to apologize.
During the height of Diddy’s multiple lawsuits and allegations, Yung Miami, who was Diddy’s girlfriend at the time, stayed quiet. Many began to speculate that she’d been yet another one of Diddy’s victims, with some even believing Diddy, due to his money, power, influence, and age-gap difference (Diddy 54, Yung Miami 30), may’ve brainwashed Caresha with the same lies he told the public, speculating that Caresha was aware of what Diddy was doing and due to stockholm syndrome, could not escape, or did not want to.
After months of being silent, Caresha finally decided to address the rumors using her hit show “Caresha Please”, and her best-friend rapper, Saucy Santana, to speak her truth.
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The 33 minute episode launched the highly anticipated season two of “Caresha Please”. After Diddy stepped down from REVOLT, many believed Caresha’s hit podcast was scrapped. Happily, it was not. Millions tuned in to watch as Caresha and Saucy, within minutes, get straight to the hard questions. Caresha, who is not known for showing emotions, couldn’t help but cry as Saucy Santana asked her about her mental health. Understandably, Yung Miami revealed; “…mentally, I’m all over the place…mentally one minute I’m happy one minute I’m sad, one minute I’m like fuck this shit, and then the next minute I’m looking at my kids and I’m like, I ain’t bring us this far to go backwards, I work hard…”
One thing the public can agree on is that Yung Miami absolutely worked hard, earned her name, and deserves every accolade that she’s gotten. In 2018, when the City Girls hit mainstream music, many rap fans, critics, and naysayers, collectively expressed their disdain for the group calling the duo; “too ghetto”, “untalented”, and “where rap goes to die”. As expressed in her latest podcast episode, those words and critique’s effected her, but not enough for her to stop. Even after group member JT was sentenced to prison, Yung Miami continued to work under the group name, perform alone doing major shows, interviews, and working hard to not only keep the group name alive, but to also make sure JT had a lane in the industry waiting for her after release.
Caresha earned her place in the entertainment industry. Regardless if the music the City Girls made, or the music Caresha has made as a solo artist, is lyrical gold, the fact is, millions across the world stream it, love it, and there’s a place for it. It’s work, and it takes hard work to make records platinum. She’s owed her flowers.
In 2021, Diddy and Caresha started to trend as the two were seen together often and were alleged to be dating. In 2022, the couple sat on her podcast and confirmed to the public that they were in fact seeing each other. During this time Diddy had just began to receive honors and celebrations around his 30+ years in the music business and Yung Miami was right by his side. As Caresha states; “…I met him when he was in the LOVE era…I met Diddy when the world was celebrating him, and giving him his flowers.”
At the time, no allegations, other than the ongoing gay rumors, were top news about Diddy. For all intents and purposes, Diddy, at the time, was well loved by the public, with a new name change and brand change around love. Everyone loved Diddy, so why couldn’t Caresha?
As time went on and the couple were seen together more and more the public started to change their tune calling Yung Miami; “embarrassingly stupid“, “desperate”, and a “gold digger” for being Diddy’s “biggest champion” while being title-less. Diddy and Yung Miami confirmed the two were dating during their podcast episode, but it left many confused hearing Caresha say; “…I feel like you single, but we go together, so how would you feel If I be telling people that I’m single because we go together?”. With Diddy asking; “We go together now?”, and Caresha replying; “Real Bad“, it help to fuel the narrative that Caresha was desperate and should be ashamed.
What was clear to me was, the two liked each other, dated, had fun together and often joked with each other allowing them to have a great time when they were together, but when they weren’t, to date others. Many have adopted the, non-exclusive dating experience, as one that many, especially young Women, should experience, but for whatever reason when it came to Caresha and Diddy, folks did not want it to apply.
Five minutes into the new podcast episode Caresha asked an important question; “…you was his biggest advocate, you was his cheerleader, but I was just celebrating him when the world was celebrating him, so why am I being crucified?”. Why indeed? With absolutely no evidence, many have decided that Caresha had a hand in Diddy’s wrongdoings. Considering Caresha and Diddy only met each other in 2021, with Cassie and Diddy ending things several years prior, one would think time was enough of an indicator that Caresha not only did nothing wrong, but could not have had any clue! Take, for instance, the 2016 video of Cassie being abused by Diddy. In 2016 Caresha was about 22 years old and had not been signed to Quality Control until the following year, she wasn’t even in the industry. And if investigators, or hotel staff could not uncover the video of Diddy’s abuse, or the people around him spoke nothing of it to anyone, how then could Caresha be aware of anything other than what Diddy presented to her and the world in 2021? Love.
It’s sad. Diddy, who has assault allegations even as I write this article, is the only one to blame for his actions, yet Yung Miami is not only ridiculed, but to some, is partially to blame for… what? Black Women are often targets of forced blame for simply being there. Take attorney Phaedra Parks for example. Her ex-husband, Apollo Nida, was sentenced to prison for conspiracy to commit mail, wire, and bank fraud and with no evidence, the public “just knew” she had to’ve known something about it. Even to this day, 7 years later, Phaedra maintains she had no clue, no FBI or police investigation found her to be in cahoots, and still she’s crucified for it even after swiftly divorcing her ex-husband.
My question to those who believe Yung Miami knew of Diddy’s violent capabilities and possible criminal activities is, what exactly do you think Caresha knows? Even with the release of her podcast where she simply told her truth: she’s been abused before and would never allow that to happen again, she does not support or condone domestic violence or abuse, and that her experience with Diddy was nothing like what’s being reported with him and Cassie, many believed she is lying and cannot speak due to an NDA. What is this? Why have we become so enthralled in fantasy that we refuse to wait for truth?
Some even believe Caresha had an idea of Diddy’s abusive past when she and Gina Huynh argued via social media. Gina, Diddy’s ex, took to social media to make fun of Yung Miami claiming the City Girls were down by 1000 after it was revealed Diddy was expecting a child while dating Caresha. After the two went back and forth, Caresha stated; “if I wanted you to eat my pussy, Diddy would’ve had you on your knees hoe, you a eater”. The latter made people think Caresha was aware of abuse and even complicit, however, what was clear is…they were arguing. People say things when you’re arguing to get the other person mad, or to embarrass them, and considering Gina said; “Caresha you know you wanna taste this yum yum sauce” right before Caresha’s response, her reply, considering Gina and Diddy dated, was less about Caresha knowing something, and more about whatever the current situation was between the three, which, the public is still unaware of.
Caresha is owed an apology. She did not, and does not deserve the cruelty she’s faced for simply dating an attractive, fun, smart wealthy Black Man who turned out to be scum. Caresha fell in love with someone who hid his past. Data shows a majority of Women often deal with this, so why can’t Caresha? Why is it the new thing in our society to pile on our celebrities when they are dealing with adversity? With the City Girls no longer together, her relationship with JT not as solid, and with the fear of her future at the front of her mind, it’s no wonder why Caresha wants to give up, and for whatever reason, many viewers are happy to see it.
Unfortunately Caresha is just one example of how we’ve become a society of fiction leading conspiracies that leave no room for truth. Instead of waiting for the truth, we create our own in the hopes that what we are saying is right. When does it end?
