- India.Arie believes ‘Spend Dat’ promotes harmful values and is calling for more mindful music choices.
- Yung Miami’s song celebrates scamming and boosterism, which Arie sees as a ‘crystal clear sign’ of a broader societal issue.
Yung Miami has what many are describing as the “song of the summer” with her song “Spend Dat,” but its questionable messaging isn’t going over well with people like India.Arie.
The 4-time Grammy Award-winning artist, who is best known for her feel-good empowerment records like “Video” and “I Am Not My Hair,” had something to say about the current acceptance of Yung Miami’s boosting anthem that continues to climb up the Billboard Hot 100, reaching as high as 25 on the chart.
Arie said what she said about the record while responding to a post on Threads from a user expressing disgust with the song that said, “I’m calling a boycott of Yung Miami’s song ‘Spend Dat,’” read the post. “I believe it’s degrading to our culture.”
In the song, the former City Girls member shows love to scammers and boosters while encouraging ballers to “spend
In her response, Arie co-signed the Threads post, writing, “I spent my entire adult life caring way too much because I finally learned that not everybody cares (with a capital C).”
She continued, “And explaining it to them is not going to make them care. Everything you listen to or eat is going to influence you. So, make wise choices, y’all.”
Arie wasn’t done; she also responded to a Threads user who brought up Yung Miami’s character statement of her former boyfriend, Bad Boy Records co-founder, Sean Diddy Combs, who is currently in prison for violating the Mann Act.
The singer claimed the “mass acceptance” of “Spend Dat” was a “crystal clear sign of this much bigger truth.”
She continued, “I finally realized that not everybody wants to get free. And it was a very, very, very rude awakening.”
Yung Miami isn’t the first rapper who Arie called out; she also called out Megan Thee Stallion, accusing her of putting on sexually charged performances. She dropped a Substack post further clarifying her comments and stating that she, herself, was not calling for a boycott of the song.
“I want you to have an understanding of what’s good for you and to have the love for yourself to do it,” Arie said in the video. “But also, who cares what I want for you? I know what I want for me and I do what is best for me.”
Welp.
Singer Nicci Gilbert wasn’t as kind as Arie, pretty much calling “Spend Dat” “low vibrational ass music.”
“Spend Dat’s” Producer Seemingly Responds To India.Arie
Social media has also been chiming in on the matter. Someone close to the situation, the song’s producer, J. White Did It, teased a remix of the song using Arie’s “Video.”
We expect the fallout from “Spend Dat” to continue as the song grows in popularity.
You can see more reactions below.
