"Spend Dat" has been a big hit for Yung Miami this year, although some folks don't like its message. India.Arie recently took to Threads to criticize the song after the former City Girl's standing ovation at the 2026 BET Awards, but quickly clarified her stance once folks took it the wrong way.
As caught by The Shade Room on Instagram, the singer employed multiple social media platforms to make her points. It started with some Threads messages responding to calls for boycotts of "Spend Dat." In them, she spoke about how folks easily become influenced by other media and how the wider acceptance of the track is a "bigger problem" indicating "not everybody wants to get free."
"FOR CLARITY!!" I did not say that I think anyone needs to boycott this song," India wrote on her Instagram Story. "I said it is a sign of where we are as a culture that this song has been accepted so widely. And ... THATS FACTS. I THINK - people should do whatever they WANT TO DO. you do what you wanna do. I'll do what I wanna do. And that's that. MEANWHILE I also said, that the way we are embracing the song says a lot about where we are as a culture. which ... IS JUST FACTS."
She also shared a response to an IG user in her DMs calling her selective amid many other debates with folks online.
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Yung Miami's "Spend Dat"
Elsewhere, Yung Miami's "Spend Dat" is still going viral. In fact, a woman who participated in the track's viral Internet challenge actually got a rude awakening when police used the video to track her down for retail theft.
There are still a lot of debates about the song, but it continues to do well. In any case, this goes to show how negative discussions of media are just as important to their proliferation as positive ones. All in all, Miami is probably happy with the attention, despite the critics.
India.Arie's made similar comments before about artists like Megan Thee Stallion and Janelle Monáe. In the past, she has also defended them against social media scrutiny.
