In Defense of Yung Miami's 'Spend Dat'

When “Spend Dat” plays and half the internet decides she is a menace to Black youth, I know exactly what they are looking at, and I know what they refuse to see. But the argument aimed at Yung Miami this month is that she is glorifying crime, poisoning Black youth, betraying respectability. That case is the reason “Spend Dat” is legal to hum. Every generation this country produces a Black artist and a moral panic, and the panic always has the same shape. If you want to hear it in one song, put on “Spend Dat.”