Nicci Gilbert Calls Yung Miami’s “Spend Dat” Witchcraft & Vows to Block Its Grammy Run

Nicci Gilbert elevated the entire “Spend Dat” debate when she called the song’s lyrics “witchcraft.”

The Grammy-nominated Brownstone lead vocalist went on her YouTube series “Diary of a Diva” to break down why Yung Miami’s summer smash has her legitimately worried.

Gilbert zeroed in on repetition, hooks and chanting as tools of conditioning and argued that music at that level of saturation doesn’t just entertain; it shapes behavior.

She made a point of separating her critique from any personal beef with Caresha. Gilbert actually called Yung Miami “beautiful” with “a fun personality,” but said watching children participate in the “Spend Dat” dance challenge turned a cultural conversation into something more urgent.

As a Recording Academy voter, she went further, saying she’d use that access to keep the record out of Grammy contention. “The bigger issue,” Gilbert said, “is that the success of that record is going to surely breed more like it.”

Gilbert wasn’t alone for long. Grammy winner India Arie weighed in on June 30 after a Threads user called for a full boycott of the song.

Arie co-signed the concern, writing that the track’s “mass acceptance” was “a crystal clear sign of this much bigger truth” and said she’d “finally realized that not everybody wants to get free.”

She later clarified on Instagram Stories that she wasn’t personally calling for a boycott, but she didn’t walk back the criticism.

The pushback against the critics came fast. Trick Daddy went live on Instagram on July 2 and told Gilbert, Arie and anyone else coming for Yung Miami to back off.

“You old raggedy h*es is mad and jealous,” he said. Uncle Luke framed India Arie’s critique as “Black on Black crime” and told AllHipHop that if all music sounded like hers, “we would be bored as f**k.”

According to Billboard, “Spend Dat” climbed to No. 19 on the Hot 100, making it the highest-charting song of Yung Miami’s entire career, solo or with City Girls.

None of the criticism has touched the record’s momentum.

The J. White Did It-produced track racked up more than 2 million TikTok creates and has topped Urban Mainstream Radio, Rap Airplay and Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay simultaneously.

Yung Miami performed it at the New York Knicks Championship Parade and received a full arena singalong when she walked onstage at the 2026 BET Awards to present an award. The numbers keep climbing every week that the debate rages on.

Yung Miami said she wants Drake on the official remix, calling him “Iceman” and saying she won’t stop until he picks up the phone.