City Girls Debate Over Which Album Was Their Debut, QC Sides with JT

The City Girls are at odds over which project should be considered their debut album ... a shocking yet not-all-that-surprising revelation once you hear all the details.

Caresha and JT were both tasked by Complex to pick the greatest hip hop album of all time and naturally picked their own projects ... but when JT referred to "Girl Code" as their debut project, Caresha argued that its predecessor, "Period," was their inaugural album.

Here's where it gets tricky ... both projects were released through their longtime label, Quality Control, 6 months apart in 2018 with "Period" arriving first.

However, Quality Control billed "Period" a mixtape when it dropped, so technically JT is correct. Record labels tend to use the mixtape tag to test the waters for a project, which means there's little consequence if it fails.

A rep for QC tells TMZ Hip Hop the label officially recognizes "Girl Code" -- complete with City Girls' Billboard-debuting singles "Twerk" and "Act Up" -- as their first project, so that's that.

If we're gonna get even more technical, one could argue the City Girls' never had a proper debut, at least as far as rollout goes.

"Girl Code" was released while JT was in prison for credit card fraud, and its follow-up, 2020's "City On Lock," leaked prematurely in summer 2020, forcing the duo to piecemeal the project and promote it as it was.