Songfacts®:

• This was the second official single to be released from British Indie Rock band Foals' sophomore album Total Life Forever.
• Whilst vocalist Yannis Philippakis pens the lyrics, the band come up with the music between them. Drummer Jack Bevan told Lifelounge the story of this song: "I had been listening to all of these new jack swing records – like, early '90s hip hop. And I was like, 'Check out this drum beat.' Then Jimmy [Smith, guitarist] just came up with the 'Miami' chorus on the spot, and it came out of nowhere."
• The song was inspired by beach holidays. Philippakis told The NME July 17, 2010: "It's just to do with having bad experiences every summer on Greek beaches, where I'd have a crush on somebody and it wouldn't go well. I've never been to Miami, but I wanted to set it there because I like the imagery of Scarface: bad suits, turquoise beaches and really white teeth."
• Philippakis told The NME the story behind the song's music video: "We felt there was a hip-hop element to it, but it was the baby of Dave Ma, who does all our visuals. The only thing I requested was that the blue powder was included, and that we had 'Total life Forever' stickers on the baseball bats. The whole concept of body builders and cross dressers fighting each other was his thing."