Described as a “hood N’Sync” by producer Michael “Mike WILL Made-It” Williams for their pop-friendly exuberance, the brothers behind Rae Sremmurd — Aaquil “Slim Jxmmi” Brown and Khalif “Swae Lee” Brown — forged their sound out of rootlessness and hard knocks. Left by their father to grow up with their mother and brother, the Whittier, California-born, brothers moved around the country as army brats. When they finally put roots down in Mississippi, the then-13- and 14-year-olds began making beats on the digital audio workstation Fruity Loops and calling themselves Dem Outta St8 Boyz, a nod to their itinerant childhoods. “We were just the n—as that took interest in music,” Swae told The Fader in 2016. “I didn’t really understand what being famous was. But I saw myself just turnt. Being successful.”
In 2010, as a trio with Jemiah “Lil Pantz” Middlebrooks, they released their first single, “Party Animal.” The following year kicked out of home and determined to make it, the boys won second place in the “Wild-Out Wednesday” competition segment of the BET show 106 and Park — and landed on Def Jam and Sony’s radar. Still, a major-label deal didn’t immediately transpire, and after releasing the Three Stooges Mixtape in 2012, Dem Outta St8 Boyz (then with Andre “Lil Dre” Brown as a third member) suffered financial setbacks before relocating to Atlanta, Georgia. There, they met Mike WILL Made-It, became a duo and changed their name to Rae Sremmurd — or EarDrummers, the name of Williams’ production company, spelled backward.
In 2013, EarDrummers partnered with Interscope and became a record label — with Rae Sremmurd among their first signees. When the hungry twenty-somethings appeared on Williams’ #MikeWiLLBeenTriLL mixtape, hosted by Future and featuring Jay-Z, Gucci Mane, 2 Chainz and more, they suddenly became public knowledge. The following year, they released their first official single, “No Flex Zone,” to viral attention and a 2x Platinum certification by the RIAA. The ebullient hit’s remix featuring Nicki Minaj and Pusha-T appears here on vinyl for the first time ever. The group followed it up the same year with “No Type,” which peaked at No. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 and went 4x platinum.
Rae Sremmurd were only at the tip of the iceberg in 2015 — the following year, they released “Black Beatles,” their Gucci Mane-assisted signature song that soundtracked the #MannequinChallenge video trend — and were summarily cosigned by Sir Paul McCartney himself. Still, SremmLife is where it all began; it coded the DNA of that smash hit. After “No Flex Zone” and “No Type,” three more Hot 100 singles followed: “Throw Sum Mo,” (featuring Nicki Minaj and Young Thug), “This Could Be Us,” and “Come Get Her.” Complex, Entertainment Weekly, LA Times, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone and Stereogumall included the album in their Best of 2015 lists, and in 2019, Pitchfork crowned SremmLife the 87th best album of the 2010s.
Now’s your chance to own SremmLife on double vinyl and to revisit a modern rap classic with fresh ears. Rae Sremmurd’s plucky debut proves that even while relatively wet behind the ears, they wanted the world — and they would soon get it.
SremmLife Track Listing (2xLP)
Side A
- Lit Like Bic
- Unlock The Swag
- No Flex Zone
Side B
- My X
- This Could Be Us
- Come Get Her
- Up Like Trump
Side C
- Throw Some Mo
- YNo
- No Type
Side D
- Safe Sex Pay Checks
- No Flex Zone (Remix)
