Rae Sremmurd, the Mississippi-bred hip-hop heroes revered for the Billboard No. 1 hit “Black Beatles” as well as other Hot 100 hits like “No Type,” “Swang,” and “Powerglide,” will re-release their scrappy, promising 2015 debut album SremmLife on March 13 via Interscope/UMe. For the first time ever, the album will be released on translucent red, 180-gram, double-vinyl in a gatefold configuration with the bonus “No Flex Zone (Remix).” Hailed upon release by Pitchfork as boasting a “singular and sinister energy,” by Spin as “nothing short of refreshing” and by Rolling Stone as a “fantastic, full-flex debut LP,” SremmLife charts the charismatic duo’s course from up-and-coming MCs to dominators of the rap landscape.
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.”
Rae Sremmurd was 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 Stereogum all 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.
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