Rae Sremmurd (/ˈreɪ ˈʃrɛmɜːrd/ RAY SHREM-urd;[3] "Ear" and "Drummers" spelled backwards) is an American hip hop duo composed of brothers Swae Lee and Slim Jxmmi, both of whom originate from Tupelo, Mississippi.
[5] The duo rose to mainstream prominence following the release of their 2014 singles "No Flex Zone," "No Type" and "Throw Sum Mo" (featuring Nicki Minaj and Young Thug).
Their 2016 single, "Black Beatles" (featuring Gucci Mane) peaked atop the Billboard Hot 100 and preceded the release of their second album, SremmLife 2 (2016), which was met with continued commercial success.
Their mother Bernadette Walker worked for the United States Army and her family was frequently relocated, with stays in Mississippi, Maryland, and Texas.
[6][7] Slim Jxmmi and Swae Lee started practicing, dancing, and writing music together at an early age.
[13][14] It was at the same time that the group first met, and then later became friends with Jermarcus Jackson, aka JJ (today known as Jay Sremm), a young disc jockey, who was studying at Tupelo High School with the two brothers.
[6][7] Thanks to their savings, the group took part in the auditions of the "Wild Out Wednesday" segment on BET's show 106 & Park in Memphis, Tennessee and succeeded to qualify.
[17] Later, the group met a young rapper, named Andre "King Dre" Harris (today known as BoBo Swae), while he was freestyling in the high school courtyard.
Around this time, Jemarcus put the group in touch with producer Pierre "P-Nazty" Slaughter, a cousin of his, who had grown up in Tupelo but had moved to Atlanta to work with Mike Will Made It's record label EarDrummers.
Thereby, the three rappers left Tupelo and spent a few months with P-Nazty and Marquel "Marz" Middlebrooks (another EarDrummers producer) in Georgia.
[7] Meanwhile, P-Nazty and Marz, aware of the potential and motivation of the trio, tried to convince the rappers to leave their work and to return to Atlanta to try again to succeed in music.
[24] After that Aaquil resigned, anticipating that he wouldn't pass a drug test, the trio decided to return to Atlanta thanks to Andre, who had a car.
[7] Back in Georgia, the group performed in local shows, and saw popularity in the Atlanta hip hop scene.
In the meantime, King Dre decided to leave the group due to familial reasons and moved to Florida to focus on his studies.
The group took as their new name "Rae Sremmurd", derived from Mike Will Made It's production team "EarDrummers" by spelling both words backwards.
"[26] When Mike Will Made It finalized the creation of his major label "EarDrummers Entertainment" in partnership with Interscope Records, the two brothers became the first artists to sign.
[27] Rae Sremmurd was discovered by the hip hop audience in December 2013, due to their appearance on Mike Will Made It's mixtape "#MikeWiLLBeenTriLL" on the track "We".
[30][26][31] In March, they participated in the South by Southwest music festival with Mike Will Made It and performed their first official single, "No Flex Zone", for the first time.
[34] Finally, the single entered the Billboard Hot 100 on the chart issue dated August 16 and peaked at number 36 on September 20.
[35][36] They also released a remix of the track featuring American rappers Pusha T and Nicki Minaj which helped to increase its popularity.
[42][43] In October, Brooklyn music producer Baauer released the track "One Touch" featuring AlunaGeorge and Rae Sremmurd as lead single from his EP ß.
[48] In June, Ty Dolla Sign teamed up with the duo and Future on his DJ Spinz produced single "Blasé" which peaked at number 63 in November.
[56] This decision sparked a feud between the duo and Hot 97 radio presenter Ebro Darden, who thought that the album should not appear on the list.
[58] The album included their first Billboard Hot 100 number-one song "Black Beatles", which topped the chart in the issue dated November 26, 2016.
During summer 2021 at their Rolling Loud venue in Miami the family duo performed a snippet of their then to be lead single "I Don't Mind", with lack of enthusiasm from the audience.