Rae Sremmurd

Early life

Aaquil Ibinshaman Brown (also known as Slim Jxmmi) and his little brother Khalif Malikibnsham Brown (also known as Swae Lee) were born in Inglewood, California in December 29, 1991 and in June 7, 1993 respectively. They grew up with their mother, Bernadette Walker, their father having abandoned his family a few years after the birth of his sons.

Their mother worked for the army, she was regularly deployed in different states. The family moved several times, leaving California for Mississippi, Maryland and finally Texas. The two brothers started practicing, dancing and writing music together at an early age. In Texas, at some point around his 10th birthday, Khalif learned to produce music using Fruity Loops.

While the two boys were in middle school, they left Texas and moved back to Mississippi, after their mother left the army. They settled in the city of Tupelo, Mississippi, in the notorious Ida Street housing projects, where their stepfather lived. To support the family and to keep the boys in school, their stepfather sold drugs.

2009-2012: Career beginnings, Dem Outta St8 Boyz

Brown brothers met Jemiah Middlebrooks at Tupelo, while he was playing basketball at a local park. They decided to found the hip hop band "Dem Outta St8 Boyz" with him. Aaquil took the stage name "CaliBoy", Khalif choosed "Kid Krunk" and Jemiah took "Lil Pantz". They used money from their part-time jobs to buy equipment and to produce music at home. The two brothers were composing their own beats and the trio were rapping on it. Visibly inspired by Soulja Boy, boys released songs and dance videos on social networks of the time. It was at the same time that the group met and became friends with Jermarcus Jackson aka JJ (today know as D-JaySremm), a young disc jockey who was studying at Tupelo High School with the two brothers. He since became the DJ of the group.

Shortly after, Bernadette Walker and her companion were splitting up. Following the break-up, the two brothers started to skipping school. They also worked more seriously on music which brought them to coming in at all hours of the night while they had school the next morning. In order to deal with this situation, the mother started kicking her sons out the house. Aaquil and Khalif settled in an abandoned house in the city with a friend of their stepdad’s. They take advantage of the opportunity to organized parties in their new home, and thus spread their music.

At the beginning of 2010, the group released the single "Party Animal" which gave them a local fame, allowing them to perform at local festivals and to broadcast their tracks on local radios. 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. They participated on the December 8th show in New York City and performed "Party Animal".

At the same period, the group met Andre Harris aka King Dre (today known as Bobo Swae), originally from West Point, Mississippi and freshly arrived in Tupelo, while he was freestyling in the high school courtyard. When Lil Pantz left the group due to legal problems in the middle of 2011, he was replaced by Andre. Aaquil and Khalif took the opportunity to change their stage name from "CaliBoy" to "Weirdo" and from "King Krunk" to "Kid The Great". In August 2011, the trio once again participated to "106 & Park" and performed an original song "My Diddy". They finished second place overall in the competition, and arranged meetings with representatives from record labels Def Jam Recordings and Sony Music. However, they did not sign any record deals at that time.

Around this time, their DJ, Jemarcus Jackson, put the group in touch with EarDrummers producer Pierre "P-Nazty" Slaughter, a cousin of his who had grown up in Tupelo but moved to Atlanta to work with Mike Will Made-It. P-Nazty appreciated the teenagers' music and decided to work with them. Thereby, the three rappers left Tupelo and spent a few months with P-Nazty and - other EarDrummers producer - Marz in Georgia. They took the opportunity to perform in talent shows and recorded the track "I Dip", produced by Marz, and which increased their popularity a little more. They finally released their first project "Three Stooges Mixtape" on online mixtape distribution platform DatPiff at the beginning of 2012.

Unfortunately, due to financial problems, the boys had to return to their hometown, causing the group dissolution for a while. Aaquil began working for a local mattress factory to save money. He was working 12 hours per day and mostly living in his car, a GMC Jimmy, for many months. When he turned 21, he rented an apartment where Khalif and Andre moved in. They got back into recording music and organizing parties on weekends. Despite this, the rappers had problems with the police due to noise complaints and with their landlord when they stopped mowing their lawn. Furthermore, Aaquil resigned, anticipating that he wouldn't pass a drug test. The group, who had stayed in touch with P-Nazty, decided to return to Atlanta to try again to succeed in music.

2014–present: SremmLife and SremmLife 2

Dem Outta St8 Boyz signed with EarDrummers Entertainment on January 1, 2014, changing their name to Rae Sremmurd (which is ear drummers spelled backwards) Rae Sremmurd released their debut album, SremmLife, on January 6, 2015. SremmLife debuted at number 5 on the US Billboard 200, and was supported and spawned by four singles. Its lead single, titled "No Flex Zone" was released on May 18, 2014. The song gained considerable attention, after it was officially remixed featuring rappers Nicki Minaj and Pusha T. The single peaked at number 36 on the US Billboard Hot 100. On September 15, 2014, they released their second single, titled "No Type", which climbed to number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100. Both singles have been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The third single from the album, "Throw Sum Mo", which features guest vocals from American rappers Nicki Minaj and Young Thug, was released on December 9, 2014. The song peaked at number 30 on the Billboard Hot 100. "This Could Be Us" went on to serve as SremmLife's fourth single, and was released to US urban adult contemporary radio on April 21, 2015. On September 29, 2015, they released their fifth single from the album, titled "Come Get Her".

On June 16, 2016, Rae Sremmurd announced that their next album, SremmLife 2, would be released on August 12, 2016. The album includes their first Billboard number-one song "Black Beatles", which topped the chart in the issue dated November 26, 2016. It also gave Gucci Mane his first number one. Today, the two brothers seems to be working on their own solos albums. On August 12, 2016, Swae Lee announced his debut solo album, Swaecation. Slim Jxmmi announced he is actually working on his "Uncle Jxm" project. In 2016, Rae Sremmurd entered a feud with Ebro Darden over Complex's ranking of them of their year end list.

SremmLife Crew Records

SremmLife Crew Records is a record label founded by Rae Sremmurd in 2016. They signed Tupelo native rappers to the label. The label's first official release was the collective mixtape Trail Mix in March, 2016.

Releases

The following is the list of all albums released through SremmLife Crew Records.

Discography

Tours