Rae Sremmurd SLAMS Braggadocious Rap

Rae Sremmurd has had no shortage of play since they dropped their second album, SremmLife2. The fraternal duo, Swae Lee and Slim Jxmmi, grew up in Tupelo, Mississippi and are now based in Atlanta. They’ve been inching up Billboard charts with feel good beats and party rhymes like “Look Alive” and “Black Beatles.”

While The Game and Meek Mill shout at each other via Instagram, Rae Sremmurd has adopted a more positive philosophy. But will this optimism survive in a scene mired in beefs and social media gangsters?

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The Start

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Swae got his first international breakout with a writing credit on Beyoncé’s “Formation,” her highest-debuting single of the year.

But coming up, things weren’t as easy for the brothers Swae Lee and Slim Jxmmi. Their mother was in the army, so they moved around a lot before settling in Tupelo, Mississippi. Jxmmi says that Swae was “cool with everybody,” but he was more introverted. When they were forbidden from pursuing music, they left home and took up in an abandoned house without heat with the hope of pursuing their dream.

Breakout

The brothers started traveling to other cities to perform. They were discovered at a show in Memphis, where they were invited to compete on BET’s Wild Out Wednesday. W.O.W. hooked them up with a label meeting with Mike WiLL Made-It, who signed them to their own imprint, Ear Drummers.

However, their ascent was not without squabble. In 2015, Hot 97’s Ebro of the Morning attacked Sremmurd’s first album saying, “They didn’t write that sh*t. Any of it” to the Complex editorial team. Ebro called the album “fabricated” by Mike WiLL and likened the brothers to Kris Kross.

What you say is what you bring onto you in your life.

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August 3, 2016, Rae Sremmurd stopped by Hot 97 to talk with Pete Rosenberg, who quickly brought up Ebro’s rabble-rousing. The brothers dismissed Ebro’s accusations and clarifying that they do write their lyrics, but chose not to clap back at Ebro.

In speaking to Billboard, Jxmmi explained, “It even says in the Bible [that] what you say is what you bring onto you in your life. We’re talking about positive stuff or things we want. Not, ‘Oh, I’m the hardest out, bang bang… Nobody expecting guns—they just expect to have a good time and see girls shaking their butts.”