Rae Sremmurd is a popular American hip hop duo. The two artists who are a part of the duo are also two brothers whose stage names are Slim Jimmy and Swae Lee.
They are unseparable from their early age and did everything together, especially rapping and making beats.
Early life:
Just a little more popular brother would be Slim Jimmy who was born in Inglewood under the name Aaquil Ibinshaman Brown on December 29, 1991. His younger brother known as Swae Lee was born on June 7, 1993 in the same city and today he is getting a lot of attention as a great songwriter.
At a very early age they relocated with their family to Tupelo in the state of Mississippi. They have spent their whole childhood there.
The part of Tupelo were they moved to was not a really nice play to raise children: gangs fought over teritories, crime was on the rise…but the brothers were not involved in it as much as they could.
The brothers kept for themselves, trying not to get into trouble but also hanged out with a lot of gang members. They had friends who were arrested and in juvenile homes but they themselves kept out of trouble.
It didn’t take long before their parents got separated after months of arguing and allegations. This was a shock to the brothers, mainly because they were scared that they gonna split them up. Nowadays it is clear to see that you can’t separate them because they always seem to find a way to get back together.
Brothers found comfort in music and even moved from their mother Bernadette finding a shelter in one abandoned home, because she wasn’t there for them.
Their mother Bernadette was in the military and that caused all the moving and constantly settling in new homes. They had to develop a sense for living on their own and they were a huge support to eachother in the hard times.
At last, they finally settled down in Fort Hood in Texas as the last resort.
Brothers were very connected since they were kids but as the time passed by they became unseparable. They started rapping together when they were in elementary school, making each others rhyme better.
When they started middle school their mother left her job in the military and settled down with a new partner, their stepfather Floyd.
They don’t really talk about him a lot and the media thinks that they never developed a strong relafionship with him because they were used to live on their own.
Career development:
Their group was originally named “Dem Outta St8 Boys” and they were performing by that name for the first few years. Today that name is only a reminder on their humble beginnings.
They were trying to make a buck so they started performing at parties and in clubs. After a while they decided to invite one more member to their group and started uploading their videos on YouTube. It was a great way to make a fan base and a great way to provide money for their needs. They performed at clubs, birthday parties; basically everywhere they were called to.
Soon they started to realize that the city they lived in couldn’t give them opportunities as some bigger city.
That’s why they relocated to Atlanta where they were hoping to get the chance to show their talent. They wanted to get recognized by a record house so they started to perform more often.
Atlanta is a city known for hip hop artists and many pioneers of hip hop genres came from this city and many rappers got their chances to became famous in that city.
In 2013 they were on the edge of signing a record deal but they hadn’t hoped in a million years that it would be as good as they signed. This deal ended up making them famous and they began having a large audience.
They signed their first contract with Mike Will – Made It, an owner of a record label named “Drummers Ear”. The three of them found themselves in the same creation zone so it was easy for them to work together, collaborate and produce hits. The brothers were never forced to change their way of rapping or to go mainstream for better selling of records.
Afterwards the brothers changed their group name into “Rae Sremmurd” which is in fact only a phrase “Drummers Ear” but spelled backwards. They became popular through the social media and iTunes. It was a quick way to get closer to the public.
They released their first single “We” in 2013 but it wasn’t really noticed by the rapping scene. The brothers weren’t discouraged and they continued to make music.
It was the spring of 2014 which brought them recognition: their single “No Flex Zone” became a hit.
“No Flex Zone” became their No.1 single which got streamed a lot on Spotify and also on iTunes. It became popular through Vines too and that’s why so many people know the song nowadays. Back then, Vine was a very good platform to come closer to a large audience.
Their first album “Sremm Life” was released in 2015 and became one of the most sold albums of the year. It reached Platinum in United States. The brothers were very happy of the fact that their fanbase was now huge!
Nicki Minaj liked their sound very much so she made a song with them and placed it on her website. That made them known to a wider population. She showed them all the glitter of the world of stars but pointed out that they have to stay unique if they want to succeed.
“No Flex Zone” was remixed by Nicki Minaj and Pusha T . The brothers gained a free advertisement by this and became much better known.
In 2016 they continued their work with a new, sophomore album called “Sremm Life 2″. They also decided to turn to new business oportunities by founding their own record label: ” Sremm Life Crew Records”. They wanted to give kids like they were a chance to become recognized.
Swae Lee released his solo album called “Swaecation” the same year. He says that he will never grow apart from his brother even though they will sometimes maybe make solo work.
Personal life:
Swae Lee and Slim Jimmy both live in California and both are currently dating. They post some of their private photos on their social media, but not that much.
Swae Lee is a great fan of tattoos and his body is covered in many of them.
He is also known by his great songwriting so he sometimes even make some lyrics for other artists. He was nominated for a songwriter of the year at many events, but he never won an actual award.
Slim Jimmy has a bad reputation amongst girls because he has a cowardly way of ending his relationships with girls: over SMS. He was made fun of various times because of this and became a meme in the meantime too.
Quick summary
Full name: Khalif Malik Ibn Shaman Brown / Aaquil Ibinshaman Brown
Date of birth: June 7, 1993 / December 29, 1991
Birthplace: Inglewood, California
Age: 24 / 26
Profession: rappers
Height: 1,73m / 1,75 m
Weight: 65 kgs / 65 kgs
Net Worth: $4 million
