walking upstream…
Rae Sremmurd
photo: the come up show · cc by 2.0 ↗Rae Sremmurd
sourcesWikipedia · Daily Journal (Tupelo)
Brothers Khalif "Swae Lee" Brown and Aaquil "Slim Jxmmi" Brown grew up in the Ida Street housing projects of Tupelo, Mississippi, making beats and rapping together as teenagers before Atlanta producer Mike WiLL Made-It signed them to his EarDrummers label in 2013. Their debut singles "No Flex Zone" and "No Type" turned party-rap ad-libs and singsong hooks into a signature, and 2016's "Black Beatles" (fueled by the Mannequin Challenge) made them one of the decade's defining crossover rap acts. Across SremmLife, SremmLife 2, SR3MM, and 2023's Sremm 4 Life, the duo split rapping and hook duty between Jxmmi's blunt bark and Swae's melodic, genre-blurring runs.
the sound in question
2016
Black BeatlesRae Sremmurd
walk the tributaries ↓
David Banner2000s · Southern hip-hop
Before Rae Sremmurd, there was David Banner: the only Mississippi rapper to break nationally, and by the brothers' own account an in-state role model who proved a Southern rap career could start from Mississippi rather than Atlanta or Houston. They made the debt literal on Sremm 4 Life's "Mississippi Slide," shouting out Banner directly on the hook as they carry his regional torch forward.
listen: upstream & heresource: Rolling Stone ↗
2003
Like a PimpDavid Banner
2023
Mississippi SlideRae Sremmurd
listen for"Pull off, David Banner" — the direct name-check on "Mississippi Slide" — riding over the same thick, bass-heavy Southern low end Banner rode on "Like a Pimp," a sound built for rattling trunks rather than radio polish.
Soulja Boy2000s · Hip hop / Snap music
Wikipedia's account of the group's formation describes them as "visibly inspired by Soulja Boy Tell'Em," and it shows: Soulja Boy proved a self-made, internet-viral rap single could be built entirely around a chant-along hook, ad-libs, and a dance rather than dense verses — exactly the formula Rae Sremmurd rode to their first hits.
listen: upstream & heresource: Vice ↗
2007
Crank That (Soulja Boy)Soulja Boy
2014
No Flex ZoneRae Sremmurd
listen forThe way "No Flex Zone" is basically one shouted, endlessly repeatable phrase stretched over a beat, with hype-man ad-libs doing as much work as any bar — the same viral, dance-ready architecture as "Crank That," just swapped from snap music to trap.
Lil Wayne2000s · Hip hop / Southern hip-hop / Trap
Profiles of the brothers' pre-Rae Sremmurd years (recording as Dem Outta St8 Boyz) name Lil Wayne among the small handful of rappers they idolized growing up. Wayne's late-2000s run — where a rapper could half-sing an Auto-Tuned hook and treat cocky, off-the-cuff charisma as the whole point — gave a young Swae Lee a template for carrying a song on melody and swagger rather than technical bars.
listen: upstream & heresource: Vice ↗
2008
LollipopLil Wayne
2014
No TypeRae Sremmurd
listen forSet "Lollipop" against "No Type": both ride a hook that's more chanted melody than rapped verse, pitched-up and unbothered, with the vocal treated as texture over a slow, syrupy low end.