Taken from this week’s Future Pop mailer. Click here to subscribe.
I thought Rae Sremmurd was a girl’s name at first (perhaps Dutch), but it’s actually Ear Drummers in reverse. Rae Sremmurd are two young rapping brothers, Slim Jimmy and Swae Lee, who started out in an adorable pop-rap trio Dem Outta St8 Boyz when they were 13 and 14. They’re now adults (though they still sound and look like kids) and their music has got cooler and weirder, but they still have a fun, lively energy. Their latest two singles No Flex Zone and No Type, produced by Mike WiLL Made It (with whom they are part of the EarDrummers collective), have been huge on YouTube and No Flex Zone cracked the Billboard top 40. In case you're wondering, a no flex zone is a place where boasting and posturing is not allowed (so it's not where most rappers hang out!). I’m not sure how easily their success will translate to the UK, but this Noisey feature made me curious to see what they will do in the future.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2cQSPRTdhg]