Rae Sremmurd came out “swanging” in 2015 with their debut album “SremmLife,” including club hits “No Type” and “Come Get Her,” which brings back horrific memories of high school dances.
Brothers Slim Jxmmi and Swae Lee make up the Mississippi duo, balancing melodic trap rap with southern inspirations like Outkast and Lil Wayne.
Their fourth studio album “Sremm 4 Life” released Friday and is the latest installment in the Sremm series.
I had low expectations going into the album being that I never associated myself with the party demographic, but was pleasantly surprised by the diverse production choice.
The first three tracks off the record caused me to almost skip the album entirely out of boredom.
The tracks included repetitive hooks from Swae Lee and lousy bars from Slim Jxmmi over generic trap production that featured punchy 808s, predictable rhymes, and syncopated rim shots sprinkled throughout each track.
It wasn’t until the fourth track, “Not So Bad (Lean Gone Cold)” that I physically sat up from my chair.
On the track, Swae Lee sings “My lean's gone cold, I'm wonderin' why I got out of bed at all/ Three-point-five clouds up my window, and I can't see at all/ And even if I could, it would all be gray But these racks stack up too tall (yeah)/ It reminds me (Reminds me), that it's not so bad, it's not so bad at all.”
Any fan of the genre will instantly recognize Dido’s “Thank You,” sample, which was popularized by Eminem on his song “Stan.”
As if Swae Lee’s rendition of the nostalgic hook isn’t enough, the song features a drill beat – a sound that dates back to Chicago in the early 2010’s and has become a staple sound in mainstream music today.
The song “Activate,” featuring Future, is my preferred cookie-cutter luxury trap song because the duo’s delivery feels playful on top of being arrogant.
Amidst a boastful verse, Swae Lee raps “One strike, two strike, three strikes, you're out/ Pin stripes, Louis V, standin' on the dugout/ Turnpike, dirt bike, swerve left, swerve right/ Activate, activate, kamikaze bombs-flier,” and I couldn’t help but rock my shoulders to his melodic flow.
The next two tracks titled “Flaunt it/Cheap” and “Sexy” feature old school hip-hop production reminiscent of 90’s gangster rap including orchestral hits, DJ scratches and synths that transports the listener into a convertible driving along the west coast.
On the latter track, Slim Jxmmi has crass flows similar to Eazy-E, making the track more appealing because it sounds like something I’ve heard before.
The eleventh track, “Something I’m Not,” has my favorite bars of Slim Jxmmi on the entire project.
He raps, “I grew from the mud, like a plant in a pot/ I pop like a Jack in the box, my stock went straight to the top/ Got big rocks that make the temperature drop, yellin' R.I.P. my pops/ Wishin' I could press ‘Rewind’ and get lil' Michael out that box/ And it's fuckin' with my mind, but the grind don't ever stop.”
All I’ve ever heard Slim Jxmmi rap about was women and money, so it’s refreshing to hear him reflect on his come up and rap about something relatable.
The final track “ADHD Anthem (2 Many Emotions)” shocked the hell out of me because of its rage rap production. On the track, Swae Lee sings about his frustration with copycats and losing a loved one before tagging in Slim Jxmmi, whose verse details his use of drugs and liquor to escape his emotions.
Overall, the album delivers what a fan of trap rap would expect, as well as diverse production featuring hip-hop, drill, rage and house that can all be played at any function.
