Slim Jxmmi on Competition With Swae Lee: 'At the End of the Day, We're Getting a Bag'

We still don't have a release date for 'Sremm Life 3,' though.

Rae Sremmurd performing.
Getty

Image via Getty/Tim Mosenfelder

Rae Sremmurd performing.

Though we might not have a release date just yet for rap duo Rae Sremmurd’s highly anticipated three-disc album, SremmLife 3, it’s definitely on the way. The two brothers recently opened their Los Angeles suburban home for Billboard, where they revealed more enticing tidbits about their new album, as well as their life as young stars.

SremmLife 3 will be a triple disc: there’s a Rae Sremmurd side and then each brother has a solo project, titled Swaecation and Jxmtroduction, respectively. Just yesterday, Swae Lee dropped a new track featuring his brother Slim Jxmmi titled “Guatemala,” but that’s the first sound we’ve heard off his solo album. He also know he might have a song named after his ex-girlfriend on the album.

In addition to all that, we now know a little bit more about the project. On Jxmmi’s album, he trades "surprisingly fierce bars with Zoë Kravitz on 'Over Wit,'" according to Billboard. Although the actress might seem like an odd feature, Jxmmi knew how to coach her. “She can act, so I would tell her, ‘You got to be tough,’ and she’d do it,” he said. “She was a natural.”

On Swae’s album, there’s a track with Young Thug titled “Off Shore,” where “Young Thug flexes his improvisatory genius over pillowy synths and a disorienting beat” while “Swae plays his ghostly shadow,” Billboard reports.

Other artists featured on SremmLife 3 include Pharrell Williams, The Weeknd, and Travis Scott.

Although this album will feature both Swae and Jxmmi’s solo projects, Swae has arguably made a bigger name for himself so far. He’s already been nominated for a Grammy for co-writing Beyoncé’s “Formation,” sung the catchy hook on French Montana’s “Unforgettable,” and appears on the Kendrick Lamar-produced No. 1 Black Panther album. Jxmmi is aware of this: “It’s not that I’m shy, but in certain situations I’m introverted,” he says. “To do a solo project for me is like...people don’t really know me.”

It would be natural, then, to wonder if there is any competition between the two brothers, but Jxmmi insists that is not the case.

“If people see me out and I have a stank face on, they think I’m mad because of that, but I’m mad at them because they want me to be mad. I’m always singing ‘Unforgettable’ when it come on in the club, but people look at me like, ‘Is it OK if I dance to this?’” he says.

“It’s no competition. We’re brothers. At the end of the day, we’re getting a bag.”

Even if the hype continues to build around the release of the album, the two brothers don’t seem too pressed. They’re continually described as polite and nice, despite their lifestyle.

“When I meet new artists that are super popular, they often have an arrogance about them,” said Jhené Aiko, who worked with the duo on “Sativa.” “Swae and Jxmmi don’t have that. They’re humble, they’re fun, they’re genuine and happy. They remind me of two kittens.”

The duo’s odd name, Rae Sremmurd, famously comes from Mike WiLL Made It’s production team, Ear Drummers, just reversed. They are even polite with the producer who first signed them.

“Everything I was saying they were like, ‘Yes, sir,’ or ‘No, sir.’ I was like, ‘Bro, quit calling me fucking sir,’” Mike WiLL said. “I appreciate the respect but we eye-to-eye. Y’all about to be the biggest thing in the culture.”

The brothers were kicked out of their mother’s house as teenagers, and as a result moved into an abandoned house in Tupelo, Mississippi where they would make music and promote it by throwing wild parties. Even then, the two only touched drugs or alcohol when they were 18. During this time they also kept up with their education: Jxmmi went to community college while Swae went to high school. What’s more, the two still plan on going to college someday.

“Oh, I had to get that certification,” Swae said. “I couldn't let all those years of my life be for nothing. And I wanted to get that knowledge anyway, picking up all them skills and just having the experience of going through school. Plus, you don’t know if you’re going to blow up, so you want to be prepared for every situation. I was just making sure I had all my shit right.”

Latest in Music