Rae Sremmurd

With their tongue-twisting moniker and gift for raucous party anthems like "Throw Sum Mo" and the No. 1 track "Black Beatles," the hip-hop duo Rae Sremmurd established themselves as an audience favorite with two back-to-back albums in 2015 and 2016. California-born siblings Khalif and Aaquil Brown began performing on the houseparty circuit in their adopted home town of Tupelo, Mississippi; billed as Dem Outta St8 Boyz and performing under the monikers of Kid Krunk and Caliboy, respectively, with a third member, Lil Pants, they eventually worked their way up to a competition on BET's "106 and Park" (2000-2014) program. The trio earned second place in the contest, which granted them meetings with Def Jam Recordings and Sony Music, but they came away from the experience without signing to any labels. After parting ways with Lil Pants, the siblings earned widespread attention for their work on "We," a track from producer Mike WILL Made It's mixtape Mike Will Been Trill (2013). Will subsequently signed the pair to his EarDrummers Entertainment group, which prompted them to change their name to Rae Sremmurd, or Ear Drummers spelled backwards, while the Brown brothers adopted the stage names Swae Lee (Khalif) and Swift Jxmmi (Aaquil). "We" was then re-released in 2014 as the first single under their new name, and was soon followed by a slew of exuberant party anthems, including "No Flex Zone" and "Throw Sum Mo," which featured Nicki Minaj and Young Thug. Both peaked in the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot Rap Tracks chart, while "No Flex Zone" and another single, "No Type," earned platinum sales status. Interscope released the first Rae Sremmurd album, SremmLife, in 2015, which debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard 200. The pair immediately set to work on its follow-up, issuing the single "By Chance" in early 2016. Though produced by Mike WILL Made It, the track and a subsequent second single, "Look Alive," underperformed on the charts, reaching below the Hot 100 and No. 72, respectively. But a third single, "Black Beatles," featuring Gucci Mane, shot to No. 1 on the Hot 100, providing the group with their first chart-topping single. The success of the track helped boost SremmLife 2 (2016) to No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 200 albums chart and to No. 3 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.