Rae Sremmurd – “Guatemala”
We still don’t know when Mississippi rap duo Rae Sremmurd will release their new album Sr3mmlife. We do, however, know that it will be an almost absurdly ambitious affair. Sr3mmlife is set to be a triple-album — one solo album from group member Swae Lee, another from his brother Slim Jxmmi, and a third from both of them, back together. And while this seems like a terrible idea, they’ve already released a whole pile of singles, and all of them have been, at the very least, pretty good.
While Slim Jxmmi is arguably the stronger rapper of the two Rae Sremmurd kids, Swae Lee has always been the real potential pop-star breakout. And for the past year or so, he’s been moving in that direction by singing more than rapping. “Guatemala,” the new single that Rae Sremmurd have shared this morning, will presumably be from Swae Lee’s portion of the album. It’s got a quick rap cameo from Jxmmi, but it’s almost entirely a Swae solo track. And like the previous Swae solo track “Hurt To Look,” it’s a singing-not-rapping affair.
“Guatemala” is a slick, streamlined, extremely-right-now song. Swae had drawn from the mutant Nigerian strain of pop music known as Afrobeats before; it’s what powered “Unforgettable,” his hit French Montana collab from last year. And on “Guatemala,” he goes all in on that sound, and it works for him. Listen below.
Sr3mmlife could really show up at any moment, couldn’t it?