The hip-hop world is in mourning after Floyd Sullivan, stepfather of Rae Sremmurd‘s Swae Lee and Slim Jxmmi, was reportedly murdered on January 6. Law enforcement sources told TMZ that the TK-year-old, who raised the twins, 28, since they were in middle school, was fatally shot at home in their hometown of Tupelo, Mississippi, and their 19-year-old half-brother, Michael Sullivan, is apparently the prime suspect. Michael was taken into police custody at the scene of the shooting, and is reportedly being held for psychiatric evaluation, according to TMZ’s sources; there are no other suspects in the shooting at this time. In the meantime, here’s all the facts you need to know about Rae Sremmurd:
1. Mike Will Made-It signed them to his label in 2013. They’d been in the game since they were young teens, but Rae Sremmurd finally broke through to audiences when they appeared on Mike Will’s mixtape, “#MikeWiLLBeenTriLL” on the track “We”. Fans went wild, and the track was later released as the duo’s single; they performed another track, “No Flex Zone”, with Mike at South by Southwest that same year. After so much success together, Mike signed them to his EarDrummers label. That’s where they got their name — Rae Sremmurd is “Drummers Ear” backward.
2. They’ve released three incredible albums as Rae Sremmurd. Known for their single “Black Beatles”, the guys released their debut album, StremmLife, dropped in 2015. StremmLife 2 dropped in 2016, and SR3MM came out in 2018.
3. Slim Jxmmi threatened to leave in 2019. Just hours after they performed with Nicki Minaj in Australia, Slim sent tweets that seemingly announced he was quitting Rae Sremmurd. Slim wrote, “I’m not Rae Sremmurd i’m slim jxmmi and ima sink or swim by myself,” and “Not SremmLife,” “Y’all won it’s a wrap. He ended by tweeting, “Y’all still got ya mans swae y’all a be skraight.” Slim later deleted the tweets, and everyone carried on as if nothing happened.
4. Slim Jxmmi participated in a street brawl that left one person stabbed and rushed to the hospital. The incident took place in New Zealand in January 2019, reportedly after someone was trying to film Slim’s crew. Video from the fight shows Slim and a group of people throwing hands in the streets, with one person wielding what appeared to be a broken bottle. Slim was in town with Swae to perform the very next night, and the show went on as planned.
5. They started their own record label in 2016. The guys started SremmLife Crew Records in 2016 and signed Mississippi rapper they worked with before becoming famous. Their signed artists include: themselves, Impxct, Riff 3x, and Bobo Swae.