If you’ve heard of the viral Mannequin Challenge, you’ve likely heard Rae Sremmurd and Gucci Mane on Black Beatles. It’s the track that all the best mannequin videos have in the background, and it’s a pretty big hit. So much of a hit that it has entered the Billboard Hot 100 Top 10. Sitting at number 9, it’s Gucci Mane’s highest appearance on the charts.

If you are unaware of what the mannequin challenge actually is (or you’re just sick of these damn kids and their internet memes), here’s the rundown. Basically, it’s a “challenge” where a group of people all pose in completely still, looking as if time has frozen. The camera person pans around and shows everyone who’s frozen, and it looks really cool. If done well, it should looks like a scene from The Matrix, albeit with less leather.

https://twitter.com/98diggs/status/794303810952986624?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Rae Sremmurd and Gucci Mane have both gotten in on the trend as well, tweeting a video of them doing the challenge on tour.

The track is an absolute banger, and it’s a great high for Gucci Mane. Prior to Black Beatles, Gucci’s top chart appearance was No Type, which peaked at 16. Rae Srummurd’s track has also claimed the number 5 spot in the Billboard streaming tracks chart, and with the attachment of the meme, it shows no signs of slowing soon.

Image: ShakeAMix

Mississippi-born rap duo Rae Sremmurd have announced the details for their forthcoming sophomore album SremmLife 2. Revealing the albums cover and track listing, the brother’s Slim Jxmmi and Swae Lee have also dropped second single Look Alive.

The follow-up to Complex’s number three album of 2015, SremmLife 2 is set to be released June 24 and features 14 tracks, including previously released first single By Chance.

Apart from the brother’s crew (Bobo Swae, Imxcd and Riff 3x), the guest list is small on SremmLife 2, with only Lil Jon, Juicy J and Kodak Black making appearances.

As a fan of their debut, I’m hoping this is nothing like their Trail Mix mixtape from last month. That collection of tracks was a misogynist mess that left me with a bitter taste in my mouth and feeling rather disappointed in the duo. While SremmLife 2’s second single, the Mike WiLL Made-It produced Look Alive is a welcome return to the duo’s booming trap sounds, I’m still cautious about what to expect. Fingers crossed.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk_2Eo0No_k]

The complete tracklist for SremmLife 2 is as follows:

1. “Start a Party”
2. “Real Chill” (Ft. Kodak Black)
3. “By Chance”
4. “Look Alive”
5. “Set The Roof” (Ft. Lil Jon)
6. “Shake It Fast” (Ft. Juicy J)
7. “Take It Or Leave It”
8. “Came A Long Way”
9. “Now That I Know”
10. “Patti Cake”
11. “Just Like Us”
12. “Over Here” (Ft. Bobo Swae)
13. “Swang”
14. “662” (Ft. Imxcd and Riff 3x)

RS

Image: Rolling Stone

It’s video roundup time! Once again, Howl And Echoes are coming in hot with the freshest, most eyeball-stimulating music videos to be dropped by the artists you love and some of the artists you don’t know you love yet this week. We do all the dirty work and herd them all into one convenient web-based location for you to enjoy every Friday so that you don’t have to. Have yourself a good old gander at the latest offerings from:

Hedge Fund – Summer’s Getting Shorter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5-I4gFdNB4&feature=youtu.be

Starting off with Sydney’s Hedge Fund this week and the video for their latest single Summer’s Getting Shorter. Featuring an absolutely stomping bass line amidst a swirling dream pop soundscape, the track has been met with instant acclaim since its release.

The video features frontman William Colvin giving a carpark everything he’s got, cutting shapes all over it with joyous abandon. Seriously, nobody has had more fun than he has dancing around on this rooftop at sunrise, watch and see for yourself.

Catch Hedge Fund on their Summer’s Getting Shorter tour around the country, they’ll be playing their own headline shows as well as supporting British India.

Pacific Heights – Buried By The Burden (ft. Louis Baker)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBUdCBxrhZo

This next one is a trip. Pacific Heights is the solo project from Shapeshifter member Devin Abrams. Soulful and ambient, his latest single Buried By The Burden is utterly heartrending, gorgeously minimalistic production surrounding his goosebump-inducing voice, the noise pressing in on you and building to a cacophony.

The film clip is 10/10 for creativity and ingenuity too, made using 3D laser printing and an XBox Kinect, it looks like the trailer for a survival horror video game. The stark monochrome melds perfectly with the sound to create a truly compelling experience.

Look out for Pacific Heights’ debut album The Stillness coming later this year.

Marcus Whale – My Captain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULdUCS3pRdE

This next one from Sydney artist Marcus Whale (who you may know as half of Collarbones) delves back into a dark part of history. My Captain is his latest single, a jarring, violent and almost industrial track with an unforgiving wall of sound behind it.

The track and its accompanying video tell the story of James Nesbitt and Captain Moonlite, purported to be lovers in 19th century Victoria until Nesbitt’s death at the hands of the police. The story goes that Captain Moonlite cradled Nesbitt’s body, heartbroken. The video moves this scene to the roiling ocean waves and it’s even more powerful for it.

My Captain is from Marcus Whale’s Inland Sea, out now on Good Manners Records.

Defron – Montblanc (ft. Niamh)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyahQZfzTZ4&feature=youtu.be

Next up is Melbourne MC Defron and his sophomore single Montblanc. If you weren’t sure from the title, it’s a track with a running theme of pens and how to steal them (and also the bittersweet fading of a friendship). At six minutes long it’s a sprawling journey of a track but Defron’s precision delivery ensures there’s no lull here.

The video is a gritty snapshot of urban Melbourne, Defron rhyming from a dimly lit apartment and the grimy sidewalk before the conclusion of the song splices in animated lashings of colour.

Montblanc is from Defron’s debut EP Invalid, out now.

Kiiara – Gold

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO9cBXRcBvo

If you like your pop to be both clever and catchy then the latest single from songstress Kiiara is right up your alley. Gold is a nifty three and a half minute slice of smoky goodness, Kiiara crooning over the top of some perfectly layered off-kilter noise evoking dripping taps.

The video, directed by Kiiara herself because some people have all the talent, matches the high end production of the song itself, the singer assuming her throne in the middle of what looks like a fun and terrifying house party.

Gold is from the EP Low Kii Savage, out now via Atlantic.

Sahara Beck – Here It Comes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDEz8ScVdYU

Having just won big at the Queensland Music Awards, currently playing this year’s Bluesfest and with a forthcoming album in Panacea on the way, Sahara Beck is very much on the up in 2016. Her latest single in the lead-up to her album is Here It Comes, a positively stomping number full of twangy guitars and big percussion, Beck’s vocals are effortlessly cool over the top of it all. And that crescendo, by God it is mammoth.

The sepia-tinged video sees Sahara Beck take the jam to a domestic setting, her band swapping out instruments for everyday household items. The whole thing rocks so hard.

Panacea is out April 22nd via Create/Control.

Nicholas Allbrook – Advance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_NEcdhrl_U

Advance is the newest single from Pond frontman and total legend Nick Allbrook, a taste of his upcoming album Pure Gardiya that we’re positively fiending for. Turning the David Bowie vibes right up, Advance crests and falls and howls and whispers, a song that seems made for a huge stageshow.

The accompanying video sees Allbrook covered in liberal lashings of gold and glitter, an all-white guitar in hand and blood smeared across his face, the whole thing is a production in itself.

Pure Gardiya is out May 27th via Spinning Top. Check out our latest interview with Nick in the meantime here!

Rae Sremmurd – Over Here

Rounding out the video roundup this week is Over Here, the newest single from hip-hop brothers Rae Sremmurd. You haven’t embedded the video, you say? That’s because this one is entirely interactive, something more than a few artists have been utilising in this day and age.

Head to https://overhere.tv/ on your mobile deviceand see for yourself. It’s definitely one of the better interactive videos we’ve ever gotten to play with.

See you next week! Happy Easter!

SremmLife Crew – Trail Mix

As is customary in hip-hop circles, when you make it big you bring your crew with you, and that’s exactly what brothers Khalif “Swae Lee” Brown and Aaquil “Slim Jxmmi” Brown have down. The duo, better known as Rae Sremmurd, blew up last year with their Southern style hit laden debut, SremmLife, and are looking to give their SremmLife Crew a chance to shine on mixtape Trail Mix.

Unfortunately, Trail Mix is a misogynistic mess that barely passes as an enjoyable listen. Are You Ready? kicks the tape off with a song about the Sremmurd brothers trying to get laid before it all goes down hill with Doggin. The first single released from the tape, the track features Rae Sremmurd and new signee Riff x3, rapping, “I’m back to tossing these bitches / I’m back to doggin these hoes,” over and over. The song is condemning the women using the lad’s for their money, but is followed by They Love Us, a song glorifying women (the word hoe is actually used 22 times) who want to party with them for being rich. I don’t get it either.

It doesn’t get much better from there. Lyrically, Rae Sremmurd run rings around Riff x3, Bobo Swae, Impxct and Jace, while the beats are standard trap fare, with Sonny Digital’s I Don’t Blame Ya the only production I really dug, although it was overshadowed by more terrible lyrics.

While misogyny is rampant throughout hip-hop (I’m a huge fan of the new Kanye even though there are some questionable lyrics), songs like Doggin are too much even for me. I don’t have the answers on how to fix misogyny in hip-hop and the wider music scene, but like the issue of cultural appropriation – a subject that finally came to light last year – there needs to be a strong and continued discourse by the wider music community about how we can stamp it out.

Verdict: Pass.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Do7M5nGC3Fc]

Gwen Stefani – This Is What The Truth Feels Like

A lot has happened in the 10 years since Gwen Stefani’s last solo album. The Hollaback Girl reunited with No Doubt for the so-so album Push And Shove, become a host on successful talent show The Voice, got divorced from Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale after 13 years of marriage, then announced she was dating country singer Blake Shelton a month later. That’s more than I’ve done in my entire life. Moving on…

Listening to the album, it’s easy to hear Stefani has been inspired by both her marriage break-down and new romance. While she’s claimed TIWTTFL is a break-up album, tracks like opener Misery, Make Me Love You and the tropical Rare are more like celebrations of her new life with new beau Shelton. Even the tracks that deal with the end of her relationship to Rossdale (Used To Love You, Naughty) are upbeat pop numbers that suit Stefani’s bubbly vocals. The majority of tracks have a modern, synth-pop feel, although Where Would I Be? has a bridge that’s a throw back to her Love. Angel. Music. Baby. sound.

For some reason Fetty Wap turns up on the finger clicking Asking 4 It, while the five bonus tracks on the deluxe edition are more filler than anything.

Verdict: There’s nothing new or exciting with TIWTTFL, but it feels good having Stefani back making music.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uljUDtv1Kw]

iLoveMakonnen – Drink More Water 6 

iLoveMakonnen hasn’t really hit the heights many expected after Drake got hold of his smash single Tuesday. Last year’s projects iLoveMakonnen 2, Drink Water 5 and Whip It Up, didn’t really crossover, with the man himself telling Fader he doesn’t think he’s “blown up.” DMW 6 isn’t likely to change that, but it does continue Makonnen’s fascinating evolution as an artist and his slow ascent to the top.

The 11 track tape (his first to be made available commercially) has no features with production handled by a number of low key beat makers. Lyrically, Makonnen’s still crooning about selling drugs (Sellin, Pushin’) and girls (I Only Trip With You, Back Again, Want You), although it must be said he’s refined his sing-rap delivery so it’s no where near as annoying as when he first burst onto the scene.

Verdict: This is another worthy release from Makonnen as fans await his debut album that’ll hopefully see him finally crossover.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLWmUd9-nqk]

With Rae Sremmurd releasing By Chance just after New Year’s, and announcing that sophmore album Sremmlife 2 would be coming soon, today Sremmurd’s Sremmlife Crew have announced their latest mixtape and released the first track.

Trailmix, featuring each member of the crew – Slim Jimmy, Swae Lee, Riff 3x, BoBo Swae, Impxct and D-Jay Sremm. Ahead of their Puma sponsored appearance at SXSW, we get the impression this mixtape is also sponsored by Puma – which I can think of as a first – with the logo in the bottom left hand corner of the album art. They’ve also released Doggin to tie in with the announcement. It’s a little over three and a half minutes of heavy bass and all sorts of talk about “tossin’ these bitches, [and] doggin’ these hoes” – and that’s all it is. Hopefully Doggin is the worst thing to come out of Trailmix and they’re just getting it out of the way, because this is legit garbage. Have a listen to it yourself and I’m sure you’ll agree. The beat is repetitive and annoying as shit, and the lyrics are absolutely awful all the way through.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/250865992″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=’166′ iframe=”true” /]

“If I can’t split you with none of my friends, then we ain’t got nothin’ to talk about.. we don’t fall in love with bitches, we just toss ‘em and then we kick ‘em out.”

It’s lazy, it’s horribly misogynistic, and I sincerely hope that this doesn’t get given any kind of platform if the whole tape is like this. Considering that Swae Lee was a co-writer on Beyoncé’s Formation, surely we can expect better than this. Would you show this to Beyoncé, Swae Lee? Would you?

Photo: theoriginalsociety.com

While Beyoncé is busy single handedly sending the Internet into meltdown following her Super Bowl performance, one of the rap minds behind her latest surprise single has been placed firmly in the cross hairs of outspoken radio personality Ebro Darden.

The face of legendary NY rap station Hot 97, and one of the three main presenters at the helm of Apple Music‘s Beats 1 radio alongside Julie Adenuga and Zane Lowe, Ebro has taken it upon himself to call out the role of Swae Lee‘s co-writing attribution for Beyonce’s Formation, engaging in some good old fashioned Twitter beef with fellow Rae Sremmurd member Slim Jimmy and iconic producer Mike Will Made It, who produced the Beyonce banger.

Starting out innocent enough, the Twitter banter quickly turned spiteful when Ebro declared that he would play the upcoming Sremmlife2 front to back on the radio, urging the young rappers to “get their bars up” as “swag rappin in 2016 is zzzzzz” – tweets he later deleted

 

This isn’t the first time that the charismatic radio persona has voiced his distaste for the Mississippi duo, failing to come to grips with the swag rap movement during multiple hot 97 interviews, and questioning the acclaim of their debut album Sremmlife, engaging in a heated argument with Complex over its decision to place the project at number three of its top 50
albums of 2015.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9oqIKpUpXI]

Surely it’s largely in part to a generation gap, but having been at the helm of an iconic rap station for so long, and developing himself as one of the few faces of Apple Music, it seems unwise to discredit the accomplishments of one of raps rising stars and influential personalities.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIcXg5IYuz8]

Image via HipHopWired

Following on from his game-changing mixtape Ransom back in 2014, super producer Mike WiLL Made-It has once again teamed up with breakout hip-hop duo Rae Sremmurd for a brand new track. Titled By Chance, the duo shared the clip on Twitter along with some mysterious clues about both parties’ next moves.

Although the cover art suggests that the song is taken from Mike WiLL’s next mixtape Ransom 2, the tweet from Rae Sremmurd also hints at an inclusion on their forthcoming album SremmLife 2. Not-so-creative names aside, By Chance features a huge and punishing, yet sluggish, beat that is not surprising given Mike WiLL’s penchant for hard trap styles. Swae Lee and Slim Jimmy actually sound more chilled than their usual boisterous verses, but are nevertheless at their best – something we’ve come to expect from the brothers.

Both releases (Ransom 2 and SremmLife 2) are becoming very highly anticipated indeed in the hip-hop community and beyond, with both acts having absolutely banner years last year. Mike WiLL continues to collect a “who’s who” list of collaborative partners, whilst the No Flex Zone rappers quickly became one of the year’s most favourite discoveries. No strangers to working with each other either, it just makes sense that this track is as good as it is. Let’s just hope they don’t keep up waiting too long for any more new stuff!

Hip-hop duo Rae Sremmurd have just announced SremmFest, their very own music festival. The brotherly duo of Slim Jxmmi and Swae Lee will be holding the festival next month, from December 18-20 in their hometown of Tupelo, Mississippi.

The event is set to encompass so much more than music. Sports, food, community charity drives and plenty more will be involved . The festivities will officially commence following a game of celebrity basketball, after which there’ll be a concert starring Dej Loaf, Yo Gotti, K Camp, Two-9, a DJ set from RS’s producer Mike WiLL Made It, and of course, Rae Sremmurd. Later in the weekend there will also be a community barbecue, a toy and food drive, and more. So as you can see, it’s an all inclusive community event, as opposed to a music festival per se. And that’s pretty damn cool.

“We’re trying to bring good vibes back to our hometown and to bring positivity through the music that’s brought us from Tupelo, Mississippi, to all across the world,” said Slim Jxmmi.

Rae Sremmurd are also set to receive the symbolic gesture of keys to the city by Jason Shelton, Tupelo mayor.

Tickets and more details are now available at the official SremmFest website.

sremmfest-flyer-updated-2015-billboard-embed

Though it was released around nine months ago, Rae Sremmurd’s debut album SremmLife today sees another video released, this time for the fifth single, Come Get Her. 

The clip itself sets the scene at the Cowboy Palace, where Cletus, the owner, is looking for some entertainment, and tries to book an artist by the name of Ray Shumar. Of course, it’s Rae Sremmurd that he gets, and the boys rock up to what seems to be a very conservative Cowboy styled diner. They start turning up, dancing with everyone’s daughters and making a ruckus – and at first it seems a little like all the old white guys are really uncomfortable for some racial reasons, but then they get down with it once it starts to heat up a bit more. It’s what you’d expect from a Rae Sremmurd film clip. There’s girls shaking their asses and riding mechanical bulls while they get tonnes of money thrown over them – real classic.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7anctpbSSo]

The video times out perfectly with the duo’s arrival in Australia for the Listen Out tour. It kicks off this weekend in Melbourne and Perth, and continues all around the country from there on out. They’re also doing two sideshows for those who love the SremmLife in Melbourne and Sydney – this Friday in Melbourne, and the Friday following in Sydney. You can get tickets for their sideshows at Live Nation here, and tickets for Listen Out are still available here.

During an interview with Shay Diddy of San Francisco’s KMEL radio, hip hop duo Rae Sremmurd have announced they will be dropping a new album in December.

The brothers dropped their debut album SremmLife earlier this year, which debuted at #5 on the Billboard Awards when it was released. It is also the album that has their hit tracks and reasons why they are so huge, No Flex Zone, No Type, This Could Be Us and the Nicki Minaj featuring Throw Sum Mo.

“New album coming in like December, and we got like a few collabs dropping,” Swae Lee and Slim Jimmy said in the interview, as well as clearing up that their recent track with Ty Dolla $ignand Futureare “just random songs we about to drop”. They also have a new collab track with Wiz Khalifa coming out, which also falls into this “random” category.

Rae Sremmurd will be in Australia in just a few months for the Listen Out festival, and are definitely one act you can’t miss. Known for their on stage antics, delivering performances that incite crazy mosh pits and also the fact that Slim Jimmy sliced open his leg during their Governor’s Ball set, their first Australian shows are set to be pretty damn exciting. Here’s hoping by the time that comes around, some of the material on this new album will be ready to be performed!