Sremm 4 Life Album Review: An Overload of Cliché

 Music 

Sremm 4 Life Album Review: An Overload of Cliché 

By Dylan Barbee

Release Date: 4/7/2023 

It has been five years since Rae Sremmurd dropped their last project SR3MM which was a triple album where the two brothers from Tupelo, Mississippi embraced their stardom with songs like “Powerglide” and “Guatemala ''. Within these past few years, they have been very low-key and often only showing up for features. It has been a long and anticipated wait to see what the duo would release next but unfortunately their new album Scremm 4 Life is a disappointment and did not live up to expectations. 

 
Scremm 4 Life includes 14 songs that take up to 48 minutes. However, the listening experience felt even longer considering how boring and uninspired the choruses were on some songs. The features on this album come from Young Thug on “Royal Flush” and Future on “Activate” where both artists provided strong verses making them the two best songs on the album. 

 
 The duo’s performance on the intro track “Origami (Hotties)” was filled with chemistry and was reminiscent of their most successful tracks in the years 2015 and 2016. There were some tracks on the first half of this project that made me optimistic but the farther I listened the faster I wanted Scremm 4 Life to end.  

 
Many of the choruses performed throughout Scremm 4 Life are uncreative and at times awkward. For instance, Swae Lee literally spells out the word Mississippi in the chorus on “Mississippi Slide.” On the very next song “Not So Bad (Leans Gone Cold)” Swae Lee performs an uncomfortable sample of a Dido chorus from her 1999 song “Thank You” but replaces the word tea with lean. All of this is sung over a UK drill trap type beat which honestly makes the song even more cliché. 

 

There are also songs on Scremm Life 4 that had potential but ended up being ruined because of how long they were. The song “ADHD (Too Many Emotions)” has a rage rap production style that Swae Lee performs surprisingly well on. This impressive performance is overshadowed by Slim Jxmmi’s raspy voice that just does not fit well at all with the production style. Also, the song is almost 4 minutes long which is just absurd for a rage rap song.  

 
However, Slim Jxmmy’s overall performance was not this bad throughout and at times I would say Slim Jxmmy had better verses and lyrics than Swae Lee on this album. On “Flaunt It/Cheap” Slim Jxmmy holds his ground on a bizarre and upbeat production style that sounds retro but futuristic at the same time. “Married to the game said my “I do’s” / Gotta window seat like Erykah Badu '' Slim Jxmmy raps.  

 
If anything, the best part of this album is the way some of the production elevated the duo’s performances. I respect the versatility when it comes to the smooth use of strings and echoing voice samples in the background on “Something I’m not” and the high-powered use of bass and trap drums that inevitably make one nod their head on the song “Origami (Hotties).”  

 

I feel like the main issue on Scremm 4 Life is that both brothers focused too much on making a catchy chorus on the majority of the songs. Although some of the songs on this album are catchy due to their effective choruses, I would not expect myself to revisit most of them. I do expect to hear these songs against my will on Tik Tok and other social media platforms in the next coming weeks. At the end of the day, Scremm 4 Life is an album where the desperation for streams and trending on tik tok for 15 seconds takes away from the quality of verses and overall passion for music. 

 

Rating: 2/10