![]() ![]() The album features a good number of producers backing the promising young duo’s debut full-length, and as we can see from the album’s cover it seems as though Khalif and Aaquil Brown are the two focal points here. This brings up an important point that should be made about Sremmlife: at least superficially, this is a Rae Sremmurd album. The then-unknown X-factor of Rae Sremmurd (at the time of release, their output consisted entirely of the song “We,” buried in the middle of Mike-WiLL’s 2013 mixtape #MikeWiLLBeenTriLL) gave the song a great deal of life, fleshing out Williams’ gaudy synths in a way that even Miley couldn’t achieve. The syrup-drenched, sluggish snares and xylophone lines couple wonderfully with the overpowering sub-bass and heavily Auto-Tuned hook, pinned down by the live-wire flow of Swae Lee and Slim Jxmmi. However, it’s clear from the album’s lead single “No Flex Zone,” Mike WiLL Made-it hasn’t lost his stride in the slightest – obviously, months of meager output doesn’t necessarily mean that a producer isn’t still creating, creating, creating. Mustard was everywhere in hip-hop this year (the kinda-despicable “Main Chick" by Kid Ink featuring the ever-abhorrent Chris Brown, sadly, but also the sexy-as-hell “Don’t Tell ‘Em” by Jeremih and “2 On” by Tinashe, among others), and where he wasn’t, legions of rip-offs followed (many of which displayed the unfortunate tendency to chart higher than anything he produced – “Fancy,” anyone?).Īs such, Williams’ return almost comes as a surprise, the producer so far out of sight and mind so soon that we almost forgot he ever existed at all. In that year-long lapse in output, of course, the Mike WiLL Made-it name on listeners’ lips was replaced by DJ Mustard and his frigidly minimalist hooks. ![]() Despite basically owning 2013 (and arguably 2012 as well), making an especially large splash by providing the hip-hop underpinnings of ex-Disney starlet Miley Cyrus’ pop-charts-smashing Bangerz, the young producer (Michael Williams, age 25) spent most of 2014 outside of the spotlight, quietly assembling an army of other young producers (EarDrummers Entertainment) before making a play for re-recognition via his protégés Rae Sremmurd. It probably says something about the transience of current pop culture and whatnot that Sremmlife can be touted as Mike WiLL Made-it’s return to hip-hop’s pantheon. Review Summary: Mike WiLL Made-it’s triumphant return. ![]()
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