Aaquil Brown and his younger brother Khalif Brown were born in California. The boys started writing music when they were still in school. The family moved from state to state.
In 2009, in Tupelo, Mississippi, the brothers met Jemiah Middlebrooks. Together they formed a group called Dem Outta St8 Boyz. Their first tracks were uploaded to social networks.
At the beginning of 2010, the band released a single "Party Animal", which brought it local recognition and allowed the members to participate in the music festivals. The band went to audition for the shows "106 & Park" and "Wild Out Wednesday". On December 8, they appeared on Wild Out Wednesday show in New York, performing "Party Animal".
In 2011, Jemiah left the band and the members replaced him with Andre "King Dre" Harris. In August, the trio appeared on "106 & Park" with their new song "My Diddy". The band came in second. At about the same time, the artists met the producer Pierre "P-Nazty" Slaughter and began to collaborate with him. They spent the next several months at a Georgia studio with P-Nazty and other producers from EarDrummers production team. The band wasn’t making any money and was about to fall apart. It was easy to book Rae Sremmurd (back then still Dem Outta St8 Boyz) for any event.
In 2012, the band released their second project Three Stooges Mixtape. Shortly King Dre left the group. The brothers decided to change the name to Rae Sremmurd, which was a palindrome to the name of the production team (EarDrummers). Besides, the brothers came up with new pseudonyms: "Slim Jxmmi" for Aaquil and "Swae Lee" for Khalif.
