By Geoffrey Rowlands

Elvis Presley is the guy we’d most like to have on a remix of our songs,” said Khalif ‘Swae Lee’ Brown, one half of US hip hop duo Rae Sremmurd. “He’s the most famous person from our home town of Tupelo, Mississippi, so it would be great if we could add his voice to one of our tracks.”

Nicki Minaj, Pusha-T and Lil’ Kim are just some of the artists who appear on various remixes of their summer smash, No Flex Zone. This song established 19-year-old Khalif and his brother Aaquil, older by 18 months, on America’s national music scene. Prior to this, the boys had been a big fish in a small pond.

“We were pretty big among the people back in Tupelo,” Aaquil smiled. “We also performed in other states around the south but it’s not like our stuff was going viral online. We had confidence in our ability but we know how lucky we were to be heard by the right person.”

The person in question was not even in the music business. But his cousin was P-Nasty, one of the six in-house producers employed by EarDrummers Entertainment.

“P-Nasty came to see us,” continued Aaquil, also known as Slim Jimmy. “It was really crazy. We had regular jobs, the music was done in our spare time. Then P-Nasty tells us to quit our jobs, sign with EarDrummers and move to Atlanta because we were going to be doing our music real heavy.”

The boys could have been forgiven for disbelieving P-Nasty’s apparent enthusiasm. Under their original name of Dem Outta St8 Boyz, and with a third member, Lil’ Pantz, they landed a slot on Black Entertainment Television’s 106 and Park show. Executives from Sony and Def Jam expressed an interest in signing them but no recording contract ever materialised.

“We were only kids,” Khalif reflected. “It just wasn’t our time. The act wasn’t even set. We had two different third members, Lil’ Pantz and Dre Boy. We’re still friends with them but after being left on our own for the second time, we decided to just perform as a duo rather than try to recruit another third member.”

Changing to their current name, splitting Ear Drummers and spelling the words backwards, Khalif and Aaquil dutifully moved to the production company’s home city of Atlanta and began working in the recording studio. EarDrummers boss, Mike WiLL Made-It, took a personal interest in them and included their track, We, on his “MikeWiLLBeenTriLL” mixtape.

“That helped to get us noticed on a national scale,” Khalif remarked. “So too did our appearance at the South by Southwest Music Festival. There wasn’t much of an audience at our stage when we began performing but the place was jam packed by the time we finished.”

America was ready to hear Rae Sremmurd and responded positively to No Flex Zone. But their success with that track pales in comparison to the enormous hit they are currently enjoying with No Type.

“No Flex Zone was like a party song,” Aaquil explained. “No Type follows a similar pattern in that it’s still about having a good time. But the beat is slower and the lyrics are more serious. They deal with liking all types of girls from a physical sense but not those who are only interested in a guy for his money.”

Both songs are taken from their “SremmLife” EP.

“The EP is just a stepping stone to our debut album,” Khalif stated. “We’re looking to probably release it in January but no date is set at the moment. It will come out when everything feels right.”

 

IN BRIEFS

Usher

 

Usher’s new single, Clueless, is being given away via specially marked packages of ‘Honey Nut Cheerios’ breakfast cereal. Unlike U2’s marketing campaign for their latest album, “Songs of Innocence,” which simply appeared in the music library of all iTunes customers, Clueless will just be available to those who actually want the song.

Unfortunately, the track can only be downloaded so this excludes anyone who doesn’t have a digital music device. It also excludes those who have no access to the special packs of ‘Honey Nut Cheerios’ which are only being sold at Walmart supermarkets in America.

The song can at least be heard via any of several postings on YouTube. One of these is a lyric video at www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwFO11WwBM0

Clueless is apparently unlikely to feature among the songs on “UR,” Usher’s forthcoming eighth studio album. Originally intended to coincide with his US and European concert tour, which began on November 1, Usher now says the record has no scheduled release date.

 

Band Aid 30

 

Band Aid 30’s new recording of Do They Know It’s Christmas? was the biggest certainty to top the UK singles chart. Performed by a string of star names such as Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran, U2’s Bono, Ellie Goulding and One Direction, the latest version of the 1984 charity single features rewritten lyrics to reflect the current purpose of raising money to combat the Ebola crisis in Africa.

Again organised by Midge Ure and Sir Bob Geldof, still mourning the death of his daughter Peaches, the artists assembled to record the song in London’s Sarm West Studios, the same location where the original track was created 30 years ago. The new version was mixed and made available to download just 36 hours after the recording. A physical release will follow on December 8.

The song video can be seen at www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1jeiC-JEsI

UK government taxes and iTunes download cuts have been waived so all proceeds will be donated to the battle against Ebola.

 

Bono

 

Bono may not have been around to feature on the Band Aid 30 track. A few days earlier, while flying to Berlin, a hatch door fell off his private Learjet. This could easily have resulted in a crash. As it was, Bono and his companions lost nothing more than their luggage.

He wasn’t so lucky on the Monday after recording Do They Know It’s Christmas?

Bono and the rest of U2 were in New York to perform a week-long residency on NBC’s Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. A keen cyclist, Bono took the opportunity to ride through Central Park. Unfortunately, he fell off the bike and injured his arm to such an extent that major surgery was required.

Bono suffered six fractures to his left arm. He also sustained a fractured eye socket, hand and shoulder blade.

An earlier report on U2’s own website described their frontman as undergoing minor surgery. As they had cancelled their Tonight Show appearances, one wondered why Bono couldn’t have fulfilled at least some of the scheduled performances with his arm in a sling.

Now we know, as all fans would have much earlier had U2 revealed details of Bono’s true condition.

 

Greek Fire

 

Greek Fire describe themselves as being “a mission to capture the attention of a rock deprived generation. A mission to revitalise the spirit of rock music in all of its purity and greatness. A mission to create uplifting, soaring music for those who need it now more than ever.”

Despite releasing their first material in 2009 and gaining a degree of success in America, the St. Louis-based quartet has failed to find a significant international following. Perhaps this can be achieved through their new fan-funded album, Lost.

All eight tracks are posted at (no www.) soundcloud.com/greek-fire. Also here is much more of the band’s music including every song on their 2011 debut album, “Deus Ex Machina.”

The video for their latest single, Top Of The World, is posted at www.youtube.com/watch?v=udrDshXdC4Q