Birthdays are typically memorable occasions, but I have a pretty good feeling that Swae Lee is going to think about his 24th celebration for quite some time. As host Jimmy Fallon kind of creepily alluded to in his introduction, last night was Swae Lee’s birthday and the Rae Sremmurd star sent it up in style alongside his brother Slim Jxmmi and the Roots by airing out their latest single from Sremmlife 2, “Swang.”
Bathed in alternating blue and red hues, Rae Sremmurd tackled the song with gusto. Swae Lee in particular did all he could to reach the high falsettos that he committed to tape in the studio version, sometimes falling short, but managing a decent job nonetheless.
This performance isn’t the first time this year that Rae Sremmurd hit the stage with the Roots. Earlier this year, they made a surprise appearance during the legendary Philly group’s super jam session at SXSW down in Austin, Texas. I talked to both brothers before that gig and Swae made sure to pay homage to their hosts. “We friends with the Roots,” he said. “They’re my brothers.”
Jxmmy took things to an even bigger level. “We family,” he said. “[Roots Percussionist] Frank Knuckles, he’ll pop up to any show we got in the whole world. If it’s in Africa, and he’s in Africa, he’s going to come. If it’s Australia, he’s going to come. If it’s anywhere, he going to come, and he’s going to show mad love. So The Roots is like our brothers, our big brothers, big homies.”
You can watch Rae Sremmurd’s performance of “Swang” in the video above.
