Gucci Mane and Rae Sremmurd are creeping up on their first respective diamond plaques for their 2016 smash hit, “Black Beatles.”
According to Chart Data, the song was just certified 9x platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), making it just one million sales away from diamond status.
The Mike WiLL Made-It-produced song became both Rae Sremmurd and Gucci’s first No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100, due in large part to the virality of its accompanying ‘Mannequin Challenge.’
While this will be the first certification of its caliber for the Sremmurd duo as a collective, Swae Lee has previously achieved the feat with his 2018 Post Malone collaboration, “Sunflower.” It currently sits at 2x diamond status.
Last year, Rae Sremmurd explained all the ways they believe they’ve changed the face of what Hip Hop looks and sounds like in a conversation with Complex.
“Some of the biggest influences we had, this haircut first of all. When we came in the game with the shaved sides and the dreads on the top, that just changed the game,” Swae Lee said.
He added: “We came with the AutoTune and the heavy reverb. You know, the melodies and the high-pitched singing tones and all that stuff. It definitely trickled down to a lot of people.”
Slim Jxmmi brought up their eccentric fashion sense and added: “I feel like we made it cool to be yourself. A lot of people do the same things, make the same type of vibes. We make different type of music, it’s fun.
“Anybody could listen to it. My brother, he say this all the time: it doesn’t matter what type of life you’re living, we got music anybody could [listen to]. ‘I ain’t got no type.’ I don’t care what you do, everybody could vibe with that. Male, female, it doesn’t even matter. We make international music that way.”
The fervid brothers hailing from Mississippi came storming out of the gate while putting the Hip Hop world on notice with a string of anthems in the mid-2010s such as “No Type,” “Come Get Her,” “Swang,” “Black Beatles,” “No Flex Zone,” “Throw Sum Mo” and more.