hip-hop

Rizzle Kicks

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Brighton duo of Jordan Stephens and Harley Alexander-Sule, whose brass-happy, wisecracking pop-rap was inescapable on UK radio in the early 2010s.

Jordan Stephens and Harley Alexander-Sule grew up in Brighton and first met through AudioActive, a local charity that ran rap and performance workshops; Stephens joined in 2006 and Alexander-Sule a year later. Both went on to attend the BRIT School, Stephens studying media and Alexander-Sule theatre, before forming Rizzle Kicks in 2008, taking their name from a childhood nickname and a shared love of football.

Their sound paired conversational, humour-inflected rapping with live-sounding pop production, heavy on horns and singalong choruses. Early demos, posted online alongside lo-fi videos made with a wedding photographer they met at a party, caught the attention of record labels, and the duo signed to Island Records in November 2010. Their debut album, Stereo Typical, produced the singles Down with the Trumpets and Mama Do the Hump.

Working with producers including Norman Cook, known as Fatboy Slim, the pair built a reputation quickly: by 2012 they had sold over a million singles and more than 600,000 albums in the UK. They also appeared on Olly Murs' Heart Skips a Beat, which reached number one in the UK.

A second album, Roaring 20s, followed in 2013, after which the duo stepped back from releasing together. Stephens moved into acting, presenting and writing, while Alexander-Sule has released music as Jimi Charles Moody since 2015 and Stephens under the names Wildhood and Al, the Native. The two reunite periodically.

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