About Rizzle Kicks
Rizzle Kicks [ca. 2008] is made up of former Londoners Jordan Stephens [b. 1992] and Harley Alexander-Sule [b. 1991], known colloquially as “Rizzle” and “Sylvester,” respectively. The pair had come to know each other back before their primary school days but lost contact when each of their families moved away from North London. They met up again at age 11, having relocated coincidentally to Brighton, and subsequently attended college together at the London School for Performing Arts and Technology [“The BRIT School”] in suburban Croyden. Stephens was studying media there while Alexander-Sule was a theater major.
The duo paired up musically when “Rizzle” asked “Sylvester” for some vocal input on a mixtape he was hoping to peddle to a group of London music producers. They created several demo tapes and began posting homemade videos on their own YouTube channel, an outgrowth of their Web site titled, “Your Daily Kicks.” In late 2009, their videos motivated Island Records to sign them to a recording contract, and Rizzle Kicks was officially commercial.
Work on completing their first album took up most of 2011, beginning in May with the release of their promotional single, “Prophet (Better Watch It).” The tune’s popularity was aided significantly by an accompanying stop-motion video and the fact that the song was initially available as a free download. Stephens and Alexander-Sule released two additional singles throughout the summer of 2011. Their debut album, Stereo Typical, came out at the end of October. Rizzle Kicks is essentially a throwback to the hip-hop, rapping days of the late 1980s and early ’90s, coupled with remixes of new-school songs. During 2011 the duo played live at several European festivals, including appearances at Leeds and Mallorca.
