A song that popped on my spotify recently. The song is called Big Bad Mood by Jordan Stephens. An absolute jam that provides equal parts societal critique and dance banger. It’s a song that makes me feel a lot cooler than I actually am.
I wanted to listen to more Jordan Stephens, which took me to his 2022 album by the name of Let Me Die Inside of You. Interesting album name with interesting music to match. I highly recommend it. I went further down the rabbit hole and found out that he used to be in a music duo with Harley Alexander-Sule by the name of Rizzle Kicks.
Naturally, I started listening to their work. Annoyingly their last song was released in 2014. My first year of University. Which makes me question; How Did I Miss This? I have enjoyed british Hip Hop since High School while consistently focusing on conscious Hip Hop. Which on the Venn diagram of these genres Rizzle Kicks is right in the middle.
My two favourite tracks are Down With The Trumpets and Slurp!. Falling somewhere on the British gangster and party rap spectrum. From the first beat to the last they put me into a zone that I want to spend a lot more time in. Every track they released puts you into that exact zone without becoming repetitive.
Nonetheless, I am greatful I have discovered them. One of my favourite lines from the duo is from Slurp!:
My name’s Jordan I hate Piers Morgan
Mates with James Cordon
I rate Graham Norton
Love the bass more than a lot of small-talking
Too much swiping and not enough walking
The James Cordon reference may not have aged well. However, this line gives me a smirk every time I hear it. Although, their best line has to be from their song Lost Generation:
When I heard people buy views
I was more confused
Than all John Terry’s black friends
A somewhat Niche line for me as a Chelsea fan that tries his best to be anti-racist. Most people know that John Terry is a Chelsea Football club legend that had mutiple affairs, but fewer people know that he had a number of racism accusations against him. In a deep sense of irony, the Chelsea football club that he was a part of was one of the racially diverse teams at the time. Despite me explaining the joke in a moment of humourlessness that line gets me every time.
The duo are both now performing as solo artists. Jordan Stephens performed under the stage name Wildhood for a few artists but is now using Jordan Stephens as his name to release music under. Harley Alexander-Sule released music under the name Jimi Charles Moody for a few years with his last EP coming out in 2018 called Highbury. Both have tried acting with Alexander-Sule starring in a BBC drama named Unforgotten and Stephens making an appearance in Rogue One.
I couldn’t find out why they broke up but there is movement from fans online for them to make music together again. There doesn’t seem to be any form of falling out. They may have just have wanted to do different things.
I may have somehow missed Rizzle Kicks when they were big but an artist that I am going to make sure not to miss is Jordan Stephens. If his last album is anything to go by, make sure you don’t miss him either.