Rizzle Kicks
Stereo Typical
Release Date: Nov 1, 2011
Genre(s): Rap, Pop/Rock
Record label: Universal Island Records
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Album Review: Stereo Typical by Rizzle Kicks
Fairly Good, Based on 4 Critics
Based on rating 4/5
Brighton's Rizzle Kicks attended the credibility-squashing Brit School – a fact coyly glossed over in their press biography. But there's no need for embarrassment – it's not as if the all-singing, all-rapping Harley Alexander-Sule and Jordan Stephens were ever going to appeal to anyone past puberty anyway. Having said that, their sprightly pop – most widely heard so far on Olly Murs's No 1 single Heart Skips a Beat – is the dance equivalent of a Girls Aloud single: clever, memorable and utterly infectious.
Based on rating 3/5
Wisdom prevails that you should judge a man on the company he keeps, so given that Brighton duo [b]Jordan “Rizzle” Stephens[/b] and [b]Harley “Kicks” Alexander-Sule[/b] spent their early days pissing about with pasty-faced devil child [a]Ed Sheeran[/a], you might be expecting a barrage of preachy-pop and tiny-testicled bravado. Think again. Rather they tag-team across the record with a cheery glint, a self-deprecating wink and a boundless charm that’s hard not to like.
Based on rating 2/5
This breezy debut from teenage Brighton duo Rizzle Kicks feels like the most lighthearted hip-hop album to come out of the UK in an age: "It annoys me to hell" is about as disgruntled as it gets. The laid-back approach, harking back to the early 90s rap golden age that gave us De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest can be appealing, but sadly, Jordan Stephens and Harley Alexander-Sule can't approximate the wit and effortless flow of Q-Tip, say, and the chipper production (with a contribution from Fatboy Slim) has all the durability of an English summer: fun while it lasts, but swiftly forgettable. .
Opinion: Very Good
An infectious introduction to some rightly rising pop-rap talents. Mike Diver 2011 It’s been a fantastic year for Rizzle Kicks, aka fresh-faced Brighton duo Jordan Stephens (19 years old) and Harley Alexander-Sule (20 next month), ex-students of the BRIT School. Unknown to the public as recently as May 2011, the pair’s debut single Prophet (Better Watch It) caused enough of a stir online for its follow-up, Down With the Trumpets, to climb into the UK top 10 in June.
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