LUSH Radio

YouTube is an incredible tool. It gives the power for anyone and everyone to showcase their talent to an entirely connected planet in seconds. Unfortunately it has instead become a haven for the ungifted masses, ignorant to their own atrociousness, to squawk their lungs away to the latest chart tunes on their laptop webcam. That and dubstep remixes. Yet just sometimes, amongst the thousands of regrettable uploads, we catch a glimpse of something that grabs our attention for reasons other than our shared desire to mock the unfortunately-voiced.

One such needle in the YouTube haystack comes in the form of  the pair Jordan Stephens and Harley Alexander-Sule. The 90s-born, BRIT School educated, Brighton duo are better known as Rizzle Kicks, and attracted popular interest with their eclectic ‘indie-hop’ contributions to the online video database. The boy’s Channel plays like a confused video mixtape of classic indie tracks from the likes of The Strokes, The White Stripes and the Arctic Monkeys with the key addition of an impressively fast-paced and brashly witty Stephens rapping over the top. The raps are quick, clever and fit so naturally into the songs that they play like something created by musical giants. When it started becoming popular Rizzle Kicks made the fourteen-track mixtape, named ‘Minor Breaches of Discipline’, available for free download; in retrospect a wise move given the fact that their tracks are now regularly featured on TV.

Yet since their rapid rise to success, the release of an album, ‘Stereo Typical‘ and several highly acclaimed singles (‘When I Was A Youngster’, hitting the Top 10 in early November, with the delightfully cheeky opening lyrics “wanted to be a fireman, then I lost the desire man, the second I got old enough, to buy myself a cider can”) the mixtape has been somewhat left behind. It’s importance however cannot be understated; it’s the Rizzle Kicks kind of creativity that has the power to inspire the few and the gifted into uploading their talent to the world. Luckily for you, LUSH Radio can bring a sample of them for your listening pleasure for this week’s Tuesday Tip. Head over to their YouTube channel for other early videos, their site for more information about Rizzle Kicks, or HERE to download ‘Minor Breaches of Discipline’ for free.

Author

James Browning