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\n\tRizzle Kicks <\/a>has learned not to question a bolt from the blue. While working on the lyrics for its mighty new LP, Competition is for Losers<\/em>, the duo \u2013 comprised of rappers Jordan Stephens and Harley Alexander-Sule \u2013 was struck by moments of synergy. The two members had entered the studio with the intention to make \u201can album talking about exactly where we\u2019re at in our lives,\u201d says Alexander-Sule, 14 tracks of fluorescent-hued pop-rap that celebrate a journey to embracing stillness over momentum, peace over chaos.<\/p>\n \n\tThe pair\u2019s freewheeling spirit shines on the record because of how easily its bars dip and traverse through different moods. Tracks like \u201cEverything\u2019s Aligned\u201d and \u201cJavelin\u201d hone in on the realization that something truly powerful can still exist and thrive after years of fear have been pushed aside: for Stephens and Alexander-Sule, it\u2019s a friendship that has withstood everything it has been through.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tRizzle Kicks formed in Brighton as teenagers in 2008, having attended music workshops together, and then south London\u2019s BRIT School, which also helped to launch the careers of Adele, Lola Young and Olivia Dean. Within three years, it became one of the biggest acts in the U.K. For a moment in time, 2011 debut album Stereo Typical<\/em> felt omnipresent; it blasted from car windows, it shot over TV montages, it echoed through shopping centres.<\/p>\n \n\tThe 2011 hits \u201cDown With the Trumpets\u201d and \u201cMama Do the Hump\u201d both went platinum. A breezy approach to music-making conjured images of giddy misadventures, cider-soaked conversations among friends that would roll until dawn, in-jokes formed from the simple, shared pursuit of a laugh. Rizzle Kicks defined a specific, more innocent time in youth culture, so much so that TikTok has turned to labelling any glimpse of sunshine in the U.K. as \u201cRizzle Kicks weather\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n