Jordan Stephens is widely known for being one half of the popular duo Rizzle Kicks. The pair back in 2011 captured the hearts of British teens everywhere with their feel-good and perhaps cheesy hits including “Mama do the Hump” and “Down with the Trumpets”. However, he has ventured out into the music world alone and has recently released his debut solo album titled “Let Me Die Inside You”.
The Brighton born singer/rapper has brought his innovative music style, strong dance rhythms and deeply personal lyrics on important topics into this album, making it a whole different sound to what we are used to. It really is a compelling piece of work.
Self Belief
The album starts off strong with the previously released song “Son of a Gun”. The track explores the cycle of trauma in young men and their mothers and is an exploration of self conceptualisation. Jordan makes it a reoccurring topic during the album – the idea of self-acceptance.
“Wicked”, the second anthem on the album, continues to support this idea and also twists the concept of self-love into arrogance with the help of Stephens’ energetic beats. The lyric “What the news says got you fooled” is a standout line and expresses the idea of being able to define yourself by your own rules.
The song “Shake!” gives off a rollercoaster of emotions. It begins by giving off anxious thoughts, with a sound resembling a pounding heart in the background before getting twisted into this empowering and uplifting look onto life and death.
Uplifting And Joyous
The uplifting and joyous perception of this album is what makes it so brilliantly written. The track “Sunshine Skin” is another great example of Stephens’ writing and presents his voice in a way that we hadn’t experienced before in his previous works.
The song is powerful and brave in its way of expressing how proud he is to be in the skin that he has. Jordan commented on this song explaining that “I wrote this song because I used to hate myself and nowadays, I’m beginning to not”. The tempo of this track is much slower than the other songs included in the album, showing how effortless his songwriting is – that he doesn’t necessarily need a catchy beat to get the message across.
Songs including “Never Felt” “Star” and “Look no Further” come across as if the singer was giving the audience a pep talk, explaining how truly important self-love is, coming directly from someone who has struggled with self-acceptance themselves. “Sometimes you’ll find when life don’t feel that right, you’re a missing piece in your own mind” encourages people that even though it may not feel like everything is ok – you’ll probably be fine.
Personal Feel
The spoken dialogue used throughout the album makes it more exciting and gives you that personal feel into Stephens’ life. The second half of the album goes straight into a duet with Lava La Rue and includes songs titled “Loserz”, “In my Blood” and “On Your Tongue”, which presents that funk genre sound that just makes you want to instantly dance with no shame.
The standout song of this album is the recently released single “Big Bad Mood” featuring Tottenham-based singer Miraa May. The track truly expresses the way we live today. Continuously following the rules of the hierarchy, who don’t even follow the rules themselves. “Why do we live by their rules?” is a question brought to life throughout this track, which is an important topic in today’s society. The beat and the intertwining of both Stephens’ and Mays’s voice makes the track fit together and flow perfectly.
The two finale singles are “Feel Joy”, expressing a smug like feel to listeners, letting them know to not be sorry for being you and “Can’t Close My Heart” continuing the topic of showing self-love and self progression, both tracks executed with an insanely catchy beat.
Jordan’s Grown
Speaking to UEL student Ellissa Chiles, she gave her opinion on the contrast between Stephens’ current work to his previous work with Rizzle Kicks. She said: “I find that Jordan focuses on important topics throughout the album and you can see how far he has come since Rizzle Kicks.
“I remember going to see them live at the 02 Arena in London when I was around 11 years old. Overall, the album and his music now show a more grown-up and developed side to Jordan which we couldn’t really see much before when he was in his early 20’s.”
Jordan Stephens has gone on to produce a brilliantly written and well thought-out album with “Let Me Die Inside You.” Stephens’ creativity is limitless throughout all of his work and this album shows how truly gifted he is as a songwriter. Overall, the album is full of uplifting lyrics and covers the important topic of self-belief, something which we all need to believe in.
Let Me Die Inside You is out now and I recommend everyone goes and gives it a listen!
