Rizzle Kicks at Somerset House

THERE was a genuine moment on Thursday night when I convinced myself that I had done it again and coined a whole new musical genre: Hip-pop, a summery fusion of chart appeal and daisy age rap.

And surely, Rizzle Kicks would be crowned the masters of the sauce here, hip-pop pioneers if you like. Too good to be labelled pop, too light to be gangsta.

Needless to say, it wasn’t an original thought. A half-second scan reveals Will Smith has been called hip-pop numerous times and so have other daft acts, making it all seem grossly unfair on the Rizzles and their soul-funk band as they energetically took us from golden hour at Somerset House to the last train home.

It’s nice to see them back at it and opening the summer season at London’s grandest venue for outdoor gigs.

Both 33, Jordan Stephens and Harley Alexander-Sule look fresh from the journey but tell a story of success, splits, anxiety, addiction and reunion that seems to have squeezed an entire lifetime into 12 years.

Their zany sixth-form bumper Ms Cigarette song would be Ms Vape now, Stephens suggests as he measures the changes. It certainly does seem a long time since those rough and ready YouTube videos for their early tracks filmed on Hove Lawns and, whenever you deserve a smile, it’s worth reminding yourself of their impish hosting of Never Mind The Buzzcocks (the original, not the terrible Sky remake) in which they brought Fun Lovin’ Criminal Huey Morgan so much to the boil that he smashed a mug and walked out of the TV studio.

Rizzle Kicks winding up Huey Morgan on Never Mind The Buzzcocks

Imagine being by riled by the Rizzle Kicks, it almost needs a certificate.

That’s because it’s hard not to like them, explaining as they do that Stephens’s father is on bass, a friend from school is part of the brass section and the drummer dates from a chance meeting at a takeaway in underrated Dorrington-on-Sea when the band was first showing promise.

They did get a lift from the Brit School – it wasn’t all making organic home tracks in their Brighton bedroom – but they do offer a different vibe from the crooning and vocal gymnastics normally exported by that cliquey talent academy. This is a tight band flattening out a platform for the boys to rap self-aware poems above.

The big bashers Mama Got The Hump and Skip To The Good Bit, laced with the rhythm of EMF’s Unbelievable, provoked some classic hip-pop bounce in the courtyard and you could almost breathe in the millennial nostalgia.

But in a way, revisiting the lesser quoted Travellers’ Chant with an extended, doleful mix and sudden guitar crunch was better than the obvious tracks.

Alexander-Sule’s singing vocals (as opposed to the raps) were underused the first time round, not that he seemed to mind. On their phoenix album, Competition Is For Losers, he provides an almost Motown husk at times. Songs like the swinging single Javelin benefit immensely from it.

When they say “we’re going to play some of our new stuff’, there aren’t really any groans from the class of 2012.

Rizzle Kicks haven’t produced hasty fodder for a quickly-agreed comeback. Instead it’s packed with reflective songs which show you can reinvent your act without being ashamed of your raw origins or even the commercial goodies of the past.

The biggest of those is Down With The Trumpets, and was saved here for an ace card encore. Some wouldn’t have gone home without hearing it and the stones of Somerset House were tested with a collective pogo.

It’s not their most delicate offering, but as an exciting season of concerts begins here, it still remains one of the cleanest slices of sheer hip-pop you’ll hear.

STILL TO COME:

SOMERSET HOUSE SUMMER SERIES with AMERICAN EXPRESS

Friday July 18

The Paper Kites + Nadia Reid +

Benjamin Francis Leftwich

Saturday July 19

FLO + Natanya + Pxssy Palace

Sunday July 20

Giggs & Family: P Money + Tiny Boost

Tickets: www.somersethouse.org.uk