Stephens and Alexander-Sule both attended Brit School, where Stephens studied media and Alexander-Sule studied theatre. Stephens was in the process of making his mixtape Minor Breaches of Discipline where he rapped over samples of some of their favourite artists (Gorillaz, Lily Allen, Arctic Monkeys) and asked Alexander-Sule to sing over some of the tracks. Realising how well their styles fitted together, they formed Rizzle Kicks in 2008. The name stems from 'Green Rizla', an early nickname given to Stephens by a football teammate after a crew of the same name from the school that he attended at the time. That nickname evolved into 'Rizzle', and the duo decided on the suffix 'kicks' due to their shared love of football.