Rizzle Kicks star Jordan Stephens urges people to 'knuckle down' on mental health during lockdown

Musician co-founded a mental health campaign for young people in 2016

Rizzle Kicks star Jordan Stephens is urging people to “knuckle down” on both their mental and physical health during lockdown.

The musician co-founded I Am Whole – a mental health campaign aimed at encouraging young people to speak out and seek help – in 2016 and has been open about his own struggles with anxiety, as well as his dependence on drink and drugs in the past.

Now, the 28-year-old is calling on people not to neglect their mental and physical health during lockdown, adding that exercise and eating well are both pivotal to coping with self-isolation.

“Mental health is really interlinked with physical health, and boosting that psychosomatic relationship, because in quarantine you get faced with the reality of how much responsibility you have to your body as well as your mind,” Stephens told PA.

”Obviously, people have had loads of stuff taken away from them but I think it becomes more obvious, the building of anxiety and depressive states, if you are not actively moving your body, or if you are not eating the right food.”

Stephens went on to explain the reason he founded I Am Whole, stating that he hoped it would help battle the stigma surrounding mental health and spread awareness.

“We have really put a focus on how important music is, and we will continue to do that, but the only thing that has been boosted for me in this time is like 'Let's really knuckle down on mental health actually encapsulating someone's entire lived experience',” he said.

“That can happen at any point, whether you are locked down at your house or whether you are at work. You still have the same responsibility to your body and mind.”

Earlier this year, I Am Whole teamed up with east London rapper Kojey Radical to debut an hour-long film for his song "Proud Of You". The video featured more than 100 submissions from members of Radical’s local community, which came in after the east London rapper asked people to get involved in the #ImSoImSoProud challenge.

Stephens said the film campaign, which was launched to coincide with Mental Health Awareness Week, aimed to encourage conversations about mental health among young people.

“I feel like the world of mental health isn't so prevalent in some black communities. But I don't want to be excluding people,” Stephens explained.

“When someone like Kojey steps up and releases something like "Cashmere Tears". It's quite an open project in terms of emotional excavation.

“He's an alpha. He's a muscly, good-looking, smart guy and having someone like that step up and be open about grief and depression is super powerful.”

Radical also opened up about the increased awareness of mental health issues since lockdown began, saying: “If you could bottle up the idea of hope and eagerness and prosperity that everyone felt walking into 2020, it would probably be the most euphoric aroma ever.

“But it just wasn't meant to be that way. Everyone had plans that were probably outside of themselves. Nobody started the year saying, 'I'm really going to take the time to look at my mental state and make sure I am happy’.”

The rapper added that the “exposure to self” caused by lockdown was “daunting” to a lot of people and is probably the reason why mental health is “so prevalent now among people who would have never spoken about it before”.

“But also, not everyone is in a great situation,” he said. “You might be locked down within something and you don't have an escape. You can't just go to work, if that was your distraction. It's an exposing time but the healing works on a lot of levels.

“You have to look at it outside of just the mental state and more look at what you can do for you, to help you.”

If you have been affected by this article, you can contact the following organisations for support: mind.org.uk, beateatingdisorders.org.uk, nhs.uk/livewell/mentalhealth, mentalhealth.org.uk, samaritans.org.