Slick Rick

Among the giants of hip-hop, Ricky Martin Lloyd Walters a.k.a. Slick Rick is one of those who risks being overlooked. Yet, his role in enriching this music with a new figure—that of the storyteller (in Italian we might say cantastorie or narrator)—is fundamental, a role he interpreted with undisputed mastery during the late Eighties and early Nineties.
For American hip-hop aficionados, the cult status is undeniable and confirmed by the incredible number of samples taken from his most famous tracks. Above all, “La Di Da Di,” the 1985 single with producer and beatboxer Doug E. Fresh, is a perfect case study: it has been sampled in over 1,200 songs, from Biggie to Beyoncé, from Miley Cyrus to the Beastie Boys, from Robbie Williams to Lana Del Rey.
“Children's Story” (1989), the second single from his debut album, may not boast over a thousand explicit mentions, but it has nevertheless been used by Eminem, Aesop Rock, Migos, De La Soul, Rakim, Public Enemy, Redman and dozens of other artists. And all this is only considering the samples. If we expand to include the stylistic influence Slick Rick had—considering the novel way he approached the hip-hop medium—we can construct a galaxy of connections from his brief discography that would lead us to better appreciate his impact on subsequent decades of hip-hop, even in Italy. Perhaps here in Italy, he suffers from a different listener sensitivity toward lyrics, which are central to understanding the importance of his major songs and albums. Furthermore, when hip-hop music spread across the country, Slick Rick could not easily release new albums or perform concerts, as Public Enemy, Afrika Bambaataa, or the Beastie Boys were doing, thus cementing themselves in the collective memory of young listeners at the time.
The reason is simply that he was in prison for attempted murder and issues with the U.S. immigration office. The ultimate hip-hop storyteller is an exception for many other reasons, for instance, his utterly eccentric way of presenting himself to the public: jewelry so giant it verges on comedic, regal crowns, flashy attire, and an iconic eye patch over his right eye. To better contextualize his role in hip-hop, however, we must tell his story from the beginning.

The Great Adventures of Slick Rick

Born in London in 1965 to Jamaican parents, Ricky Martin Lloyd Walters lost the use of his right eye due to a childhood accident. Arriving in the United States at age 11, specifically in the Bronx, he met the rapper Dana Dane at school, with whom he formed the Kangol Crew. Despite his adolescence in New York, he always retained his English accent with Jamaican inflections. The turning point in his career came, however, when he collaborated with Doug E. Fresh, a famous beatboxer who was amazed by his talent and brought him into the crew Get Fresh. “The Show” is one of the most important singles of eighties hip-hop. Released in August 1985, its b-side was the aforementioned “La Di Da Di.” The A-side features a tight dialogue between the two voices, with fragments of music from the animated series “Inspector Gadget,” an assortment of vocal inventions primarily by Slick Rick, then still known as MC Ricky D., and the colleague's powerful beatbox.
The song achieved great success for the time, establishing itself as one of the most appreciated hip-hop tracks by the public up to that point. Over time, it surpassed a million copies domestically.
Much could be written about “La Di Da Di.” Beyond what has already been said about samples and tributes, it is necessary to summarize its fundamental moments. The very first seconds are legendary and immediately transport us to another era of hip-hop—that of amateur, house parties, where the emcee served as the crowd entertainer. “Okay, party people in the house” became over the years a widely distributed phrase, or direct sample. The same fate fell to the line that closes the song’s introduction: "As we go a little something like this Hit it".

From the N.W.A. to Eminem, this introduction—similar to what we would call a freestyle today—is already enough to demonstrate the cult status behind the track. The first real verse is virtually all essential for devotees, but it is necessary to report at least the opening lines:

La-di-da-di, we like to party
We don't cause trouble, we don't bother nobody, we're
Just some men that's on the mic
And when we rock up on the mic we rock the mic (Right)

The real story begins with the start of Slick Rick's day: “I woke up around ten o'clock in the morning.” This simple verse is also recalled in many other “awakenings” in hip-hop, starting with “6 in the morning” by Ice T, one of the founding tracks of gangsta rap.
The art of storytelling, which would make him the premier storyteller of hip-hop, is also evident in the way the lyrics reach the listener—the delivery: for example, when recounting his day, he stretches sleepily, and his voice quickly deforms into a half-yawn. The richness of his rap also lies in the use of pop culture elements, integrated more or less freely. Here, for example, in just the first verse, he quotes Snow White’s mirror as well as various brands, including Polo, Gucci, and Kangol. But Slick Rick does much more, because when meeting a girl, he not only sketches her in a few effective verses but also hums “Sukiyaki” on her behalf—a 1981 hit that reinterprets a 1961 Japanese song sung by Kyu Sakamoto. Then her mother arrives, and, twist, the two fight over him. In an attempt to convince the rapper, the mother also sings a tune, obviously still performed by Slick Rick:

Ricky, Ricky, Ricky, can't you see?
Somehow your words just hypnotize me
And I just love your jazzy ways
Oh, MC Rick, my love is here to stay!

Quoted in the chorus of “Hypnotize” by Notorious B.I.G., this refrain is just another of the classic moments on “La Di Da Di.”

Having defined his unique style, Slick Rick quickly rose to broader success. He became one of the first artists signed to Def Jam, the label that released his debut The Great Adventures Of Slick Rick (1988), arguably the most important album for hip-hop storytelling
These 12 tales are a mix of sharp wit, rhyming skill, and communicative power. His cartoonish and theatrical approach makes his interpretations different from a great contemporary like Rakim: where Rick offers detailed and colorful tales of daily life elaborated in over-the-top fashion, Rakim is introspective, profound, and complex; while Slick Rick focuses on vocal variations to interpret different characters, the rapper of “Paid In Full” (1987) proves to be a flow wizard who works elegantly over the beat.
A commercially successful album, The Great Adventures Of Slick Rick opens with "Treat Her Like a Prostitute," the only older track (“Here's an oldie but goodie”) and a misogynistic treatise that has aged poorly. A clumsy attempt at male empowerment, it is a track that can only be understood in its context. At the very least, it introduces Slick Rick's narrative style, where he tells three short stories in as many verses, like an episodic tale with one (abject) common moral: women must be treated poorly, until proven otherwise, because they betray and hurt without remorse.

"The Ruler's Back," over a beat by Jam Master Jay, is the first truly new track and became a classic of late eighties hip-hop. Its simple structure harks back to “La Di Da Di,” with the drum machine replacing the beatbox and featuring the iconic trumpet lines in the chorus. Slick Rick’s relaxed flow is on full display: with an English accent, he moves unhurriedly through the verses, laid back as Snoop Dogg would repeat in “Gin And Juice” (1994).
Jay-Z would clearly reference this track on his The Blueprint (2001), offering his own version. The masterpiece, however, is "Children's Story," the track that best summarizes Slick Rick's stature as a storyteller. Like “La Di Da Di,” it has been sampled by dozens of different artists, though without reaching the astronomical figures seen above. It tells the story of two young boys who steal, with the lightness of youth and without understanding the risks and implications of their crimes. One day, one of them encounters an undercover detective, an event that leads him to be cornered and then killed at just 17 years old.
It is a track where Slick Rick demonstrates his talent for interpreting various characters with different voices—from the child he addresses at the beginning with his high-pitched voice, to the two protagonist boys; moreover, he also plays the policeman and a heroin addict, all while unwinding a text heterogeneous in rhythm and density, without choruses.
The ridiculous tone with which the track opens contrasts with the tragic ending, and one of the rapper's final phrases couldn't be more explicit: “This ain't funny so don't you dare laugh.”
Slick Rick's moral fable is a sacred text for hip-hop storytelling demonstrating the power the voice can have in bringing a cinematic tale to life, without sacrificing immediacy of the message, despite the dramatic ending.
After fantasizing about sleeping with a drug dealer's woman in "The Moment I Feared," with