walking upstream…
Slick Rick
photo: brett hammond · cc by 2.0 ↗Slick Rick
Richard Walters was born in London, lost sight in one eye to a childhood accident, and grew up in the Bronx telling elaborate stories to entertain himself — a habit he turned into a rap style once Doug E. Fresh recruited him for 1985's ‘La Di Da Di.’ As Slick Rick, ‘The Ruler,’ he built 1988's The Great Adventures of Slick Rick around cinematic, multi-character narratives (Mona Lisa's aloof charm, the doomed morality tale of ‘Children's Story’) delivered in a plummy half-sung cadence that made him one of the clearest bridges between old-school showmanship and hip-hop's coming age of the narrator-rapper.
the sound in question
1988
Children's StorySlick Rick
walk the tributaries ↓
Cold Crush Brothers1980s · Hip-hop / Old-school hip-hop
Rick has said the Cold Crush Brothers “inspired me the most, cuz they had good routines, and they picked good records to rhyme on” — an appreciation for staged, well-arranged performance he carried into his own meticulously constructed story-raps.
listen: upstream & heresource: Red Bull Music Academy — Slick Rick 5x5 interview (Cold Crush Brothers, Busy Bee, Melle Mel's ‘The Message’) ↗
1983
Punk Rock RapCold Crush Brothers
1991
The Ruler's BackSlick Rick
listen forThe polished group choreography and crowd-drilled routines Cold Crush built into ‘Punk Rock Rap’ resurface, filtered through Rick's cocky solo-MC voice, on the victory-lap bravado of ‘The Ruler's Back.’
Melle Mel1980s · Hip hop / Old-school hip hop
Rick pointed directly to Melle Mel's writing on ‘The Message’ as a model for structuring a rap like an essay — a clean beginning, body and end — the same three-act shape he used to build his own narrative singles.
listen: upstream & heresource: Red Bull Music Academy — Slick Rick 5x5 interview (Cold Crush Brothers, Busy Bee, Melle Mel's ‘The Message’) ↗
1982
The MessageMelle Mel
1988
Hey Young WorldSlick Rick
listen forThe plain-spoken, cautionary arc of ‘The Message’ becomes an even more explicit morality tale in Rick's own beginning-middle-end lecture to the next generation on ‘Hey Young World.’
Busy Bee1980s · Hip-hop / Old-school hip-hop
Asked about his influences, Rick named Busy Bee outright — the crowd-rocking showman whose exaggerated, playful delivery he absorbed before turning it toward fully scripted characters instead of ad-libbed chants.
listen: upstream & heresource: Red Bull Music Academy — Slick Rick 5x5 interview (Cold Crush Brothers, Busy Bee, Melle Mel's ‘The Message’) ↗
1982
Making Cash MoneyBusy Bee
1988
Mona LisaSlick Rick
listen forBusy Bee's playful, cartoonish vocal mugging on ‘Making Cash Money’ turns into a fully written character study — complete with a voice and a personality of her own — on Rick's ‘Mona Lisa.’