It’s clear the Ruler (actual identify Richard Martin Lloyd Walters) finds it a bit of troublesome to mirror on traditional albums comparable to 1988’s The Nice Adventures Of Slick Rick and 1999’s The Artwork Of Storytelling or influencing each emcee from 2Pac to MF DOOM to Snoop Dogg to Ghostface Killah, who known as Slick Rick “the best of all time.” In spite of everything, so a lot of Rick’s main profession shifts occurred amid high-profile battles with the US authorized system (Rick was jailed on the top of rap fame on tried homicide prices, one thing the artist was later pardoned for) and invasive immigration officers.
The nation he loves even tried to deport him, earlier than he lastly received American citizenship again in 2016. A few of Slick Rick’s most free-flowing verses would possibly make followers smile with vibrant, sing-in-the-shower visions of Gucci underwear and Benny Hill-esque sexcapades. For his or her creator, nevertheless, they typically conjure up dread because of the troublesome circumstances wherein they had been created. “I prefer to look ahead,” he tells me.
Thankfully Rick’s shock new album, which was impressed by party-loving buddy and actor Idris Elba urging Rick to get again into the studio, is one thing properly worthy of deeper dialogue. On this new LP, Rick’s signature ambling stream hasn’t been misplaced an excessive amount of to father time, particularly on controversial new track “Landlord” (extra on this one later).
Rick’s piffy vocals carry the identical barely effeminate, mean-mugging sass that you simply’ll keep in mind from all his golden period tracks, which famously touched on all the pieces out of your lady dishonest with the postman to seeing teenage pals get shot useless by the cops (the gutter funk of “Kids’s Story“). In different phrases: It doesn’t really feel like a kind of tasks a musical veteran telephones in.
Identical to he did on profession gems such because the therapeutic “Hey Younger World” and the broadly sampled, NSFW-storytelling observe “La-Di-Da-Di”, Rick feels like a slick-talking High Cat character that’s one way or the other wandered its method onto the Black Dynamite movie set. Though a whole lot of the songs are far too quick (the surreal, Q-Tip-produced spotlight “One other Nice Journey” barely surpasses 90 seconds), Rick stays a charming presence and re-stakes his declare as one in all rap’s most iconic vocalists.
It’s additionally refreshing to listen to a veteran take a danger by effortlessly purring out bars over chaotic, uptempo home manufacturing (see “Come On Let’s Go” or “Cuz I’m Right here”) that appears higher suited to an Azealia Banks’ house-rap file. Rick touches on divisive subjects with this new challenge. The sci-fi increase bap of “We’re Not Shedding” carries a wry statement round US politicians blaming Mexican immigrants for all of society’s issues: “Who they trynna blame child? Speaking all this commerce shit/ Two confronted, brainwash the general public.”
Referencing the well-known patch that hides an eye fixed harm sustained by way of being uncovered to damaged glass as a toddler (“I Did That”), he additionally triumphantly reads out the phrases: “I flipped being blind right into a luxurious model.” The quick movie that accompanies this music is filled with putting imagery, together with a small baby with an eye fixed patch firing a slingshot at intimidating waves.
All of it looks like a cinematic eulogy to its creator’s hard-won journey. “Music has all the time been like a passion, so it’s not like that is one thing I’m pressured to do!” Rick explains of the brand new challenge, which has been launched on Nas’ Mass Enchantment label and Elba’s 7Wallace imprint.
Revealing he has “a lot extra” unreleased albums locked away within the lab, the hip-hop legend continues: “When you handle to get a job that’s your passion, you by no means work a day in your life, proper?” With VICTORY, the first objective, he says, is to strike again in opposition to ageism in hip-hop tradition and show {that a} 60-year-old can nonetheless get the occasion rocking.
Requested precisely what victory appears to be like like in 2025, a smiling Slick Rick solutions: “It appears to be like like breaking the rule e book. They are saying most athletes, when you hit about 45 or so, that it’s all downhill from there, proper? However rap music is just not athletic! It doesn’t require you to be bodily match to be on the prime of your recreation. You’ll be able to broaden your thoughts’s development and nonetheless get higher with age. I wish to present the worth of the elder statesman… and that you simply’re by no means too outdated to color footage.”
To have a good time the discharge of VICTORY, I spoke to Slick Rick at size. Thankfully I managed to sneak in a couple of questions on his fabled again catalogue, whereas we additionally touched on New York Metropolis landlords, immigration, and being related so closely with the rise of hip-hop bling. Our dialog has been frivolously condensed for readability.
I’ve all the time cherished your 1999 deep minimize “Recollections“, the place you rapped about sharing a mattress with 5 relations, but nonetheless discovering methods to be completely happy. Why was it necessary to share that sentiment with the world?
SLICK RICK: I imply, again within the ’70s, it was loopy! In America most [inner-city] homes had a whole lot of roaches and shit like that. That was earlier than you could possibly actually purchase good roach spray, you recognize what I’m saying?
Your persons are already poor. You’re additionally climbing up from Jamaica as immigrants! All of the brothers on the block are making enjoyable of you for having to work three jobs. It was loopy robust! However so long as there’s love [at home] you’ll be able to nonetheless be completely happy, even in a bit of roach-infested place.
There have been a whole lot of stuff you needed to persevere by way of while you made it over to America. A kind of was the crack period. What affect did that drug have on New York Metropolis? Did all of it really feel a part of a wider plan, and the way precisely did it change Baychester, the Bronx?
SLICK RICK: First there was the heroin technology, as a result of these had been our mother and father and grandparents. They’d acquired hooked on medicine after coming back from preventing in Vietnam, so a whole lot of Blacks and Puerto Ricans had been all of the sudden hooked on heroin. They’d fats fingers [from injecting too much]. After that, there was the crack technology!
It did appear like somebody was attempting to maintain our individuals of their place, you recognize? Crack was a reminder that we weren’t excessive class, however extra like decrease backside. We needed to climb by way of all of that [as rappers] after which get to a protected place, the place we might re-build our funds and private well being.
One other Slick Rick’ track I really feel is underrated is 1994’s “All Alone“, which is such a phenomenal ode to single moms. If you rapped so softly about “the implications of getting used as an object” there was a uncommon empathy in your voice for the plight of working class ladies, which wasn’t too large in hip hop tradition on the time.
SLICK RICK: Girls are the explanation males exist, so it’s good to indicate a person [in rap] having compassion and empathy for girls, or supporting the Black sister actually going by way of it. That track was devoted to my very own mom, but in addition all of the moms, interval! Within the hood we all the time got here residence to a feminine supervisor. Even after I went to my buddy’s home, there was all the time a mom within the background conserving the home steady and 100% heat and loving.
There’s a through-line round empathizing with the poor that stretches all the best way to your new music. Particularly “We’re Not Shedding” and your lyrics about politicians brain-washing the general public over Mexican immigrants. As somebody who has been pursued by immigration brokers your self, does the best way Trump is deporting and searching down immigrants sting?
SLICK RICK: Yeah, just about. Everyone desires to tweak the federal government to be a greater authorities, you recognize? Whether or not immigrants or not, all of us carry that very same mindset of wanting to boost wholesome kids and to attempt to be first rate to at least one one other.
One other actually topical track is the satirical “Landlord”, which touches on what it’s like being a landlord when there’s tenants bringing cockroaches and mice to your properties. It’s already ruffled some feathers on-line. You first invested in property within the Nineteen Nineties, proper?
SLICK RICK: Nah, I believe it was extra just like the mid-Eighties.
What’s the very best and worst issues about being a landlord in New York Metropolis?
SLICK RICK: The worst factor is all the pieces you heard on the file. The great factor is round monetary stability. Proudly owning property means I do know I’ve one thing to fall again on, so that you don’t should rely in your subsequent album or regardless of the heck.
I’ve solely acquired two properties, so it’s not a giant deal! The one time it [damage to my properties] occurred was after I went away for some time. Once I got here again, I couldn’t count on it to look pretty much as good because it seemed after I first purchased it, proper? No less than I nonetheless had it!
Proper now in New York Metropolis and London a whole lot of younger persons are protesting in opposition to personal landlords, claiming they’re placing up lease with out enhancing residing situations. Simply to flip the angle a bit of: Do you’ve gotten empathy for these tenants who’re being mistreated and going by way of that stress? Does it really feel like that is an period the place a whole lot of landlords simply aren’t taking care of their tenants the best way they need to be?
SLICK RICK: Properly, I assume it’s each’s each, as a result of so long as you’re making a revenue and your house is clear and tidy and the tenants are completely happy, it needs to be all good, proper? It’s not my place to inform the federal government the right way to set their costs. The federal government is permitting the landlords to boost their costs, so it turns into not possible [for tenants] to stay comfortably. That’s not the case for me, as a result of I simply do me so long as my mortgage is paid or no matter. Every part else is revenue. You need your house to look good and to be a mirrored image of you, proper? Either side needs to be completely happy.
You’ve all the time been so good at doing impersonations and shifting into totally different rapping voices. I believe you had been one of many first male rappers to rap from a feminine perspective, for instance. That spirit continues on the brand new album with “International,” the place you faux to be your grandad in direction of the top of the track. Do you are feeling a bit like a personality actor?
SLICK RICK: That’s simply me having enjoyable, you recognize? That track additionally reveals the tradition of sampling inside hip hop. With “International” I used to be taking my father’s outdated Jamaican data and chopping them as much as attempt to impress him. Though I went out of my method, I do know grandpa continues to be gonna say: “That is trash!” The totally different voices make the music extra visible to be sincere. It offers it extra of a 3 dimensional factor. You need the listener to get a vibe like they’re in a rolling film.
There was a tweet that went viral the opposite day the place someone stated that conceptual storytelling in hip-hop is now useless and that up to date rappers simply aren’t sticking to subjects the identical method your technology did. Do you agree?
SLICK RICK: Properly, if the business is just not nurturing a craft, then it’s gonna die and it’s additionally gonna wither, proper? The craft of hip-hop got here from nowhere round 50 years in the past, and it had no mother and father! So it’s my job to take care of its parenthood and proceed to assist it develop.
Are there any rappers from the brand new technology you’d prefer to work with?
SLICK RICK: I’ve by no means actually considered it like that. I simply sit round and look forward to individuals to name me [for features]. I assume I like Nas and Busta Rhymes. I just like the Wu-Tang-Clan. [Laughs.] I like Beethoven. I like how Westside Gunn and Griselda was feeding into that Wu-Tang department!
What I might say is new rappers don’t all the time should be a lot about bravado, you recognize? You might be regular, too, and present a relatable facet of human co-existence in your songs. Folks get tired of Superman! You’ll be able to’t simply carry on pushing that Superman persona without end. There must be extra selection.
I can’t converse to you with out speaking about your jewellery. The blinged-out look is so iconic that folks actually go dressed as Slick Rick for Halloween. I questioned what the chains and the diamonds signify, and is there one piece meaning extra to you than the others?
SLICK RICK: It’s extra like dressing up a model for me, you recognize? You place some ice and an African American vibe on it, so it’s extra pleasant for the viewers to have a look at. Relating to jewellery in hip hop, it’s been like watching my child develop!
After we had been youthful, we had these items known as silver medallions. Every part you could possibly get in gold was additionally in cheaper silver, and I keep in mind there was this silver Mary piece with a pink ruby. I took a whole lot of pleasure in sporting that piece to highschool. Over time that silver became platinum and gold, and it acquired to the purpose the place I used to be advising Harry Winston on luxurious jewellery designs.
That’s fairly some journey.
SLICK RICK: Life is sort of a Cinderella story. I heard these hip-hop beats after which I adorned them. Now, I’m capable of sit again and luxuriate in all the sweetness that this music has dropped at my soul.