The Great Adventures of Slick Rick: Celebrating 35 Years of a Hip-Hop Classic
Thirty-five years ago today, on Def Jam/Columbia Records, rap legend Slick Rick released his debut album titled The Great Adventures of Slick Rick, which dominated the charts. It held the top spot on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart for five nonconsecutive weeks and peaked at number 31 on the Billboard 200. The impact of Slick Rick’s debut album was felt immediately, setting the standard for what was to come in the years ahead.
The Great Adventures of Slick Rick was a groundbreaking album that had a massive impact on hip-hop and pop culture. With his unique storytelling style and effortless flow, Slick Rick established himself as one of the most influential rappers of his time. The album’s hit singles, “Children’s Story” and “Mona Lisa,” are still considered classics in the genre and have been extensively sampled and referenced by countless artists. Slick Rick’s fashion sense was equally influential, as he popularized the eye patch and gold jewelry, which became iconic symbols of hip-hop style. Overall, The Great Adventures of Slick Rick solidified his status as a hip-hop legend and set the standard for future rappers.
Slick Rick on The Great Adventures of Slick Rick
Slick Rick: “I was just being myself. Everyone else was into battle raps, and — no disrespect or nothin’ — there was a one-dimensional thing going on. I wasn’t really into the battle thing as much as telling stories and humor with my leftover English accent. It stood out because of the accent and the stories, and it gave rap variety instead of just being one big battle for supremacy.
“I wrote them like an essay form, where you have your introduction to what it’s about, your body of the story, and your ending — with a moral message or something. In high school English class, that’s how you’d lay out the format. I’d start with four cute hot lines. Then I’d just keep going and going until I’d have a whole record length. An intro, a body, and an outro.
“I was always into telling stories and humor. It’s like watching the Eddie Murphy movie Raw when he shows you in the very beginning how he used to do stand-up in front of his relatives. It was very similar to that — telling stories in front of your friends and seeing what makes them laugh. So when I played with my friends in my age group, that’s how we would play. I would tell them stories, give a little humor and shit. Then, when rap came about, I just transferred it into rap form. It just rhymes now.”
“‘Treat Her Like a Prostitute,’ and all that type of stuff — that’s really just young, adolescent, girl crazy shit. Getting your heart broken, your new at romance, and your hormones are raging. Think back to when you’re like between 18 and 23; this is the mentality of most youth. So, you tell stories that match your age and your environment.
“It wouldn’t be like a Joan Collins book — it wouldn’t be that sophisticated because she’s a mature, older woman. It would be more of how kids talk and what’s happening with them at your age. If you were a young adult in the 80s, this is how you interact with each other. This is how you talk. Like, ‘Imagine if I met a cute Indian girl, and I was running around with that raccoon hat Davy Crockett was wearing, and I had to meet her parents.’ Your imagination is just running wild.
“And you get it from old TV shows. Like the melody, ‘Davy, Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier.’ Shit like that. It’s like when Will Smith made ‘I Dream of Jeannie’ over — it was something his age group was familiar with. It’s pretty much the same thing — they all grew up on it. You draw from your environment and have fun like the kids your age.”
Reception of The Great Adventures of Slick Rick
It’s worth noting that The Great Adventures of Slick Rick has received several accolades over the years. In 1998, The Source named it one of the “100 Best Albums.” The magazine even gave it a perfect score of five mics in 2002. Slant Magazine placed it at 99 on their “The 100 Best Albums of the 1980s” list in 2012. “Children’s Story” was ranked 61 on VH1’s 2008 list of the “100 Greatest Hip Hop Songs.”
Many hip-hop artists cite The Great Adventures of Slick Rick as one of their favorite albums, including fellow rapper Busta Rhymes. In 2009, he stated, “No artist before or since has painted pictures as vividly as Slick Rick did on that album. He embodied what it was to be a superstar: the over-the-top persona, the jewelry, the clothes, his swagger, charisma, and attitude. He had that London twang and the mannerisms but still had the ‘hood mentality — the urban, edgy approach. Nobody else had that combination.”
Nas quoted in the Complex magazine, “It’s a musical storybook. It’s from a New Yorker with an English accent with an imagination that’s never been heard of before in music. He’s just amazing.”
The legacy of The Great Adventures of Slick Rick
Fans and critics instantly embraced the Great Adventures of Slick Rick. Def Jam publicist Bill Adler remembers the time around the album release fondly. “It was recognized as a masterpiece from the day it came out,” he tells us. “The popular reaction to the album was huge, and the critical reaction was very, very positive — immediately.”
Today, the album is still regarded as one of the greatest rap albums ever. It’s still a source of creative inspiration and influence for artists for their music and creativity.
By Shamarie Knight
