#15 — Slick Rick — The Great Adventures of Slick Rick (1988)
New Yorn, NY — Def Jam
Coming strong with hands down one of the goofiest cover arts in all of hip-hop history, Slick Rick brings us his debut solo album after a pretty good run as MC Ricky D of Doug E. Fresh’s Get Fresh Crew, where he recorded his big 1985 hit, “La Di Da Di”, which already showcased his penchant for narrative and storytelling. Now, Ricky boy here might have been the target of a subtle diss in the last album we’ve covered here, by the Ultramagnetic MC’s, where “simplistic storytellers” with unelaborate rhymes get called out more than once. Does that, however, track? Let’s find out.
Most tracks are produced either by the now already familiar Bomb Squad or Rick himself, with just one by Jam Master Jay from Run-D.M.C (and I gotta say, the Bomb Squad joints are consistently better than Rick’s). The beats are notoriously blaring, almost obnoxious at times, and pretty much every one of them has its “main sample”, a characteristic sound or melody that usually fucking bellows throughout the whole affair and ultimately defines the “face” of each beat. And one thing I can say about the production is that it seldom gets boring: even if it’s all following the same general framework, pretty much all beats, for better or for worse, are considerably unique and not excessively similar to each other, which, I gotta say, is a little pet peeve of mine when it comes to late 80s rap. All in all, pretty safe to say this is the record with the highest SCD (Song Character Differentiability) so far.
Another thing that helps with setting them apart is that almost every one of them has a sort of gimmick, a theme or characteristic that isn’t shared with any other: Treat Her Like a Prostitute, the opener, is a famously misogynistic rant with completely made-up delusional “examples” about how women are worthless and not to be trusted (and also secretly about how he’s into cuckolding iyam); Children’s Story is uncharacteristically serious and somber; Teenage Love is surprisingly mellow and bittersweet (if still quite incel-y) and features an almost vaporwavey beat and sampling; Hey Young World is moralistic instead of narrative and features this creative, if a little annoying, call-and-response structuring of the verses, et coetera.
A lot of songs also have these little dramatic section where he does these little falsetto voices to play different characters, usually women and children. As stated, the linear storytelling is his main thing, and most tracks have at least one basic “script” to them, which can sometimes get pretty insane, such as in The Moment I Feared, where he goes on a rant about how he got mugged, somehow used the opportunity to acquire sex with this girl and was later forced to murder her boyfriend in self defense, only to end up in prison for life, complete with an unnecessarily explicit dramatization of him getting raped by other inmates — the titular moment he feared. Really makes you think.
But what about the rapping itself, I hear you say? Well, let’s get into it then. Now, Rick is no MF DOOM (even though they do have something in common), but calling his rapping “simplistic” might have been a little too harsh by our friend Kool Keith. Sure, his writing isn’t as particularly intricate when it comes to phrasing and lyricism, and the overwhelming majority of his rhyme structures are in that same old A-A-B-B and don’t go on for as long, but there’s plenty of variety there that most of the time it’s entertaining and not boring — what I mean is, the writing is never really that impressive from a technical standpoint, but it is rarely subpar too. All in all, though, it’s pretty much the weakest link on this joint.
He does, however, have yet another trick up his sleeve that sets his rapping apart a little more. See, he was actually born in England to jamaican parents, who only migrated to the US when young Richard was 10 years old, which means he retained some of what Busta Rhymes called the london twang, not qwoite a propah accent but rather some little inflections here and there in the way he pronounces certain syllables, which makes his rapping somewhat softer, slicker (hee hee), dodgier even; sometimes it comes naturally and sometimes you can tell he’s doing it on purpose for a dramatic effect, and it goes hand in hand with his arrogant pimpin’ persona, giving it some emphasis.
All in all I would say this album has a handful of redeeming qualities, even if some significant things about it have definitely not aged well. Rick would later go on to write some less crass stuff while honing his skills more and more, and the title of one of the greatest to ever do it is not an inadequate one for him, for the great influence his storytelling style had if not for sheer quality. Definitely quite a few tracks worth treasuring in there. For my final considerations, I would like to say that I think he should have done the cover art photo with the eyepatch because, come on man, it just looks so much cooler. But no, he went for the glass eye and dorky smile. Dumbass.
Favourite tracks:
Children’s Story — It’s one of his greatest classics for a good reason. His flow sounds especially dynamic and slick (heh) here, the storytelling is pretty compelling even if the core story itself is nothing special, and the beat is pretty good and reminds me of later, way grimmer east coast stuff.
Mona Lisa — Rhyme schemes are somewhat basic and subpar here, but the wordplay is at a high, as well as the dramaticness. It’s got a great gimmick of rapping through different personas (Slick Rick, MC Ricky D, Richard Walters, etc) and going into nonsensical little tangents here and there. The storyline is complex and convoluted, almost non-linear at times.
Teacher, Teacher — Pretty much the platonic ideal of a braggaddocio track, with above-average rhyming and flowing, and a plethora of whimsical little scenes to boot. Honestly the track on this album I have the most fun jamming.
Snakes of the World Today — OK, this one is technically just a bonus demo track from the deluxe edition, but I’m including it here because it fucking belts ass eod. Crazy jazzy beat that wouldn’t be out of place in a Digable Planets joint and some frankly intriguing rapping, simply mindless pick for a spot among my favourites, even if it does sound like absolute dogshit :gloob:
Least favorite track:
Indian Girl (An Adult Story) — Treat Her Like a Prostitute, one of the hip-hop’s foundational incel anthems, is a very crass track but you can still manage to have some fun with it, even if in a mostly tongue-in-cheek way. This one, however, is so downright tasteless and offensive that it’s simply impossible to enjoy, even in a purely ironic way. From the repulsive lyrics to the straight up annoying beat, there’s nothing really worth saving in here.
