He is the rapper’s rapper, adored by Jay-Z, and once called ‘the most beautiful thing to happen to hip-hop’. So why has he taken so long to release his new album? And can we please see his diamond-crusted Virgin Mary medallion?
S
lick Rick is tucking into a late room-service breakfast in his Park Lane hotel room. He is back in London, the city his family emigrated from when he was a boy, because he’s launching a new album, Victory, his first since 1999’s The Art of Storytelling, which featured an array of guest artists – including Outkast, Nas and Snoop Dogg – paying homage to one of hip-hop’s legendary figures.
Even today, he remains the rapper’s rapper, the most-sampled hip-hop artist in history. Ghostface Killah has called him the greatest of all time. Eminem described himself as “a product of Slick Rick”, Jay-Z likened him to Matisse and Mark Ronson once gave a Ted talk dissecting his work. Questlove called his voice “the most beautiful thing to happen to hip-hop culture”.
So what has he been doing for the last 26 years? He’s keen to point out that he’s been busy. There was a lengthy battle with US immigration (he was granted American citizenship in 2016); guest appearances on tracks by Jay-Z, Missy Elliott and Mariah Carey among others; collaborations with fashion brands; a real estate empire to tend to. A smart cookie, Slick Rick invested his 80s earnings in property in the Bronx in New York City, the downside of which, “delinquent tenants and such”, is explored in an exasperated track on Victory called Landlord. But it took a meeting with actor Idris Elba “at a celebrity-type party thing” to bring a new album to life: Victory was recorded at Elba’s homes in London and Paris. Uniquely among his catalogue, the results lean into the former Ricky Walters’s British roots: UK rapper Giggs makes a guest appearance, as does Estelle, and the accompanying videos were shot in south London.
