Originally from South Wimbledon, London, England, Slick Rick moved with his family to The Bronx in 1975 where he met Dana Dane, later forming a hip hop duo as Kangol Crew. Rick's characteristic eyepatch was acquired after being blinded in the right eye by broken glass as an infant. He is best known for a series of rap recordings during the 1980s, including "Hey Young World", "Children's Story" and "La Di Da Di", B-side of Doug E. Fresh single "The Show" (1985).
"La Di Da Di", "Mona Lisa" and "Children's Story" are among his best known songs, with "La Di Da Di" being covered nearly word-for-word by Snoop Dogg on his 1993 album Doggystyle, and lines from "La Di Da Di" being borrowed by multiple high profile artists. "Children's Story" was sampled by Montell Jordan for his 1995 hit, "This Is How We Do It",and Everlast covered it for his album Eat at Whitey's. Eminem also borrowed from the song extensively in his diss song "Can-I-Bitch". "Children's Story" was also covered with similar lyrics by the MC duo, Black Star on their 1998 album, Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Black Star, as well as by Tricky on the album Nearly God, with the same name and lyrics.
A third album Behind Bars was recorded while still in prison, and released to lukewarm sales and reviews. Released from prison in 1998, he remained with Def Jam and on May 25, 1999 released a fourth album, entitled The Art of Storytelling, generally considered the authentic follow up to his 1988 debut. Storytelling was also an artistically successful comeback that paired him with MC's like Nas, OutKast, Raekwon, and Snoop Dogg, among others.
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