Biography
Early in hip-hop history, Slick Rick emerged as one of its leading narrators, his smooth magnetism and incisive rhymes elevating him to iconic status amid the genre’s formative years. Bringing distinctive ability as well as a singular aesthetic and stage presence to the developing art form, he positioned himself as a mysterious figure with the arrival of his 1988 debut, The Great Adventures of Slick Rick. That platinum-certified effort supplied creative fuel, covers, and sampling material for successive waves of artists. Legal setbacks failed to interrupt his trajectory, since two of his four studio albums surfaced while he served time at Rikers Island on attempted-murder charges.
Born Ricky Walters on January 14, 1965, in South Wimbledon, London, to Jamaican parents, he lost sight in one eye after an infant accident involving broken glass and began wearing an eyepatch soon afterward. The family relocated to the Bronx in the late 1970s; Walters attended LaGuardia High School of Music & Art, where he befriended future rapper Dana Dane. Together they assembled the Kangol Crew and competed in local hip-hop battles. At a 1984 Bronx event, Walters met Doug E. Fresh and joined the Get Fresh Crew alongside Chill Will and Barry Bee. One year later, Fresh’s number-four R&B single “The Show” broke through, prompting MC Ricky D.—as Walters was then billed—to pursue a solo deal two years afterward after Russell Simmons arranged his signing to Def Jam Records, hip-hop’s premier label at the time.
Slick Rick delivered The Great Adventures of Slick Rick in November 1988. Though the project ultimately surpassed a million copies and attained classic status, it did not achieve immediate commercial impact. “Treat Her like a Prostitute” resonated on the streets, yet R&B stations shunned it and instead championed his duet with Al B. Sure!, “If I’m Not Your Lover,” which climbed to number two in 1989. Further singles “Children’s Story” and “Teenage Love” spotlighted his laid-back cadence and distinctive British accent, both registering on the charts. The album dominated the Billboard hip-hop/R&B listings for much of summer 1989 and peaked at number 31 on the Billboard 200.
In 1990 Slick Rick was arrested after shooting at cousin Mark Plummer, a former bodyguard dismissed for attempting to extort funds. No one sustained serious injury, yet the rapper pleaded guilty to attempted-murder charges. Before sentencing, twenty-one tracks were recorded and rushed out as the sophomore album The Ruler’s Back. The project generated little commercial traction, although the confessional “I Shouldn’t Have Done It” grazed the R&B charts later in 1991. His third release, the aptly titled 1994 album Behind Bars, was tracked during a work-release program and likewise sold modestly. Freed in 1997, Walters prepared his 1999 comeback, The Art of Storytelling. The expansive set featured guests who had followed his path—Nas, Snoop Dogg, Redman, and OutKast—and became his highest-charting effort, entering the Billboard Top 10.
While performing aboard a Florida cruise ship in summer 2002, immigration authorities detained the rapper and transferred him to detention. Although the INS had pursued deportation unsuccessfully since 1991, officials finally secured a Board of Immigration Appeals ruling favoring removal to England. Despite his wife, children, and parents all holding U.S. citizenship, his London birthplace supplied the technical basis for expulsion. The case grew more exasperating because the agency had spent more than a decade pressing the matter under absurd circumstances: his parents had lived in London for work and returned him to the United States at age eleven, yet he had never altered his citizenship owing to his youth. Held through year’s end, he received support from Russell Simmons and Will Smith, but bail requests were repeatedly denied. Only in April 2016 was he granted U.S. citizenship. By that point Slick Rick ranked among history’s most sampled artists, with material from Kanye West, Miley Cyrus, TLC, Eminem, and numerous others built on his catalog. In 2019 he issued his first new music in decades, a pair of summer singles—“Midas Touch” and “Can’t Dance to a Track That Ain’t Got No Soul”—that placed conversational rhymes over brief, straightforward 1970s soul loops drawn from Lyn Collins and Funkadelic.
Born Ricky Walters on January 14, 1965, in South Wimbledon, London, to Jamaican parents, he lost sight in one eye after an infant accident involving broken glass and began wearing an eyepatch soon afterward. The family relocated to the Bronx in the late 1970s; Walters attended LaGuardia High School of Music & Art, where he befriended future rapper Dana Dane. Together they assembled the Kangol Crew and competed in local hip-hop battles. At a 1984 Bronx event, Walters met Doug E. Fresh and joined the Get Fresh Crew alongside Chill Will and Barry Bee. One year later, Fresh’s number-four R&B single “The Show” broke through, prompting MC Ricky D.—as Walters was then billed—to pursue a solo deal two years afterward after Russell Simmons arranged his signing to Def Jam Records, hip-hop’s premier label at the time.
Slick Rick delivered The Great Adventures of Slick Rick in November 1988. Though the project ultimately surpassed a million copies and attained classic status, it did not achieve immediate commercial impact. “Treat Her like a Prostitute” resonated on the streets, yet R&B stations shunned it and instead championed his duet with Al B. Sure!, “If I’m Not Your Lover,” which climbed to number two in 1989. Further singles “Children’s Story” and “Teenage Love” spotlighted his laid-back cadence and distinctive British accent, both registering on the charts. The album dominated the Billboard hip-hop/R&B listings for much of summer 1989 and peaked at number 31 on the Billboard 200.
In 1990 Slick Rick was arrested after shooting at cousin Mark Plummer, a former bodyguard dismissed for attempting to extort funds. No one sustained serious injury, yet the rapper pleaded guilty to attempted-murder charges. Before sentencing, twenty-one tracks were recorded and rushed out as the sophomore album The Ruler’s Back. The project generated little commercial traction, although the confessional “I Shouldn’t Have Done It” grazed the R&B charts later in 1991. His third release, the aptly titled 1994 album Behind Bars, was tracked during a work-release program and likewise sold modestly. Freed in 1997, Walters prepared his 1999 comeback, The Art of Storytelling. The expansive set featured guests who had followed his path—Nas, Snoop Dogg, Redman, and OutKast—and became his highest-charting effort, entering the Billboard Top 10.
While performing aboard a Florida cruise ship in summer 2002, immigration authorities detained the rapper and transferred him to detention. Although the INS had pursued deportation unsuccessfully since 1991, officials finally secured a Board of Immigration Appeals ruling favoring removal to England. Despite his wife, children, and parents all holding U.S. citizenship, his London birthplace supplied the technical basis for expulsion. The case grew more exasperating because the agency had spent more than a decade pressing the matter under absurd circumstances: his parents had lived in London for work and returned him to the United States at age eleven, yet he had never altered his citizenship owing to his youth. Held through year’s end, he received support from Russell Simmons and Will Smith, but bail requests were repeatedly denied. Only in April 2016 was he granted U.S. citizenship. By that point Slick Rick ranked among history’s most sampled artists, with material from Kanye West, Miley Cyrus, TLC, Eminem, and numerous others built on his catalog. In 2019 he issued his first new music in decades, a pair of summer singles—“Midas Touch” and “Can’t Dance to a Track That Ain’t Got No Soul”—that placed conversational rhymes over brief, straightforward 1970s soul loops drawn from Lyn Collins and Funkadelic.
Albums
VICTORY
2025
Best Of
2014
The Great Adventures Of Slick Rick
2000
The Art Of Storytelling
1999
Behind Bars
1994
The Ruler's Back
1991
The Great Adventures Of Slick Rick (Deluxe Edition)
1988
Singles
