Great Adventures Of Slick Rick, The [ECD] [PA] [Remastered] - Slick Rick > Reviews > As We Go A Little Something Like This... Hit It

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Groundbreaking
Lyrics	Thought-provoking
Quality and consistency of tracks	A couple of weak links
Value for Money	Good

Advantages:	Great lyricism
Disadvantages:	Repetitive beats

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

This 1988 release is the debut from Slick Rick. "The Great Adventures of Slick Rick" comes three years after debuting with the beatboxer Doug E. Fresh as part of the Get Fresh Crew, who brought Hip Hop classics "The Show" and "La Di Da Di", which are both sampled through this record. Slick Rick is a rapper originally born in London, and moved over to the US at the age of ten, due to it occurrin at this specific age, you can tell that he is able to interchange between a British and New York accent in his rhymes.

1. "Treat Her Like A Prostitute"

What a way to get things started as Slick Rick shows what he's about through his first song by telling us how he is around girls before truly falling in love with them. As Rick is known for his story telling, he decides to give us three sceneries and examples of why this distance should be set up went entering a relationship.

**Four Stars**

2. "The Ruler's Back"

MC Ricky D chances the subject of his raps as he switches things and directs the lyrics to make them focus around him. You get him take on the persona of Rick the Ruler here as you have him rap to horns, showing a high status above all others. You have him make comparisons to others who he has heard attempting to re-create his sound and he says how they still won't be able to keep up with his flows and excellent storytelling, with rhymes to fit in with it.

**Four Stars**

3. "Children's Story"

All Hip Hop fans should know this track as a classic and it has been sampled so many times since to act as foundations for storytelling tracks by other MCs including Black Star and Uncle Murder, who have re-told this "Children's Story" according to the ghetto life which they saw ten and twenty years, respectively, after the initial release of this track. Slick Rick sits some children down and gives them a tales to dwell on, making them think of what paths to take in life.

**Five Stars**

4. "The Moment I Feared"

You get Rick perform some bars about what is stated in the title, and these revolve around two different events which go on during a tales which he goes through during this tune. Slick Rick's flow is perfect as he comes with simple rhyming couplets and regular line lengths to aid him to through the story. With these foundations, it is simple for him to add in anxiety he faces when being mugged and getting caught with another man's woman later on.

**Four Stars**

5. "Let's Get Crazy"

You get a hype-up track from the Ruler as he decides to liven things up on this occassion. I found that this was especially effective when you hear the sample of "The Show", which has Rick as MC Ricky D collaborating with one of the best beatboxers of the eighties, Doug E. Fresh.

**Four Stars**

6. "Indian Girl"

Earlier we had the "Children's Story" and this one is subtiled "An Adult Story" as Slick gets rather excplicit in his rhymes. I felt that it was neccessary to do so as the theme lent itslef to this, but it doens't mean that I felt that it was rght for this album. I found it to be slightly weaker than the rest of the material on the album due to this.

**Three Stars**

7. "Teenage Love"

If you can relate to the words in this track, then I'm sure that you will get engaged with, it however if this isn't the case then I expect that it will just go over you as he completely changes everything. Slick Rick goes on some more gentle beats as he explains how naïve teenagers can be when they think they are in love and they find themselves blind to whatever the other may be doing, no mater how clearly they may be showing signs of it.

**Four Stars**

8. "Mona Lisa"

Here is a classic cut from the album, and one whihc went on to be released as a singel. You have him interchange between the two personas which you have through this record, MC Ricky D and Rick The Ruler, and it makes it easier to distinguish between the tow more easily as he raps about a girl, who you should avoid..

**Five Stars**

9. "Kit"

Thsi one has Slic rick show off his skills oncew again as he embarks on another adventure in his raps, and is able to draw it all together into being a track which centres around a news story which he is attempting to report.

**Four Stars**

10. "Hey Young World"

Here you have a track which has Slick stray away from thes tyle he used in just about every other track in the album as he doesn't opt for the storytelling option here, instead he pretty much re-does "Children's Story" and does this by advising people on how to live their lives.

**Four Stars**

11. "Teacher, Teacher"

I thought that the only real weak feature fo this track is that you have a rather annoying synth-based piece of production. However the hard beats which you here pretty much for the rest of the LP come through to prevent it from being a complete flop. From here Ricky D raps with great swagger and expressess how he feels about being abel to do what he does, and how people compleement him on it constantly.

**Four Stars**

12. "Lick The Balls"

I can't say that I really understood this one, or found a reason why the title was used, because the raps, aside from the chorus where far from where you you would think the theme of the raps are going. I think that this exposes he weaken in losing the plot when he hasn't got a specific one to focus upon, however I think that it was all rescued by the strong production.

**Four Stars**

Throughout this I constantly thought that there was a Run-D.M.C. element to this album, and it wasn't until later when I read that Jam Master Jay (the DJ of the group) did the production, that it all made sense. Although at times I felt that it was rather repetitive by using simialr beats which were heard from the start to the finfish of this, probably down to th fact that Slick himself did co-production in much of it, but I didn't really get tired of it.

I can understand why this album is considered to be one of the classics of the late eighties, not only for this genre, but for msuic as a whole. Although he didn't impact too many outside Hip Hop, he created new directions for other lyricist to go on for the future. Within the genre though he has gone on to infleunce so many, most obviously, Andre 300 of OutKast seems to have taken on many characteristics whihc Rick possesses when performing here.