Great Adventures Of Slick Rick, The [ECD] [PA] [Remastered] - Slick Rick > Reviews > STILL REPRESENTING THE UK.......KINDA

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Groundbreaking
Lyrics	Sublime
Quality and consistency of tracks	A couple of weak links
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	best story teller in hip hop history
Disadvantages:	none another advan is the use of english humour

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Oh dear god, not so soon did i expect to see this album again, ha ha it is some where at the bottom of my cd piles, though don't be mistaken its not because its not one of the best stoytelling and humour albums in the history of man, animal,plant and alien its just because it so dam old and well just old.
Now you may be wondering about my title well yes my man slick rick one of the funniest rappers in history is english !!!!!!! He was born in Wimbledon south west london, but sadly moved to america at the age of 11 to that famous neighbourhood that all hip hop fan should know 'the boogie down' of course im referring to 'the boogie down bronx'. But maybe this was a good thing because otherwise its most certain that rick wouldn't have got into rap and MY GOD his voice wouldn't have been anywhere near as ill (ill=good, great, cool,basically anything thats good) if i was a woman i would be completely charmed by his voice lol no im not gay (check my homepage profile fav model is adriana lima) but his voice qualifies as one of the best i rap history, he has a New York accent but then every now and then you hear that old skool english accent kick in, not the type you hear kids speak with today in london but instead that old 'blimey gov'ner' chimney sweep kinda accent and added with the his soft bronx new york accent it takes the harsh/hard sounding roughness off of the english accent to great effect, and i love the way he lenghten the end of words 'caaaaaash' lol.
Now this guy was real funny, he was pretty flashy too, not in a big headed way, he just liked to look different which is why when he got blinded in his right eye (i i remember rightly) but instead of getting this seen to and escaping with as little external display of the problem as possible, however rick wore an eye patch, lol yes a full blown pirates eye patch for his whole career and probably still does to this day, he was also the first rapper to introduce flashy jewellery and the all famous rappers chains that we all know seemed to catch on, BIG TIME.

Treat her like a prostitute - HA HA women don't be mislead by the title he is not talking about all women as he states at the beginning of the song 'don't treat know girly wirl until your sure of the scoop', this story is HIGHLY amusing as he goes on to talk about girls that have broken his heart in the past to devastatingly amusing effects, his 'first example' is when he is at a christmas party with his wife (at her families house) when her friend was drunk and tells rick that the baby their expecting is not him, it then proceed to the chorus when rick tells of his friends warning him about these women, futhrer stories include his girlfriend with the mailman when he gets home from work, with a vulgar but funny description of what he see's when he walks in, and the last is when he talks of a man who's wife SHOUTS OUT THE WRONG NAME DURING SEX lol, timeless song, a real old skool sounding beat aswell, old skool scratching and break beats (break beats = the parts of songs breakdancers used to dance to, so dj's pre longed them to whole songs).

The rulers back - I DON'T CARE IF YOU DON'T LIKE HIP HOP/RAP BECAUSE you will love this funky sounding song no matter what music you like this is a real cool song, on this whole album he raps ever so simply instead choosing to focus on his story telling skills than his lyrical complexity, and i this suits him so perfectly, the ony way i can describe it is if you imagine someone being told to rap for the first time, someone who knows nothing of hip hop but can just about string a couple of rap lines together, that how he sounds though he has perfected it, and although this was 1988 and rhymes were much simpler then, they were stil becoming more complex than the old skool style, but slick rick chose to stick with the old. the song has a great piano loop and trumpet solo and ha ha as an english person you gotta the love the english accent he puts on at the beginning to state 'hault who goes there' only to be replied by a small boy say 'it is i sire richard of nottingham , news from the east sire, rick the ruler has returned' i gotta let you hear this one too but to get a real feel listen to the one below aswell: http://habadabadoo.imeem.com/music/mF2X52M7/the_rulers_back/

Children's story - Probably the most famous and best song in slick ricks catalogue, the story (lol see i have to set the scene for each song because thats how good of a story teller he is) is set in rick's nephew + niece's bedroom as they ask him to read them a bedtime story and what is about to follow is STORY TELLING PERFECTION down to every syllable, the beat is perfectly fast paced for the fast moving story, and for all of you rap fans out there that don't listen to rap coz you can't be bother to sit there and listen to the lyrics and stay focused the whole song to know whats goin on, this is the perfect song for you, see you can't help but listen, his vocals are so crystal clear that you understand everything that he says therefore you will find yourself sitting forward in your seat wondering whats going to happen next. He tells the story of a young boy who didnt stay on the straigh and narrow path and is now in jail, and even though it could be read as a serious story and sinister it by no means comes across like that.
classic lines from this song include, 'once upon a time not long ago, when people wore pyjamas and lived life slow, when people where behaving like they ought to,good'
'ran up the stairs to the top floor, opened up the door there guess who he saw, who, DAVE the dope fene shooting dope, who don't know the meaning of water nor soap'.
'the kiddie starts to figure, all the years if i pull this trigger'
this song his such a perfect example i'll let ya'll check this track out on here:
http://habadabadoo.imeem.com/music/5MZE3O8Y/children_story/

The moment i feared - HA ha this song is something rick likes to talk about alot, how his self proclaimed good looks have gotten him into trouble in the past, this one is about him going to a club in the latin quarters and girls just being all over him, the title of the song kicks in after he has taken the girl back to her apartments and had his way with her lol when her boyfriend turns up.
i love the old skool songs that talk of the good times in new york city when times werent nearly as rough and hip hop was fun and basically a big party.

Let's get crazy - A real funky beat, maybe one of the o so slightly weakest tracks on the album as it is rick's attempt at making a party song, not really telling a story in this one just talkin about the parties he has lit up where ever he performs. Theres some nice scratching and beat boxing by one of the originals 'Doug E Fresh'.

Indian Girl (adult story) - This one has the same type of beat as childrens story with the same taborine tapping but different instruments involved too. This is about, as the title would suggest an indian girl (in america this could mean west indies as in carribean, or native indian) most probably about a native indian as the girls dad is referred to as the 'chief' and LOL slick sings in this one, he plays (as in all his songs containing a women) the voice of the girl and man, he sings the hook of that love song 'i'm in the mood for love'.
classic lines, 'he rode that ass till the p%*sy started yawning' lol it may be a little vulgar but not all his humour is like this and besides if you can look past the vulgarity it is witty lol.
After the man in question has has sex with this girl he megins to feel pains in his manly area so he goes back to check if there is anything wrong with her womanly area, he inspects for himself and, ' he opened it up with his bare two thumbs, he seee's CRABS WITH INDIAN DRUMS going, heyya heyya heyya heyya'.

Teenage Love - This song is kind of corny, though i would not discredit it for that because this was the eighties and people would probably have liked the beat back then, he talks of situations that everyone goes through as a teenager, this is a surprisingky serious song about how he felt and how he believes other people to feel when in teenage love, he often (as he does in this song) makes up characters to tell his stories through so he wil say something like , 'he hurt her' rather than say i and using himself as an example.

Mona lisa - Very funky beat, with a song that begins 'ladies and gentlemen and low lifes', so that gives us a guess at what the mood for the rest of the song will be like. Here he talks of a girl he met called mona lisa who to his disgust was a virgin lol. throughout the rest of the song he persists to try and get mona lisa to give up ermm something lol.

Kit (whats the scoop) - A simple story in which slick rick is discussing the scoop on the days hits with a dj, though when they go to get something to eat at the local fast food joint he is kidnapped by whoelse but of course A BEAUTIFUL WOMEN!!!

Hey young world - A background loop of ricks voice is played over his lyrics and its real smooth soft beat, as he preaches to the 'young world' about dreams and how only you can make them come true. This song is worthy for the beat alone if not the lyrics. I really like the nice little piano loop aswell using the highest keys on the piano.

Teacher, teacher - This song is all about rappers who bite (copy) off others in particular off rick, and rick proceeds to talk of the many people who have asked him how he achieves his outstanding level of rap, lol but not once does rick come off as cocky or arrogant all while just claiming to be the best that ever did it.

Lick the balls - A story of rick entering a rap competition, though along with 'lets get crazy' being one of the weaker songs on the album, this would be a great song for any other rapper to have made at the time or now as rick raps of people who hate on his talent.

Anyone rap fan or not can fall in love with this mans skills he keeps it very simple in terms of rhymes and is crystal clear with his vocals so never again could you say i don't understand what the rapper is saying (most of the rappers that rap too fast and you can't understand probably aren't worth listening to anyway) .
Rick really takes it back to the old skool block party times, when they would use power from a streetlight to power their turn tables and speakers. This is a real feel good humourous album that anyone with a fun loving attitude or hip hop fan should have, because it is a 5 mic classic (mic being the famous rating system used by the world famous hip hop magazine 'the source', and to get 5 mics back in that day was very hard indeed, it rarely ever happened, but the magazine is not the same today).

similar artists are:
Biz markie - they both have fun with songs and have a similar type of voice.
Fresh prince - yes will smith was a rapper before 'the fresh prince of bel air' and yes his name was originally fresh prince before this show, and no his rapping career did not start with the song men in black (thats when he changed his stage name to just, 'will smith') it was much much better than that, his stories were also great and simple, when he used to talk about girls, 'girls aint nuthin but trouble', and parent issues, 'parents just don't understand'.

I'm just gonna have to pull thick out again today because it is such a classic era defining album!

MAKE SURE YOU CHECK OUT THE TRACKS , UPLOADED THAT SITE WILL LET YOU LISTEN TO THEM ONLINE, AND THEY ARE BOTH TWO PERFECT EXAMPLES (ESPECIALLY CHILDERENS STORY) OF HIS STORY TELLING ABILITIES (just copy and paste the links into your browser and it will begin).