Slick Rick, the 41-year-old rap pioneer, is proud to be a nostalgia act. The way he sees it, nostalgia is the most stylish thing in hip-hop right now.
I just want to keep the audience happy and remind them of the '80s, he says by phone.
Back in those days, you was getting hit with a lot of one-two punches. It was like an explosion of good music.
He rattles off the names of classic artists: LL Cool J, Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, EPMD, Run DMC and himself.
You was getting a lot of flavor at one small time. Everybody had good, strong, gritty songs. All the groups I just mentioned have songs that have lasted the test of time.
So Rick (real name Rick Walters) continues to tour behind his classic jams, wearing his flashy clothes and his trademark eye patch and transporting fans back a couple of decades. Accompanied by a DJ, he rhymes with a lilting British accent, sounding like a naughty schoolboy reciting poetry.
His witty lyrics have been sampled, appropriated and shouted out reverently by some of the biggest names in the hip-hop canon the Notorious B.
I.G., OutKast, Jay-Z.
Snoop Dogg covered the party anthem La Di Da Di nearly word for word.
Rick is revered for his easygoing, playful flow and his smart, lyrical punch lines.
Children's Story, the tale of a confused petty criminal fleeing police, is often credited as a precursor to the graphic imagery of gangsta rap.
For all of its violence, audiences find Children's Story charming, Rick says.
In hip-hop culture, it's still a feel-good song, he says. It has a nice powerful beat and a nice, positive message: Stay out of trouble.
Don't rob people.
Rick moved to the Bronx from England when he was 11 years old. By his early 20s, he was one of hip-hop's first mainstream hit makers.
But in 1991, he was convicted of second-degree attempted murder for the shootings of a cousin and another person. (He claimed the cousin had extorted from him and threatened him.)
He's spent the last decade battling to stay in the United States.
The Department of Homeland Security, cracking down on immigrants with felony convictions, has pressed to deport Rick. The matter continues to wend its way through federal court.
I've made a career for myself, I have real estate here, a wife here, family ties here, Rick says.
The system should not be designed to just act like a machine and throw people out. A lot of good people are getting abused along with the bad.
The past haunts him, but it also continues to help him.
Rick likes to talk about the music and clothing of hip-hop's early days, and he's happy to evoke that era for fans, even those too young to remember it.
If you look around now, a lot of younger artists are reminiscing, too, he says. They're wearing gold chains or big earrings from back in the days.
It's a part of our culture that a lot of people genuinely appreciate. They like the way that looked on each other. Maybe their uncles and aunts dressed that way when they were younger or something.
As hip-hop's audience gets older, the music will evolve to match its changing needs and tastes, Rick believes. In the next few years, he predicts, older artists exploring more mature, complex subject matter will begin topping the charts.
I don't know who came up with the rule that says if you hit a certain age you have to give up music, he says.
Hip-hop is a culture that is over 30 years old. It's not a baby that should remain in Pampers.
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