Slick Rick Drops ‘The Great Adventures of Slick Rick’ Album: Today in Hip-Hop

On this day, Nov. 1, in hip-hop history...

1988: London-born rapper Slick Rick made a monumental hip-hop masterpiece when he delivered his debut album The Great Adventures of Slick Rick on Nov. 1, 1988. The Great Adventures of Slick Rick captivated music fans thanks to Rick's imaginative, witty storytelling. "Children's Story," "The Ruler's Back" and "Hey Young World" are revered for their picture-painting quality. Rick's singsong cadences and ability to personify different characters on the same record, even with his British accent, made The Great Adventures more of a narrative than just a rap album. It was almost as if listeners were getting multiple sides to the artist as he told his stories. Rick's cleverness as an MC blew all competition at the time out of the water and set the stage for him to be revered as a hip-hop legend.

With funky production from Jam Master Jay, The Bomb Squad and Slick Rick himself, The Great Adventures made for a historic release for Def Jam Recordings. The Great Adventures peaked at No. 31 on the Billboard 200 and No. 1 on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.

Even in modern day hip-hop, songs from The Great Adventures has been sampled by rappers like Snoop Dogg, Jay Z, Missy Elliott and more. Rick's ground-breaking debut helped usher in a more tactical style of rap which flourished in the early '90s, known as the golden age. The Great Adventures of Slick Rick stands as a testament of some of hip-hop's best storytelling on wax.

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