Photo: Brett Hammond / CC BY 2.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
What strikes me most about Slick Rick is that he essentially invented the idea of the rapper as a novelist. Plenty of MCs in the mid-eighties could rhyme; almost none could build a scene, voice multiple characters, and land a punchline the way he did on "La Di Da Di" and "The Show." The fact that "La Di Da Di" became one of the most sampled records ever says it all — generations of artists keep returning to borrow his cadence. That London-born lilt over New York hip-hop gave him a sound nobody has convincingly imitated since. For my money, he is the genre's first true storyteller.
Overview
Ricky Martin Lloyd Walters (born January 14, 1965) known professionally as Slick Rick, is a British and American rapper and record producer based in New York City. He rose to prominence as part of Doug E. Fresh & the Get Fresh Crew in the mid-1980s. His songs "The Show" and "La Di Da Di" are considered early hip-hop classics. "La Di Da Di" is one of the most sampled songs in history.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Slick Rick
- Name (Japanese)
- スリック・リック
- Reading
- すりっく・りっく
- Born
- January 14, 1965 (age 61)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Capricorn / Snake
- Origin
- Mitcham, United Kingdom
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- rapper / singer / record producer / philanthropist / songwriter
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School
- University
- Private
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Rapper — see all → · Singer — see all → · More people from United Kingdom →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-10
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.