The rapper Big Boi called “the coolest on the planet”
The definition of cool was established early on in the life of Big Boi. He was brought up in Atlanta with New York tapes on rotation and was attracted to the voices that were bigger than life.
None was larger than Slick Rick. By the time he reached middle school, The Great Adventures of Slick Rick was playing on repeat, and Big Boi picked up his accent, cadence and swagger. To him, Rick was untouchable. He was the blueprint.
Slick Rick gained that status as a result of style and storytelling that no one can match. He created entire worlds within three minutes and made songs into short movies with characters that you can almost see passing by.
Instead, his delivery was somewhere between a wink and a lesson, but smooth enough to glide and cut through any beat like a razor. And so the eyepatch, and the ropes of gold, and that dignified, noble pose, and a rapper that thought he was king of every room where he entered.
The influence of Rick spread way beyond the childhood bedroom of Big Boi. His first album served as a foundation of hip hop motivating generations of MCs to consider narrative as an art form. Nas referred to the record as a storybook.
Eminem declared that he was a child of Slick Rick. Jay Z, Snoop Dogg and so many others stole portions of the style, flow or imagination of Rick. The verses that he wrote even nowadays seem modern, which proves that the basics that he established were there to stay. Rap is continuously evolving, yet Slick Rick does not have a season.
As soon as OutKast and Slick Rick finally collided in the recording, the compatibility was just natural. The rearrangement of Da Art of Storytellin’ was like two time periods shaking hands. Big Boi came into the pocket with a feeling of relief that a student had at last been able to spar with his teacher.
Rick made the payback with ‘Street Talkin’, injecting a new vitality that cemented his voice in current Southern funk. The chemistry was organic, a reminder that great storytellers speak the same language regardless of the time of the decade.
This is the reason why the praise by Big Boi is effective. He did not refer to Slick Rick as the coolest out of nostalgia, but because Rick was the coolest thing that artists strive to attain. Style with purpose. Charisma without effort. Trends that are outlived by stories. Slick Rick has established the norm of how to be a character, a craftsman and a cultural force all in one.