★★★★★
Slick Rick's place in hip hop legend was already secure before this album was ever released. The Great Adventures of Slick Rick remains to this day one of the true masterpieces of the Golden Age of hip hop, and most knowledgeable hip hop heads will rate it high on their list of Top 10 Albums Ever. No matter what happened afterwards, Rick would've been remember. But after his strange and difficult ordeal, The Art Of Storytelling proved that Rick is one of the true masters of the artform...
- rapreviews.com
2009-07-21
★★★★★
It really started back in '85. With the exception ofa few acts such as the Beastie Boys and Run-DMC, rapmusic was still dominated by cats wearing cheesysweatsuits and the same flow utilized by the SugarhillGang and Kurtis Blow. This was the year the man knownas MC Ricky D, collabing with Doug E. Fresh and theGet Fresh Crew on one of the most famous 12" A and Bside singles in hip hop history, "The Show/La Di DaDi"...
- rapreviews.com
2009-07-21
★★★★★
No text for this review; see http://robertchristgau.com/xg/bk-cg90/grades-90s.php.
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
The music on this unflappably deft comeback is unlayered, highlighting spare beats with simple scratches or vocal sound effects to showcase the feyly effeminate king's-honeydrip singsong that's been identifiable at 50 yards since "La-Di-Da-Di." Mostly he boasts about how pretty he is and how good he raps, proving the latter with cameos from such modern-day flowmasters as Raekwon, Nas, Snoop, and Big Boi...
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
Cut in a hurry on bail, this widely reviled record will go nowhere, but I hear it as a work of mad avant-garde genius. I'm not kidding--nothing has ever sounded like this. Bass and drums tumbling forward atop submerged hook effects in a trademark groove that never stops, every track checks in fast. And though Rick's bad dreams are almost as full of niggers and bitches as N.W.A's kiddie porn, his quick, preoccupied singsong drawl makes it gratifyingly impossible to pin down the details...
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
Like that other girlie-voiced rapper Dana Dane, Rick masks insecurities about his masculinity by dissing the opposite sex even uglier than the ugly competition. From the clarion "Treat Her Like a Prostitute" through this bitch and that cocaine dolly and the fake virgin "with a yay-wide gash" and the one who meant yes when she said no and ended up marching a tribe of Indians out her cunt, this man hates women...
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
Currently in prison for attempted murder, the legendary rapper Slick Rick recorded these dark narratives and coarsely humorous tracks during brief furloughs. While he fails to match the formidable promise of his seminal 1988 solo debut, Rick's edgy wit is evident on Behind Bars and several top producers help him surpass an earlier in-prison effort.
- ew.com
2009-06-12
★★★★★
Even though this is Slick Rick's first album in four years, it's like he never left: The street sagas of Nas and Snoop Dogg (who both appear here) bear the influence of the old-schooler's daftly def narrative skills. While nothing on The Art of Storytelling is up to Rick's '80s classics, his rhymes flow like ghetto short stories and his breathy singsongdelivery remains a hip-hop national treasure.
- ew.com
2009-06-12
★★★★★
Rapper Slick Rick recently beganserving up to 10 years in prison for attempted murder. Judging fromThe Ruler's Back, no trial or tribulation can cramp his lightheartedstyle. (And don't let charges of sexism over his 1988 hit "Treat HerLike a Prostitute" distract you; that song isn't like the rest of hiswork.) With his raspy faux-British delivery, Rick sometimes soundslike a cool schoolteacher entertaining the kiddies before naptime...
- ew.com
2009-06-12
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