The Great Adventures of Slick Rick


The Great Adventures of Slick Rick is the debut studio album by English-American hip hop artist Slick Rick, released on November 1, 1988. Widely considered one of the most influential hip hop albums of all time, it introduced Slick Rick’s distinctive storytelling style, blending humor, vivid narratives, and complex rhymes. The album was a critical and commercial success, and its influence can be seen in generations of rappers who followed.
It topped Billboards Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart for five nonconsecutive weeks and peaked at number 31 on the Billboard 200.

Reception

The Philadelphia Inquirer called "Let's Get Crazy" "one of the year's most jolting, exciting pieces of music." The Orange County Register concluded that "Rick's goofy rap style makes him seem less a braggart than a beleaguered Everyman and, with its wickedly sharp production, The Great Adventures of Slick Rick sounds great."
In 1998, The Great Adventures of Slick Rick was selected as one of The Sources "100 Best Albums". The album was retrospectively awarded a perfect "five-mic" score by the magazine in 2002. In 2012, it was ranked at number 99 on Slant Magazines list of "The 100 Best Albums of the 1980s". In VH1's 2008 ranking of the "100 Greatest Hip Hop Songs", the single "Children's Story" placed at number 61.
Hip hop artist Nas cites The Great Adventures of Slick Rick as one of his favorite albums. In 2009, fellow rapper Busta Rhymes said of the album:

Personnel