Slick Rick to play Birmingham in November

Slick Rick will be gliding on down to Birmingham on Monday 28 November, lighting up the O2 Institute with a selection of hits from an illustrious career. One of the most highly revered MCs of all time, the British-American rapper is among the most sampled hip hop artists of all time, and has risen to such high-status thanks to four solo albums and a barrage of collaborations with the likes of Outkast, Missy Elliott and Jay-Z.

Born and raised until the age of 11 in London’s Mitcham, in 1976 Ricky Martin Lloyd Walters aka Slick Rick was moved with his family to The Bronx in New York, where he would later forge a career as one of the best hip-hop artists in America. Considered a pioneer on account of his narrative style of rapping, Slick Rick is accredited with having popularised the art of storytelling in hip-hop, with his vocal style often using varying cadences to introduce different characters in his complex lyrical webs. Also known for retaining a British tinge despite spending his formative years in the US, Slick Rick rethought many of hip-hop’s traditional conventions and pushed the genre towards the diverse territory that it covers today.

A hip-hop legend coming to town ought to be enough to get the Birmingham crowd out in force, so hopefully that’ll be the case as Slick Rick enters the fray on a very special Monday night.



Words by Andrew Kemp
Photo courtesy of Slick Rick