"With a name like Slick Rick and an English-accented rapping style, how could America not love the menacing ‘80s rapper? Slick Rick had his share of problems in the U.S. in his musical heyday, having been sent to prison and deported in separate instances while trying to infiltrate the hip-hop system, yet the hardcore rapper eventually made his mark on the scene, releasing some of the most memorable rap songs to come out of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s.The London-raised Ricky Walters was born to Jamaican parents in the mid-1960s, blinded from his youth by broken glass. Slick Rick immigrated to the New York with his parents in the late 1970s and attended the La Guardia High School of Music & Art, where the budding artist met rapper Dana Dane and formed the Kangol Crew. Eventually collaborating with the Get Fresh Crew, Slick Rick finally met Def Jam Records label head Russell Simmons, inking a deal with the hip-hop label and releasing his debut album The Great Adventures of Slick Rick in 1988. ""Treat Her like a Prostitute,"" the album's leading single, was an instant street classic, not getting much airtime on radio stations (understandably) but continuing to garner a monumental fan base anyway. Singles like ""If I'm Not Your Lover"" and ""Children's Story"" both hit the Top Five of the Billboard charts in 1989 and 1990, respectively, and Slick Rick seemed to be on top of the music industry until 1990, when he was arrested for attempted murder after shooting at his cousin, who allegedly harassed Rick's mother. Rick went to the slammer until 1996, released on a work program.1999's Art of Storytelling (a collaboration with Outkast and Snoop Dogg) brought Slick Rick back to the hip-hop scene, but in 2002 the rapper was arrested yet again and deported for never establishing citizenship in the U.S. after his move from London. Continually refused bail, Slick Rick quickly faded off the hip-hop scene for good."
