The Top Five Greatest Stories Slick Rick Ever Told

A story of adolescent love and the insecurities of young men and women. This song brings me back to childhood and the electric energy my neighborhood had at the time in the '80s. It's one of the first songs I heard where the content on the verses embodied everything on the hook. Super well written.

A no-brainer. Slick Rick painted a picture of the inner city that most suburbanites and the well-to-do had never seen or heard of. Lyrical brilliance!

Slick Rick takes us through a day in the life of the Ruler himself. Doug E Fresh on the beat box and pure, raw flow. Artists to this day still use his flow and cadence from this song.

This story is about a stuck-up lady from around the way. Hip-hop has always had its arrogance, but no one does it with so much class as the Ruler. Top it off with Dionne Warwick's "Walk On By" at the end to make it a classic.

Slick Rick tells us of when he was a young man and all the things that made those times great. I was about 19 or 20 when this song came out, and for our generation it was among the golden era of hip-hop. Slick Rick reminds us why he was one of the best and still remains timeless.

SEE IT: Slick Rick plays Alhambra Theatre, 4811 SE Hawthorne Blvd., with Risky Star and Evv'n Flo featuring Dirty Revival, as part of the Soul'd Out Music Festival, on Saturday, April 19. 9 pm. $20. 21+.

WWeek 2015