Slick Rick's "Coming Home Tour" Gave Fans What They Wanted!

The Ruler Receives Royal Treatment For First-Ever UK Performances Last Month

NEW YORK – The Coming Home Tour – starring rap superstar Slick Rick in his first-ever appearances around his native United Kingdom – just wrapped. Following dates in Manchester, Bristol, London, Birmingham and Brighton, he stopped in Dublin, Ireland and made an impromptu appearance in Paris, France with Redman and De La Soul. Featuring DJ Kaos, the Rickettes and the official winner of MC Lyte’s Next Top Female MC Inteligenz, the highly anticipated late November run was an overwhelming success, selling out in record time. Live Nation UK streamed the London show worldwide. Slick Rick next performs his annual Brooklyn Bowl birthday bash January 20, 2017, before embarking on a series of US dates through March.

“'Coming Home' was a major milestone for me personally and for my career,” said Slick Rick. “But it belonged entirely to the UK. That’s why my intermission was dedicated to some legendary Brits we’ve lost: David Bowie, Benny Hill, Princess Diana and Amy Winehouse. My set ended with raining confetti, celebrating my birthplace and the fans who’ve never seen me on stage before.”

The concert events were indeed epic nights to remember. Skiddle.com hailed the Manchester show “a spectacle, fascinating even before a single stanza was spit.” The performances opened with a montage surveying Rick’s career through the years and showcased his passion for fashion. With outfit changes throughout, the dapper rapper wore, by turns, Clark Wallabies, pieces of his extensive Kangol hat collection and hand-painted, custom-made boots he himself designed.

Songwall.com said of the London performance: “Slick Rick arrived blindingly charismatic in fluorescent yellow and arctic white and dripping in incandescent jewels from microphone to eye patch, facets of his trademark chains flaring under the coloured lights.”

They added, “Commanding the stage with a regal stillness, contrasting with the seemingly unbridled energy of the backing singers, Slick Rick effortlessly and meticulously energised the audience with a stream of tracks, the crowd dancing, smiling, and meeting him word-for-word – united in rhythm as they chanted his name.”

Although Grammy-nominated Slick Rick is “Hip-Hop’s Greatest Storyteller” and among the best, most charismatic and most influential emcees from rap’s golden age, he’s been unable to travel and perform outside of the United States for most of his iconic career. A more than two-decade immigration battle ended in April 2016, when he became a naturalized US Citizen.

Enjoy the video recap below:

Slick Rick Chats With The Guardian

Ricky Walters is famous – notorious, even – for several reasons. There is his reputation as one of the finest-ever MCs from hip-hop’s golden age. The Guardian caught up with the "Golden Era" MC ahead of his UK "Coming Home Tour". Check out an excerpt below:

“I think what I brought to hip-hop was a visual, storybook-type of a style, like reading a children’s book, but in rap form,” he notes, referring to a US musical whose own fame has grown in the week since this interview. “Or like the Broadway play Hamilton, bringing American history to the theatre in rhyme form.”

Read the interview HERE.

Time Out London Meets Slick Rick

  With just a few days left before Slick Rick heads across the pond, Time Out London caught up with "The Ruler" to chat about his upbringing in England, the Hip-hop scene in the Bronx, what fans can expect from a Slick Rick show and more. Check out an excerpt below:

"What can we expect from a Slick Rick show?"

You're going to see the Slick Rick brand. You're going to see the essence, the humour and the ambience of Slick Rick. 

Read the rest of the interview HERE.

Get tickets and VIP Packages to Slick Rick's "Coming Home Tour" HERE.

The Essential Slick Rick...

Just before Slick Rick embarks on his first-ever UK tour aka the "Coming Home Tour, Skiddle put together the ultimate "Slick Rick" playlist for the ultimate fan or newbie.

See which tracks made the list HERE.

Slick Rick To Embark On First-Ever UK Tour

Music legend Slick Rick has announced his first ever UK tour with a string of live dates in November. The tour will stop in five cities in England and one in Dublin, Ireland. The British storyteller is calling it the "Coming Home Tour" - a reference to the fact that the Bronx, New York-based rapper was born and raised in Mitcham, Surrey.

The tour will be his first visit to London since Rick (then known as MC Ricky D) and Doug E. Fresh appeared on Top of the Pops in 1985 where they performed their iconic tracks "The Show” and “La Di Da Di". The rapper thinks of it as a kind of victory lap, following the decision to grant him U.S. citizenship after a battle with the U.S. Immigration Bureau that went on for over 23 years - a period during which Rick could not travel abroad. The Grammy-nominated rapper still retains his British Citizenship.

Rick is delighted to be able to travel freely and return to the land of his birth and reconnect with his British fans. "I'm coming home, back to my foundation, my make-up, my English roots," he says. "I'm looking forward to a nice cup of tea and some tasty biscuits."    

Rick's parents emigrated from Jamaica to Birmingham in 1959 before moving to London in 1963, where Rick was born two years later. As a child, he remembers listening to the music of The Beatles, The Monkees, Chubby Checker, The Carpenters, David Bowie, Diana Ross and "a lot of Dionne Warwick." His father, an admirer of Jamaican ska, turned young Rick onto the music of The Heptones, Alton Ellis, Delroy Wilson and Jimmy Cliff, among many others.

Rick was signed by Russell Simmons and Lyor Cohen to the then fledgling label Def Jam Records in March of 1986, less than one year after recording the two-sided smash debut, released on a tiny independent label in the summer of 1985 which introduced the world to one of hip hop’s most enduringly influential talents.   

“La Di Da Di” is the most sampled hip hop track ever, having been sampled over 615 times. “The Show” has also been sampled over 96 times.

The Ruler, also known for his signature moniker of an eye patch, went on to release four albums on Def Jam, including the seminal classic “The Great Adventures Of Slick Rick” in 1988, “The Rulers Back” in 1991, “Behind Bars” in 1994 and the ‘The Art Of Storytelling’ in 1999.

Timeless classics like “Children’s Story”, “Mona Lisa”, “Teenage Love”, “Hey Young World” and “Street Talking” went on to make Slick Rick one of the rap icons and hip hop’s greatest storyteller who has been feted by everyone from Jay Z, MIA, Ghostface Killah, Amy Winehouse, Nas, Kanye West, Miley Cyrus and Nicki Minaj.

Rick is known for his unique delivery, but is also seen and credited as the first rapper to bring high-class fashion to hip hop, a la Liberace. His rap style boasts the trace of his English accent and cartoonish elasticity, while his fashion plays on his affection for glamour, jewellery, crowns and robes, dubbing himself "Rick the Ruler." Rick states that he's planning something “very special” for the London show - the return of "Richard of Nottingham," an honour he first applied to himself in "The Ruler's Back", a recording from his first solo album in 1988. He will be accompanied by his DJ “Kaos” and his singers “The Rickettes”.

Tour Dates

Friday, Nov. 25:  Mantra, Manchester

Saturday, Nov. 26: 02 Forum, London

Sunday, Nov. 27: 02 Academy, Bristol

Monday, Nov. 28: 02 Institute, Birmingham

Tuesday, Nov. 29: The Sugar Club, Dublin, Ireland

Wednesday, Nov. 30:  Concorde 2, Brighton