Happy 30th Anniversary to Slick Rick’s second studio album The Ruler’s Back, originally released July 2, 1991.
Richard “Slick Rick” Walters recorded The Ruler’s Back very much under duress. When Def Jam Records released Rick’s second album 30 years ago, they knew one of their stars would be out of commission for a while. Russell Simmons, the head of the label, had bailed Slick Rick out of jail for the express purpose of recording a pair of albums. It was a lousy situation, and the talented Bronx-based emcee worked his hardest to make the best out of it.
Slick Rick facing a potentially lengthy prison bid shocked the hip-hop community. In July 1990, he had been arrested for the attempted murder of Mark Plummer, his cousin and former bodyguard. Plummer had fallen out with Rick, and subsequently repeatedly attempted to rob and extort his former benefactor. Plummer had threatened Rick’s mother (then his manager) demanding money, and reportedly attempted to have Rick killed; Rick’s Jeep was riddled with bullets while in front of a Bronx club).
On the fateful July afternoon, Rick encountered Plummer and another violent confrontation ensued. He ended up shooting Plummer, and accidently hit another innocent bystander in the foot. Rick fled the scene, but was promptly arrested after his car hit a tree. He pled guilty to two counts of attempted murder and other charges, and was sentenced to three-and-a-half to ten years in prison.
After being bailed out that winter, Rick and Vance Wright, his DJ, immediately booked time in studios throughout New York City, recording enough material for two albums. Rick knew he might be out of action for a decade, so he wanted to give fans material to hold them over. What resulted is an imperfect but ultimately interesting sophomore release, where the features Rick and Wright composed proved more adventurous than expected.
The Ruler’s Back does indeed sound like a rush job, not nearly as well constructed as his debut, The Great Adventures of Slick Rick (1988). However, even under the best circumstances, topping that album would be a difficult feat. It’s one of the best hip-hop long players ever recorded and helped establish Slick Rick as one of hip-hop’s greatest storytellers.
There’s a lot to like about The Ruler’s Back. It would have been very easy for Slick Rick to try to duplicate what worked the first time, but Rick attempted different approaches stylistically and musically. Even though it doesn’t reach the level of quality achieved by The Great Adventures, it’s a solid undertaking.
One clear difference manifests in how Slick Rick dispenses his rhymes, vastly increasing the speed of his delivery. Rick’s haste is a bit of an odd stylistic choice, as it makes some of his trademark story-raps practically indecipherable. It can be difficult to keep track of his rhymes, which he sprays like bullets from a Gatling gun.
Wright handles the vast majority of the album’s production, crafting beats that keep pace with Rick’s rapid-fire flows. Wright had become a skilled producer, and provides Rick with interesting backdrops that are decidedly different than those featured on The Great Adventures. On The Ruler’s Back, Wright creates sonically dense tracks that share a lot in common with Bomb Squad production, and often hit BPM levels of 116 into the 120s.
In terms of subject matter, Rick knows what his core audience had come to expect from him, and flexes his storytelling muscles throughout The Ruler’s Back. For the album’s first two singles, he tackles infidelity. The fast-paced “I Shouldn’t Have Done It” focuses on a fictional version of Rick grappling with his own insecurities and jealousy. Rick expresses a real emotional vulnerability on the track, describing how feelings of inadequacy led him to cheating on a loving girlfriend through a meaningless fling.
As the title suggests, “Mistakes Of Women In Love With Other Men” concerns a different version of Rick struggling to deal with his girlfriend’s persistent and repeated faithlessness. He tries to reconcile his feelings of love towards a woman who completely disregards the sanctity of their relationship. There’s not quite as much psychological depth as “I Shouldn’t Have Done It” here, but it’s a stronger song overall. Rick modulates the speed of his delivery, slowing things down to fit the smooth track. Sampling James Brown’s “I’m Broken Hearted,” the beat echoes the melancholy Rick channels with his rhymes.
On “It’s A Boy,” the album’s third single, Rick celebrates the birth of his first son. Rick raps almost extemporaneously, letting loose a stream of consciousness concerning the joys and realities of early fatherhood. Considering Rick’s usual penchant for strong narrative structure in his rhymes, it’s almost off-putting, but it’s an understandable choice as he soaks in all of the minutiae that comes with being a parent.
In terms of storytelling, Rick goes in many creative directions on The Ruler’s Back. Though Rick wasn’t exactly grounded on The Great Adventures, he goes in some distinctly more fantastical directions on his sophomore effort. These demonstrations include “Bond,” where he assumes the role of a jet-setting secret agent, and “Top Cat,” where he rhymes from the perspective of a feral feline that’s adopted by a neighborhood hottie.
Rick’s high-octane rap style is best suited for his battle-rap oriented exhibitions, of which he engages in a pair. On “King,” Rick holds court in the clubs and streets of New York City while rapping over a furious drum track and the stretched-out organ notes from the JB’s “Blow Your Head.” With the way-out imagery and delivery, you can see the influence that Rick had on emcees like Ghostface Killah. “If y’all forget who was the man I’ll stand and live, kid,” he raps. “You will be bouncing up and down ’cause I’m a grand individual.”
“Ship” is among the most straight-up rugged songs Rick ever recorded, as he engages in a wind-sprint over a bare drum-track, ghostly vocal samples, and constant scratches by Wright. He unleashes an impressive tongue-twisting stream of lyrics, rapping, “Never heard of us when your words are dust and you move like murderers? / Not murderers proud to say, girls go ‘wow’ and ‘ow’ to now show ya how to bow to.”
Rick spotlights his singing ability on another pair of tracks. “Venus” is his detailed account of love at first sight, with Rick explaining how he becomes completely enraptured by a beauty who he meets near his job. The song culminates in Rick serenading her with a respectable rendition of the Frankie Avalon song of the same name. Meanwhile, “Runaway,” one of the best songs on the album, features Rick half-rapping, half-crooning throughout the entire track, pondering lost love.
The only complete misfire is “Slick Rick – The Ruler.” Its inclusion is unnecessary, seemingly only existing to put out the length of the album’s second side. It’s essentially a hip-house remix of “Teacher, Teacher” from The Great Adventures. Famed Chicago House producer Mr. Lee combines parts of Rick’s verse and elements of the original beat and whips them into a forgettable dance track. Lee’s decision to muffle Rick’s lyrics to the point of near incoherence is an ill-fated choice. Overall, it’s a headache-inducing six-plus minute coda.
Def Jam released another album during Rick’s incarceration, the even more on-the-nose titled Behind Bars. It’s more of a glorified EP, its runtime even stretched beyond reason in order to maximize the label’s earnings. Def Jam enlisted more “current” producers to remix some of the original material to give the songs a “timelier” mid-1990s sound.
Slick Rick extricated himself from prison with great difficulty, ultimately having to fight deportation to England, his country of birth, due to his felony conviction. After being released from prison, Rick finally got a chance to put together a project that wasn’t made under the proverbial gun. The result, The Art of Storytelling (1999), is one of the more underappreciated releases of the late 1990s. However, the repercussions of his incarceration haunted him for well over a decade.
The Ruler’s Back may not have been the follow-up to The Great Adventures of Slick Rick that people had hoped for, but considering the circumstances of its formation, it does an excellent job at showcasing Rick’s remarkable abilities. Even under dire circumstances, Rick was able to put together a respectable project that features real imagination and, when necessary, complexity.
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