Slick Rick

Slick Rick
Slick Rick performing at the 2009 Fresh Fest concert in Los Angeles, California
Background information
Birth name	Richard Martin Lloyd Walters
Born	(1965-01-14) January 14, 1965 (age 52) Mitcham, London, England
Origin	The Bronx, New York, United States
Genres	Hip hop
Occupation(s)	Rapper, record producer
Years active	1984–present
Labels	Def Jam, Columbia, CBS Records, PolyGram, Universal
Associated acts	Doug E. Fresh, Nas, Snoop Dogg, Dana Dane, Outkast, Aaliyah

Richard Martin Lloyd Walters (born January 14, 1965; better known as Slick Rick, Rick The Ruler and Ricky Dee) is a British-born American rapper. With four albums to his credit - the landmark The Great Adventures of Slick Rick (1988), The Ruler's Back (1991), Behind Bars (1994) and The Art of Storytelling (1999), his music has been sampled and interpolated over 600 times, by artists in over 35 songs such as Beyoncé, The Beastie Boys, TLC, Nas, Miley Cyrus, Kanye West, Black Star, The Notorious B.I.G., Snoop Dogg, MC Ren, and Color Me Badd. In the process, Walters has become the most sampled hip-hop artist ever. Many of the new songs became hit singles. Additionally, Rick has collaborated with such musical icons as Jay-Z, Missy Elliot and Aaliyah and Outkast. He's been a VH-1 Hip Hop Honors honoree, and About.com ranked him #12 on their list of the Top 50 MCs of Our Time, while The Source ranked him #15 on their list of the Top 50 Lyricists of All Time. He has acted and cameoed in 10 movies and videos.

Walters was born and raised in the southwest London district of Mitcham, to an English-Jamaican family. He was blinded in the right eye by broken glass as an infant. In 1976, he and his family emigrated to the United States, settling in The Bronx. At Fiorello H. Laguardia High School of Music & Art, where he majored in visual art, Rick met Dana Dane. The pair became close friends and formed The Kangol Crew, performing at school contests, parks and local hole-in-the-wall clubs.