Slick Rick‘s encounter with Idris Elba at a party led to their collaboration on his newly released comeback album, Victory. Elba serves as executive producer on the project, which came to fruition after he had his team contact Slick.
“We met at a party and then we clicked. His people reached out to me, and they wanted to make an album,” Slick tells The Associated Press. “They flew me to England and France. I hung out with Idris at his cribs, and we just did what we do. We just had fun. And then when we was finished, we said, ‘Yeah, we’re ready to bring it to the marketplace.'”
Although it’s been over three decades since Slick Rick released an album, he says he felt no pressure, because it’s just a way to feed the people and see if they like what was created.
In addition to rapping, Slick produced a bulk of Victory to ensure he delivers “authentic Rick” to the consumers. He says the various sounds are a representation of the different kinds of music “Black people like.”
“We’re not just hip-hop. We like reggae. We like house music,” Slick says. “Let’s say like The Beatles or Barry Manilow. We go all over the place. Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross. We go places. We try to entertain ourselves in different areas of existence.”
As for why he decided to make a visual album, he says he just wanted to kill several birds with one stone.
“It was saving time. People make songs and do videos anyway. So why not just speed this up real quick? Video and rap both at the same time,” Slick says. “This is like watching a movie. You want to expand the picture. Not only do you hear my voice and the music, which is the essence. You get … visual picture as well.”
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