For the first time in his career, Slick Rick is able to cross the border into Canada and perform live shows across the country. Fans of old-school Hip-Hop north of the border have been waiting well over 30 years to see the legendary emcee perform live, and they’re now getting their chance in 2024, with Slick Rick embarking on his first ever Canadian tour. He’s already hit western cities like Vancouver and Calgary, and would be making his way out east to perform in Montreal, Ottawa, and of course Toronto. With this show landing on the Friday night of a long weekend, Toronto Hip-Hop heads were ready to turn up and give Rick The Ruler a warm welcome at The Phoenix Concert Theatre.

This concert was appropriately dubbed An Evening of Storytelling, as Slick Rick is of course a pioneer when it comes to storytelling in Hip-Hop. One of the most sampled and emulated artists in Hip-Hop history, Slick Rick is known for his smooth vocal delivery, vivid imagery in his lyrics, and his innovative approach to using different cadences to portray different characters in his songs. He’s one of the most influential emcees in Hip-Hop history who deserves to be celebrated as part of Hip-Hop’s 50th anniversary, and he was ready to take the fans back through the years on this Friday night.

The venue was slow to fill up, as openers Liftid & God One performed in front of a modestly sized crowd to kick off the evening. The duo made the most of their time on stage though, getting the few fans who showed up early fully engaged in their performance, as Liftid did some live beatboxing for God One to rap over. Representing The Temple of Hip-Hop, a ministry, archive and school founded by KRS-One in the ’90s to preserve and develop original Hip-Hop culture, the duo made sure to highlight the elements of Hip-Hop, including DJing (with help from DJ Grouch), beatboxing, freestyling, and at one point Liftid even jumped down into the crowd to breakdance in the middle of a cypher. They’d even rap in French at one point to highlight how Hip-Hop has become a universal culture and artform, definitely setting off good vibes to start the show.

Following Liftid & God One would be Eye’s, a/k/a Tar Baby God, who seemed to cut his set short after some technical difficulties. While he did perform a handful songs, all of his tracks had vocals on them that drowned out his live performance. He ended up leaving the stage abruptly, seeming to hold back frustration from trying to keep up with his own recorded vocals on the mic.

Putting things back on pace would be a hometown legend from Scarborough, Dan-e-o, who had just released his 6th solo album, Vigilante, one week prior to this concert. Much of Dan-e-o’s performance would be focused around the new album, as he set things off with the title track and brought out special guest Korry Deez to perform “Overrun” with him. Over the next 40 minutes, Dan-e-o would put on an absolute clinic on how to do a live Hip-Hop performance, keeping the crowd engaged throughout his set and rapping every word of every verse live with no backing vocals. With no hypeman and no recorded vocals to use as a crutch, if Dan-e-o were to fuck up one bar in his rapid-fire verses, there would be no backup to catch him, but that moment never came as he performed flawlessly.

Highlights from Dan-e-o’s set include him killing verses from “Spit” live over the beat before repeating the verses acapella to showcase his lyricism, speaking on the current climate of mainstream Hip-Hop’s focus on diss tracks by performing “The Deadbeat Diss Track,” and bringing out Xentury to sing on their Masta Ace collab “Cleanse My Soul.” He’d also rock several songs off of the Vigilante album, getting the crowd involved for standouts “Like We” and “Ya Bad Self,” and closed out with the near 30-year-old Canadian classic, “Dear Hip-Hop.” While I’ve seen Dan-e-o make short appearances at music festivals and other artists’ shows over the years, this was my first time seeing him perform a full setlist, and he definitely impressed with his raw rap skills, showmanship, and the way he had the crowd in the palm of his hand throughout his set.

The building was nearly full by the time Dan-e-o wrapped up his set, and DJ Grouch would hold it down on the turntables while Slick Rick’s tour DJ, DJ Kaos7, got his gear set up, including syncing his turntables with projector screens that would show music videos from the songs he played. DJ Kaos7 would set the vibes by taking us through years of classic Hip-Hop, playing songs from the ’80s and ’90s as he did a sound check. Pretty soon, it was time for him to bring out the legend himself, Slick Rick The Ruler!

Setting off the party vibes as soon as he graced the stage, Slick Rick would kick off his set with the closer to his classic 1988 debut album, The Great Adventures of Slick Rick, performing part of his opening verse to “Lick The Balls.” While many consider the album his magnum opus, Slick Rick would stray from the predictable and jump to different eras of his career, quickly diving into his late ’90s collaborations with Outkast, with the music videos playing on the screens as he performed his verses from “Da Art Of Storytellin’ (Part 1)” and “Street Talkin’.” With these first few songs setting the party off, Slick Rick and DJ Kaos7 would take a moment to highlight Rick’s influence on Hip-Hop fashion, getting the stage lights correct to show off the giant iced-out pendant, chains and bracelets Rick was decked out in.

With gold and jewels on the mind, Rick The Ruler pulled out an appropriate track to get back to the party vibes, performing his 2019 single “Midas Touch,” which sonically feels like it would fit right in with any of his late ’80s/early ’90s joints. He’d then take it back to 1988, as a picture of a black Mona Lisa appeared on the projector screens, and the fans knew right away the jam “Mona Lisa” was about to be performed. The certified party-starter got the crowd grooving, as Rick nailed his verses and got everyone singing along to the Dionne Warwick interpolation of “Walk On By” at the end of the song.

With the crowd in the palm of his hand, Rick would keep going back in time, taking it to 1985 and getting a call-and-response going as he rapped the lyrics “La-di-da-di,” and the crowd finished the line: “We like to party, we don’t cause trouble, we don’t bother nobody!” DJ Kaos7 would put the elements on display by joining Rick at the front of the stage to beatbox in place of Doug E. Fresh, as Rick performed the single “La-Di-Da-Di” in full, changing some of the lyrics near the end to proudly proclaim “I’m 59! She said ‘stop lying!'” Even 40 years after it was written, “La-Di-Da-Di” is still proven to turn crowds up, as they’d take a moment to acknowledge it being one of the most sampled and interpolated songs in Hip-Hop before getting the crowd to join in for the closing bars: “Tick tock ya don’t stop! Tick tick ya don’t quit!”

The “La-Di-Da-Di” single would of course be followed by the A-side it was released with, “The Show,” as DJ Kaos7 returned behind the turntables to perform some cuts and Slick Rick nailed his verses. They’d then slow it down, performing the Great Adventures single “Teenage Love,” getting the crowd to shout the lyrics “Don’t hurt me again!,” and Rick showing off his singing voice as he did his interpolation of Dianna Ross’ “Do You Know Where You’re Going To” acapella, poking fun at the way he sang it off-key on the original record. Rick would then take a moment to go backstage as a video tribute played on the projector screens showing images of fallen legends who have passed, including 2Pac, Biggie, Aaliyah, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Big Pun, and Prince. DJ Kaos7 would follow this by getting the crowd to light up their phones and have a moment of silence for anyone they’d lost before bringing Slick Rick back to the stage.

Slick Rick returned wearing a different outfit, this time going sleeveless to make his jewelry stand out even more, and wearing his classic blinged-out eye patch. With the line “guess who’s back” being chopped up on the turntables, Rick would come out performing another ’88 classic, “Hey Young World,” getting the crowd to sing along to the hook. He would do some more bouncing between eras, performing some of his early ’90s joints that were released while he was in prison, including “Mistakes of Women In Love With Other Men” before pulling out another fan favourite off of The Great Adventures album, “The Moment I Feared.” Continuing to stray from the predictable, Rick would give a shoutout to Mos Def (a/k/a Yasiin Bey) before performing a more political verse on their 2009 collab “Auditorium,” vividly painting a picture as he rapped from the perspectives of an American soldier in Iraq and a native child’s interaction with them.

Slick Rick & DJ Kaos7 would take a break to do a vibe check with the crowd, seeing if the fans preferred old-school or new-school Hip-Hop by pitting Fat Joe & Remy Ma’s “All The Way Up” against House of Pain’s “Jump Around.” Needless to say, the old-school got the biggest reaction out of the crowd, so Slick Rick then took it old-school yet again as he got into arguably the biggest hit of his career, “Children’s Story.” With Rick portraying several characters on the original record using overlapping vocals, he’d get the crowd to join in at the right spots to shout different characters’ lines as he mainly stuck to the storyteller’s narrative. It was a hype moment, as the crowd of course knew all the words, and the beat had us grooving to Rick’s call-and-response routine at the end of the track. With the projector screens flipping through pictures of Rick with several famous celebrities he’s interacted with over the years, Slick Rick would thank the crowd for rocking with him, taking a bow with DJ Kaos7 before saying peace and heading backstage for the VIP meet-and-greet.

Overall, this was a fun time celebrating the legacy of one of Hip-Hop’s most influential legends. While it’s dope seeing Slick Rick still rocking the party at 59 years old, it did feel like a short set, with some fan favourites like “The Ruler’s Back” and “Treat Her Like A Prostitute” left off of the setlist. Regardless though, it was the first and maybe only time many of us were getting to see Slick Rick perform live, and he put on an incredible show taking us through the years and not doing the predictable. For fans of classic Hip-Hop, Slick Rick’s first time ever performing in Toronto was a special moment to be cherished. Big shoutouts to Ricky D Events for putting this one together.

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