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Transcript

Slick Rick: Hustle, Iconic Flow and a Menacing Tormentor · DISGRACELAND

0:00
Speaker 1: Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. The stories about
0:18
Speaker 1: slick Rick hip hop icon are insane. He endured a
0:22
Speaker 1: drug induced nervous breakdown, was harassed constantly by a family member, kidnapped, beaten, abused,
0:29
Speaker 1: and when he defended himself against this tormentor, he served
0:32
Speaker 1: hard time for attempted murder and an eventual second stint
0:36
Speaker 1: in prison for illegal immigration. But slick Rick was an original.
0:40
Speaker 1: His flow is now iconic, but his hustle is legend.
0:45
Speaker 1: It was slick Rick's hustle that kept him rolling, delivered
0:48
Speaker 1: him from backing Dougie Fresh toffronting his thing, and inspiring
0:51
Speaker 1: countless mcs who came up in his wake. Because slick
0:55
Speaker 1: Rick made great music. That music I played you at
0:58
Speaker 1: the top of the show that wasn't great music. That
1:01
Speaker 1: was a preset loop from my melotron called Kittie Ride
1:05
Speaker 1: Mellow BK one. I played you that loop because I
1:09
Speaker 1: can't afford the rights to Step by Step by New
1:11
Speaker 1: Kids on the Block. And why would I play you
1:14
Speaker 1: that specific slice of Donnie Joey Jordan Danny Jonathan Cheese.
1:18
Speaker 1: Could I afford it? Because that was the number one
1:21
Speaker 1: song in America on July third, nineteen ninety, and that
1:25
Speaker 1: was the day slick Rick shot his cousin, kicking off
1:28
Speaker 1: a battle with US authorities that would last decades. On
1:32
Speaker 1: this episode, Hustle Flow, New Kid, Cheese and slick Rick.
1:38
Speaker 1: I'm Jake Brennan. In this This Disgrace Land, slick Rick
2:04
Speaker 1: was hungover, partied out, and thankful he had nothing to
2:07
Speaker 1: do that day. He yawned and stretched out across the
2:10
Speaker 1: luxurious state room mattress. This was the life. The huge
2:15
Speaker 1: plush bed rocked gently with the motion of the ocean.
2:18
Speaker 1: As the late morning light crept in through the cruise
2:20
Speaker 1: ship porthole, Rick wrapped one arm around his beautiful wife Mandy.
2:25
Speaker 1: She was curled up against him like a cat. Last
2:28
Speaker 1: night's show was a rager. What started out as a
2:31
Speaker 1: fundraiser raising scholarship money to support black college students turned
2:36
Speaker 1: into an all timer. After Rick the Ruler performed his
2:38
Speaker 1: set Latti Dotty, it of course turned into a party,
2:42
Speaker 1: and damn right it did. Rick thought that's what cruise
2:45
Speaker 1: ships are for, and that's what slick Rick was for.
2:48
Speaker 1: The party had always come natural to Rick, and so
2:51
Speaker 1: did the hustle. But he took particular pride in his
2:54
Speaker 1: latest business arrangement. It was a perfect setup. A few
2:57
Speaker 1: times a year he and Mandy got a free trip
2:59
Speaker 1: down to Flower. They'd visit his family down south, say
3:02
Speaker 1: they're helloes, then get on a big ass boat with
3:04
Speaker 1: the best rooms. Royal Caribbean had to offer a reserved
3:06
Speaker 1: in their name, and Rick would perform the classics for
3:09
Speaker 1: a ballroom of wealthy drunks, then get blitzed on the
3:12
Speaker 1: open seas. For a born hustler like Rick, this was
3:15
Speaker 1: the life. The violent knock the door echoed through the
3:21
Speaker 1: dark hardwood of the cabin, the wet bar rattled, a
3:25
Speaker 1: glass shattered. The quiet of their love nest was gone.
3:28
Speaker 1: And that banging at the door clearly wasn't some eager
3:31
Speaker 1: to please concierge wrapping his knuckles obsequiously. It sounded quite
3:35
Speaker 1: the opposite, like the meaty fist of some boot liquor,
3:38
Speaker 1: eager to take the damned door down. If he couldn't.
3:41
Speaker 1: Mandy leapt out of bed in an instant. She was naked.
3:44
Speaker 1: Rick just craned his head up, still grocky even in
3:47
Speaker 1: the confusion. Her lithe body turned him on. More bangs
3:51
Speaker 1: at the door. What the fuck. Wrapping a silk robe
3:55
Speaker 1: around her. With quick grace, Mandy steeled herself and heanked
3:57
Speaker 1: open the stateroom door. G men loomed, staring her down,
4:02
Speaker 1: looking alien behind reflective shades. The acronym on the sleeves
4:06
Speaker 1: of their standard issue G Men windbreakers read I NS
4:11
Speaker 1: Richard Martin Lloyd Walters, one of them said, stonefaced. Now
4:15
Speaker 1: it was Rick's turned to bolt up from bed. Who's asking,
4:18
Speaker 1: he asked, in his famous sing song notes, mister Walters,
4:22
Speaker 1: you are a non citizen and a convicted Felon last night,
4:25
Speaker 1: this ship crossed into international waters. You deported yourself. So now,
4:30
Speaker 1: as of this morning, you have attempted to illegally enter
4:32
Speaker 1: the United States of America. We're here to take you
4:35
Speaker 1: into custody. On behalf of the Department of Homeland Security.
4:38
Speaker 1: Hip hop's greatest storyteller was stunned into silence, fear, confusion,
4:44
Speaker 1: handcuffs up on deck. A ship full of hungover partiers
4:48
Speaker 1: was expected to disembark and scatterback into Miami, but the
4:51
Speaker 1: mysterious delay in the sudden appearance of government mark ships
4:54
Speaker 1: sent hushed rumors through the crowd. Suddenly, the G Men
4:58
Speaker 1: came elbowing their way through the mall. Scandalized gas rose
5:02
Speaker 1: up from the revelers. Slick Rick, the guest of honor,
5:05
Speaker 1: the man they'd all come to see, who they cheered
5:07
Speaker 1: for after every famous rhyme the night before, was being
5:10
Speaker 1: purp walked across the shuffleboard court, shouting this is bullshit,
5:14
Speaker 1: as the faceless officers struggled to grip his arms and
5:17
Speaker 1: haul m towards the gangway, and they shoved the handcuff
5:20
Speaker 1: wrapper in front of them, using his body as a
5:22
Speaker 1: makeshift battering ram. A wise ass in the crowd yelled gangway.
5:26
Speaker 1: He was too perfect, and for Rick all the more humiliating.
5:31
Speaker 1: Mandy came running out behind them, begging and pleading, tears
5:34
Speaker 1: streaming down her face, adding to the drama of the moment.
5:37
Speaker 1: She ran in front of the authorities, turned around and
5:40
Speaker 1: began backpedaling so she could meet eyes with her husband.
5:43
Speaker 1: They kept forcing him forward, and she just kept walking backward,
5:46
Speaker 1: holding his face, promising him she would fight this with
5:49
Speaker 1: all her might. Rick was stunned and angry, but now
5:53
Speaker 1: with his strong wife before him, swearing to him that
5:55
Speaker 1: she'd solve this, figure it out, protect him and the
5:58
Speaker 1: face of the strength. Rick fe resilient and blessed, because,
6:02
Speaker 1: let's face it, there's no bigger turn on, nothing more
6:04
Speaker 1: compelling or empowering than a wife who has her husband's back.
6:08
Speaker 1: I love you, baby, all right? Enough of this bullshit.
6:11
Speaker 1: Shut on one of the ions goons, just before pushing
6:13
Speaker 1: Mandy aside and barrowing Rick down the gangway to a
6:16
Speaker 1: waiting paddy wagon. On the ear into the back he went,
6:20
Speaker 1: doors slam shut behind him. Rick thought of the black
6:23
Speaker 1: marias back home, and from there things got worse. He
6:27
Speaker 1: spent days he couldn't recall how many, in a Miami
6:30
Speaker 1: holding cell. He was given a little clarity from authorities
6:33
Speaker 1: on his situation as he scrambled frantically to contact his lawyers.
6:37
Speaker 1: No luck, and what the hell was going on? Where
6:40
Speaker 1: was he being held or why was he being held?
6:42
Speaker 1: He got the immigration thing, but the treatment since his
6:44
Speaker 1: arrest seemed cruel, if not actually illegal. Then on a
6:48
Speaker 1: day that ended and why and otherwise had no distinguishing characteristics,
6:52
Speaker 1: slick rick cell door rolled open and he was fitted
6:55
Speaker 1: for shackles at his wrists and ankles. He was then
6:58
Speaker 1: frog marched into a bus with bar hard windows. The
7:01
Speaker 1: bus at the road where too. He didn't know. A
7:04
Speaker 1: couple old timers shackled in the seats behind and amused
7:07
Speaker 1: about their situation. They'd heard of this before. The ride
7:12
Speaker 1: an unofficial type of hazing or punishment where federal prisoners
7:16
Speaker 1: are subjected to long, arduous bus rides under the guise
7:19
Speaker 1: of transporting them between prisons. In reality, they're shackled and
7:23
Speaker 1: forced to sit on hard benches upright for hours at
7:26
Speaker 1: a time on endless daily road trips, sometimes for days
7:30
Speaker 1: at a time, while their insides rattle, their bones ache,
7:33
Speaker 1: and their resolves softens. All at sixty five miles per hour,
7:38
Speaker 1: Rick rocked up and down for hours as the bus
7:41
Speaker 1: made its way over bumpy flower to back roads. He
7:44
Speaker 1: had no idea where they were taking him. He was spent,
7:46
Speaker 1: but sharp enough to know that this was some sort
7:48
Speaker 1: of dystopian parody of the gentle rocking of the cruise
7:51
Speaker 1: ship he began this adventure on, and as the ride
7:55
Speaker 1: was intended to be. It was enough to drive a
7:57
Speaker 1: man crazy, but Rick, as was his normal dispass position,
8:00
Speaker 1: kept his cool. He'd spent years in jail prior to
8:03
Speaker 1: this for something he believed never should have ended with
8:06
Speaker 1: his incarceration. But regardless that experience meant he could handle
8:11
Speaker 1: whatever this fresh punit of ride was. He just thought
8:14
Speaker 1: those days were behind him. He was getting too old
8:16
Speaker 1: for this shit, and the bus finally brought him to
8:19
Speaker 1: the Bradenton Detention Center in West Florida, a filthy, underfunded
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Speaker 1: prison reserved for immigration cases. It was the summer of
8:27
Speaker 1: two thousand and two, and this would be Rick's home
8:29
Speaker 1: for the next year. As George W. Bush's shiny new bureaucracy,
8:33
Speaker 1: the Department of Homeland Security built a fresh case against him.
8:37
Speaker 1: Prison sucked. It was way worse than he remembered when
8:41
Speaker 1: he was processed at Bradenton. The blue prison jumpsuit that
8:44
Speaker 1: gave him had suspicious white stains on it that refused
8:46
Speaker 1: to come out over the months. His signature eye patch
8:50
Speaker 1: that he had been wearing when he was arrested fell apart,
8:53
Speaker 1: while his full collection languished back home in New York,
8:56
Speaker 1: and that really pissed him off. And all around him
8:59
Speaker 1: he was forced to bear the emotional shit show of
9:01
Speaker 1: watching poor, seemingly helpless immigrants being kept away from their
9:04
Speaker 1: weeping families. In this fresh hell, Rick had plenty of
9:08
Speaker 1: time to think why him. Why now the quick version.
9:13
Speaker 1: Though slick got an attempted murder charge on the person
9:15
Speaker 1: who misled him, it should have been labeled self defense.
9:19
Speaker 1: But he'd done his time. More than his time in
9:21
Speaker 1: the long arm of the law toyed with him, tried
9:23
Speaker 1: to make an example of him all through the nineties,
9:25
Speaker 1: but he was too slick for that, or at least
9:28
Speaker 1: he had enough money to hire the right lawyers to
9:29
Speaker 1: navigate the tangled joke that was the American legal system
9:32
Speaker 1: for him, and now apparently it was time to do
9:35
Speaker 1: it again. Slick Rick was a man with powerful friends.
9:39
Speaker 1: Sure he was an immigrant, but in New York City
9:41
Speaker 1: that made you a native, and in the Bronx he
9:43
Speaker 1: was an adopted hometown hero. He was one of the
9:46
Speaker 1: very first artists signed to Deaf Jam Records and now
9:48
Speaker 1: put a shine on his name that would never fade.
9:51
Speaker 1: So when word got back to the Bronx that Rick
9:54
Speaker 1: was locked up for no good reason, the protests started.
9:57
Speaker 1: Free slick Rick. Petitions began circulating, and celebrity fans and
10:01
Speaker 1: friends began wielding their influence. Will Smith, Chris Rock, the
10:05
Speaker 1: Reverend Jesse Jackson all rode to the courts and Ricks
10:07
Speaker 1: defense and a thousand miles away in a New York
10:10
Speaker 1: City penthouse, as coverage of ricks Desperate Circumstances played on
10:14
Speaker 1: a wall mounted flat screen, Slick Ricks guardian Angel watched
10:18
Speaker 1: and waited his options in zem like silence. Rick didn't
10:21
Speaker 1: deserve this, he thought, straight up, this is some bullshit.
10:25
Speaker 1: It's time to freeze slick Rick for real. So Russell Simmons,
10:29
Speaker 1: co founder of def Jam Recordings, looked away from his
10:32
Speaker 1: television and picked up the telephone. What's the matter, Ricky?
10:55
Speaker 1: You'd like coming to work? Dress like you're gonna fetch
10:57
Speaker 1: me a table at Nell's. Seriously, you allergic to money?
11:00
Speaker 1: Did they even have money where you're from? Where you're
11:03
Speaker 1: from anyway? Ricky? What the bronx? What will be the
11:06
Speaker 1: north fucking polma? Right? You know what they say? If
11:08
Speaker 1: it's across one hundred and tenth Street, it didn't fit
11:10
Speaker 1: the fuck or eat? What's the matter? Ricky? Can't got
11:13
Speaker 1: your tongue, same cattle, got your eye? Well, you're gonna
11:16
Speaker 1: cry that one ey ears, Hey, one of you Brooks
11:19
Speaker 1: Brother's assholes. Get Ricky half a fucking kleenex. He's gonna
11:22
Speaker 1: cry out of his one eye Ricky Walter is not
11:29
Speaker 1: yet names like Rick was hustling mail out of the
11:32
Speaker 1: Lehman Brothers mail room and said nothing as he stoically
11:34
Speaker 1: endured the latest round of abuse from the dipship brokers
11:37
Speaker 1: at Lehman Brothers. Whatever he could handle it. He'd been
11:41
Speaker 1: in this country for nine years. He arrived when he
11:44
Speaker 1: was eleven from Southwest London with his family, who were
11:46
Speaker 1: originally from Jamaica, who then decided to try their luck
11:49
Speaker 1: in America, the land of opportunity as immigrants twice over,
11:53
Speaker 1: and like most immigrants in their adopted Bronx neighborhood, they
11:56
Speaker 1: struggled but worked hard. So Rick or Rick as he
12:00
Speaker 1: was called, a good deal. It was nineteen eighty five
12:03
Speaker 1: Manhattan and there was amount of money to make if
12:06
Speaker 1: you were grown in with both hustle and flow, and
12:09
Speaker 1: little Ricky Walters had both in spades. By day, he
12:13
Speaker 1: worked in the mail room at Lehman, quietly observing mcglitz,
12:16
Speaker 1: greed and Ghak of all the wannabe Gordon get goos
12:18
Speaker 1: and American psychos, and he pushed his rinky dig mail
12:21
Speaker 1: car through the offices of millionaire stockbrokers, tolerating their bullshit
12:25
Speaker 1: while handing out obscene bonus checks to Coke Field confidence men.
12:29
Speaker 1: While he lived off of five hundred bucks a month,
12:31
Speaker 1: two thirds of his pay covered his rent, and I
12:34
Speaker 1: left about forty bucks a week for food, clothes and fun.
12:37
Speaker 1: But every time he dropped the check on the desk
12:39
Speaker 1: of what are these so called masters of the universe?
12:42
Speaker 1: Rick knew that deep down they were the unhappy working stiffs,
12:45
Speaker 1: not him. They hid their misery behind the extra zeros
12:48
Speaker 1: in those bonus lvehlopes, but they had no idea what
12:51
Speaker 1: real joy and freedom were. Rick knew that one day,
12:54
Speaker 1: his hustle, his art would outshine them all, because by night,
12:59
Speaker 1: Rick was a Bronx MC on the come up. Having
13:03
Speaker 1: arrived in the Bronx from London in nineteen seventy six,
13:06
Speaker 1: right around the exact time and in the exact place
13:09
Speaker 1: that neighborhood of mcs and DJs were inventing hip hop,
13:12
Speaker 1: Rick was indirectly groomed to be an MC, DJ, Cool
13:16
Speaker 1: Herd Bambada Flash. Rick, as a young man, had a
13:19
Speaker 1: front row seat to them all from his vantage point
13:21
Speaker 1: in the Bronx, and a Rick Rappers seemed to have
13:24
Speaker 1: it all, respect attention from the Bee Girls music was
13:28
Speaker 1: pure joy, real freedom. There was a fire in his belly.
13:32
Speaker 1: This was the future. When Rick was a little kid
13:35
Speaker 1: back in London, he was shy as an infant. A
13:38
Speaker 1: splinter of glass in the floor of his family's tenement
13:40
Speaker 1: apartment but in his right eye, scarring and blinding him.
13:44
Speaker 1: His need for an eye patch made himself conscious, an
13:47
Speaker 1: introvert by necessity. Instead of running around the neighborhood with
13:50
Speaker 1: the other kids, he stayed in and read books, listened
13:52
Speaker 1: to music, and grew naturally into a storyteller. But in
13:57
Speaker 1: the Bronx, the things that held him back as a
13:59
Speaker 1: child had become his greatest strengths. Watching his parents' struggle
14:02
Speaker 1: gave him drive and ambition. His soft English accent caught
14:06
Speaker 1: the attention of the ladies, and he adopted a whole
14:08
Speaker 1: new persona made of flashy costumes and bold fashion statements,
14:12
Speaker 1: and turned his eyepatch into his signature accessory. His years
14:16
Speaker 1: of practicing poetry and storytelling set him up to rock
14:19
Speaker 1: the mic effortlessly, with a different flow than anybody had
14:22
Speaker 1: heard previous. In a word, it was slick. He had glitz,
14:26
Speaker 1: ghak and hustle all his own. Now in a stage
14:29
Speaker 1: named the match slick Rick one hundred and seventieth Street
14:34
Speaker 1: in Jerome Avenue, fifteen hundred cash on the line, not
14:37
Speaker 1: to mention slick Rick's pride if he could vanquish all
14:40
Speaker 1: covers in this street corner wrap battle. The original human
14:43
Speaker 1: beat box Dougie Fresh was the judge. Rick commend him
14:47
Speaker 1: a couple months back, but failed to really make an impression.
14:50
Speaker 1: Now is his chance impressing Dougie Fresh meant your flow
14:53
Speaker 1: is dope and that sale of approval was potentially worth
14:56
Speaker 1: more than the fifteen hundred. The scene was bumping block
14:59
Speaker 1: part his style. The nighttime summer air was sticky, sweat
15:03
Speaker 1: was visible on the bare arms of the attendant be
15:05
Speaker 1: girls and distracting Rick, who was trying to focus waiting
15:08
Speaker 1: his turn to jump in. He got the call up,
15:12
Speaker 1: bounced into the battle and smoothly dropped a verse that
15:15
Speaker 1: would soon become famous, and slick Rick was off the crowd.
15:19
Speaker 1: He had them, he could feel it, and they could
15:21
Speaker 1: tell they were witnessing something special. Rix Rime had both
15:24
Speaker 1: innocence and bite, and he was telling a story in
15:27
Speaker 1: a way that was both familiar, like something that pulled
15:29
Speaker 1: on their childhood memories, but also an indicator of where
15:32
Speaker 1: this relatively new genre of music could go. Dougie Fresh
15:37
Speaker 1: was more than impressed. Needless to say, Slick Rick won
15:40
Speaker 1: the battle that night, but more importantly, Dougie Fresh enlisted
15:43
Speaker 1: Rick to join his Get Fresh crew and quickly cut
15:46
Speaker 1: a record with Rick's lotty Dottie Rhyme featured over his
15:49
Speaker 1: beat boxing. The song took off off DJ's played it live,
15:53
Speaker 1: audiences demanded it, kids all over memorized it, promoters paid
15:57
Speaker 1: top dollar for it, and soon as a tory member
15:59
Speaker 1: of Douggie Pressures Get Fresh Crew, Slick Rick was on
16:02
Speaker 1: the road in the States and in Europe with the
16:04
Speaker 1: Star and the Rise, but he wasn't yet where he
16:07
Speaker 1: wanted to be. Douggie Fresh was pulling in six grand
16:10
Speaker 1: a gig. Get Fresh crew members got a five percent
16:13
Speaker 1: cut three hundred each and compared to the five bills
16:16
Speaker 1: a month from Lehman Brothers. To Rick, this felt like
16:19
Speaker 1: a raining paper. Rick told Leman to fuck off, but
16:22
Speaker 1: this still wasn't exactly fuck you money. Rick got to
16:25
Speaker 1: thinking it was his voice and his lyrics that starred
16:28
Speaker 1: on Dougie Fresh's hits. Lottie Dottie in the show, so
16:31
Speaker 1: I'll due respect, the three hundred wasn't going to cut it.
16:34
Speaker 1: Rick knew what he had to do, hustle, strike out
16:37
Speaker 1: on his own. But first there was a party to attend.
16:43
Speaker 1: A type of party that only those whose stars in
16:45
Speaker 1: a cent at, the type of party with bowls filled
16:48
Speaker 1: with mystery pills and powders, the type of party where
16:51
Speaker 1: the bottles never ran dry, the type of party where
16:54
Speaker 1: the smoke made everyone look ten percent sex here, and
16:57
Speaker 1: the type of party were sex just might break out
16:59
Speaker 1: in the open any minute, wherever, on the dance floor,
17:02
Speaker 1: the bathroom, in the back seat of the limo. Rick
17:05
Speaker 1: indulge women, weed, champagne, angel dust, and the angel dust
17:09
Speaker 1: was no joke. Rick told himself it was for special
17:12
Speaker 1: occasions only, but inevitably he caught himself a bad batch
17:15
Speaker 1: and snapped a psychotic break His brain chemistry scrambled his
17:20
Speaker 1: head on fire for days on end, driving his thoughts
17:23
Speaker 1: around in endless circles, manic itching, twitching for trouble, until
17:27
Speaker 1: it all suddenly crashed into a coma like low. The
17:31
Speaker 1: only reality he knew was that he had lost all
17:33
Speaker 1: concept of reality. So he checked into a local psychiatric
17:37
Speaker 1: ward to recover from what he later came to terms
17:39
Speaker 1: with as a drug induced nervous breakdown. There he was
17:43
Speaker 1: in the sterile hospital common room, all linoleum tile and
17:47
Speaker 1: fluorescent lights, drooling and staring off into the middle distance
17:50
Speaker 1: of his one eye. He did not look like slick. Rick.
17:54
Speaker 1: Was this it? How could a burnout with a junkie
17:57
Speaker 1: lean be all that was left of him? He rocked
17:59
Speaker 1: gently back and forth and the music trapped to his
18:02
Speaker 1: own fried out mind, and orderly approached him, Trailing behind
18:06
Speaker 1: her two young men with the air of mobility, mister Walters,
18:10
Speaker 1: Rick orderly asked, but no response. Rick. These men would
18:14
Speaker 1: like to meet you, mister Simmons, mister Ruben me Rick.
18:17
Speaker 1: In his sorry state, Rick assumed this was the coup
18:20
Speaker 1: de grasse, sealing his deal in his worst nightmare. Standing
18:23
Speaker 1: in front of him was the powerhouse behind the still
18:26
Speaker 1: brand new outfit def Jam Recordings, Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin,
18:30
Speaker 1: the two men behind some of Rapp's most exciting to
18:32
Speaker 1: that point influential records, Telor Rock and Jazzy Jays. It's
18:36
Speaker 1: yours ll cool Jays. I need a beat and it's
18:39
Speaker 1: the beat by the Hollis Crew from Olbern Queen's Plus
18:43
Speaker 1: Russell was the older brother of the Hollis Crew's Run,
18:46
Speaker 1: who was the unofficial son of Curtis Blow who is
18:48
Speaker 1: the shit and Run, of course, would go on to
18:50
Speaker 1: become one of the iconic members of Run DMC. And
18:53
Speaker 1: these dudes were connected here. He was slick Rick, the
18:57
Speaker 1: wordless zombie. The fucking one he dreamt of was an
19:00
Speaker 1: arms reach and he couldn't even make eye contact with
19:02
Speaker 1: the men who could get it forward one but Russell
19:05
Speaker 1: Simmons knew the scar and you would have slick Ricks back,
19:08
Speaker 1: just like he would so many more times over the years.
19:11
Speaker 1: And they shared a culture, lives in the same streets.
19:14
Speaker 1: Russell had seen plenty of folks in the condition they
19:16
Speaker 1: called dusty. He knew Rick would snap out of it
19:19
Speaker 1: in a few days. Slick Rick, the velvet voice storyteller
19:22
Speaker 1: would return bigger and better than ever. Russell Simmons knew it,
19:26
Speaker 1: and he'd make sure of it. He leaned down and
19:28
Speaker 1: whispered into his ear, Rick, I know you're in there,
19:32
Speaker 1: but we're going to see on the outside. Def Jam
19:35
Speaker 1: wants you. We'll be right back after this word word
19:39
Speaker 1: word the butt of the pistol whipped Rick across the temple.
19:47
Speaker 1: Where's the money, motherfucker? We wants the money, Ricky. Rick
19:51
Speaker 1: waited for the stars and the blurriness to fade. Who
19:54
Speaker 1: the fuck was this guy whipping him with the butt
19:56
Speaker 1: end of his nine millimeters anyway, had to have been
19:59
Speaker 1: one of Mark's ca just when things were evening out
20:02
Speaker 1: for Rick. That's what he had settled into, the lifestyle
20:04
Speaker 1: afforded him from a successful recording career with def Jam.
20:08
Speaker 1: But man, what the hell is this? Typical? Rick thought?
20:12
Speaker 1: It was like, no matter how many of his dreams
20:13
Speaker 1: came true, he always had some new hassle trying to
20:16
Speaker 1: tear him back down. Here. It was nineteen eighty nine.
20:19
Speaker 1: He was at the top of the rap game, and
20:21
Speaker 1: somehow he was tied to a chair in his own home,
20:23
Speaker 1: knuckling through one of an endless series of shakedowns. Fucked
20:27
Speaker 1: this shit, and fuck the music business too. If this
20:29
Speaker 1: was going to be the way it was, shakedowns and beatdowns.
20:32
Speaker 1: Too much hustle for too much hassle. The signature in
20:36
Speaker 1: Rick's new contract with deaf Jam was barely dry before
20:39
Speaker 1: his hard work began paying off. He was a star now.
20:43
Speaker 1: But soon enough he learned the same thing everyone learns
20:45
Speaker 1: when they get famous. Enough, when you finally made it,
20:49
Speaker 1: you get to run faster and faster just to stay
20:51
Speaker 1: in the same place. He saw it in the recording
20:54
Speaker 1: studio right away. This wasn't the simple joy of a
20:57
Speaker 1: freestyle block party anymore. This was a This was work.
21:01
Speaker 1: His debut album took a year and a half to
21:03
Speaker 1: record as a rotating cast of producer struggled to vibe
21:07
Speaker 1: with Rick's flow, and after a year had gone by,
21:10
Speaker 1: only one track met his personal standards, the Ruler. But
21:14
Speaker 1: once things clicked, they clicked, and the finished album, The
21:17
Speaker 1: Great Adventures of Slick Rick, topped the Billboard Hip Hop
21:20
Speaker 1: charts for five weeks and received a five Mike score
21:23
Speaker 1: from the Source. But success changed things. Rick couldn't bop
21:29
Speaker 1: around the bronx anymore, not like the old days. His
21:31
Speaker 1: name was too big. He never knew which young blood
21:34
Speaker 1: was going to step to him, just to make their bones.
21:37
Speaker 1: His jeweled eye patches, his carefully layered chains, the chunky
21:40
Speaker 1: rings he wore as a tribute to Sammy Davis Junior.
21:43
Speaker 1: They were meant to be proof positive that his hustle
21:46
Speaker 1: had been rewarded, but now all they did was make
21:49
Speaker 1: him an obvious target. But fuck it, Why hustle so
21:52
Speaker 1: hard if he can't enjoy it? So Rick stepped up.
21:55
Speaker 1: He filled out his collection of jewelry cars in real
21:58
Speaker 1: estate with a small armory, pissed those semi automatic shotguns,
22:01
Speaker 1: you name it. He carried a piece on him at
22:03
Speaker 1: all times, but he knew more than anyone that he
22:06
Speaker 1: only had one eye, So what he really needed was
22:08
Speaker 1: muscle bodyguards, an expense he'd happily cover, and as luck
22:13
Speaker 1: would have it, Rick had a cousin who had just
22:15
Speaker 1: arrived in the city from Jamaica fresh off the boat,
22:18
Speaker 1: Mark Plumber. Rick didn't really know the guy, but keeping
22:21
Speaker 1: things in the family seemed like a good idea, so
22:23
Speaker 1: Mark got the gig guarding slick Rick. What Rick didn't
22:27
Speaker 1: know couldn't know about Mark, is that he was a
22:29
Speaker 1: stone cold psycho. By nineteen ninety two, Mark would be dead,
22:33
Speaker 1: gunned down during a home invasion by the father of
22:35
Speaker 1: a young boy he was attempting to rape. But here
22:38
Speaker 1: in eighty nine, when Rick hired him, Mark Plummer hadn't
22:41
Speaker 1: yet ruined his life, but he was threatening to ruin
22:44
Speaker 1: slick Ricks, at least for the foreseeable future. It didn't
22:48
Speaker 1: take long after Mark's hiring for weird shit to start happening.
22:51
Speaker 1: I attempted to be at ease on ricks properties, home invasions,
22:54
Speaker 1: extortion attempts. At first, it seemed to prove rix paranoia
22:58
Speaker 1: right there really were out to get him. His fame
23:01
Speaker 1: was a curse. But all the threatening activity was easily
23:05
Speaker 1: traced back to Mark, who, as Rick's body man, was
23:07
Speaker 1: proving to lots of inside info he could then hand
23:10
Speaker 1: off to friends to try and set Rick up, score
23:13
Speaker 1: money from him, drugs or blame as if they were
23:15
Speaker 1: random burglars. The robberies were happening with too much frequency,
23:19
Speaker 1: and Rick might have been paranoid, but he was no dummy.
23:22
Speaker 1: Soon it became obvious that he had a bad seat
23:24
Speaker 1: in his crew and Mark family or not was an
23:27
Speaker 1: unknown quantity. The betrayal, the inside job of it all,
23:31
Speaker 1: and that it was the same man he had hired
23:32
Speaker 1: for protection who was in fact the biggest threat to him.
23:35
Speaker 1: Ratcheted Rix paranoid at a new heights. He self medicated
23:39
Speaker 1: with champagne and weed. Neither helped. Both made the situation worse,
23:44
Speaker 1: Rick was at a loss for it to do, and
23:47
Speaker 1: with Mark, he couldn't just outright firehim, and who knew
23:49
Speaker 1: what the stug would do, And so Rick tried paying
23:51
Speaker 1: him off, letting him go with a severance of several
23:54
Speaker 1: thousand dollars in a van, but it was too late.
23:57
Speaker 1: Once Mark realized Rick had found him out, knew what
23:59
Speaker 1: he was up to, menacing bastard that he was decided
24:02
Speaker 1: to go full psycho on Rick. There was nothing to hide,
24:05
Speaker 1: So fuck slick Rick, take the greedy rap star for
24:08
Speaker 1: all he was worth. Mark was in the land of opportunity,
24:11
Speaker 1: and here was the opportunity his rich ass cousin, with
24:14
Speaker 1: all the cash, drugs and blank taken for oli was
24:16
Speaker 1: worth because who knew when another score would present itself.
24:21
Speaker 1: So now Rick was tied to a chair, bleeding from
24:23
Speaker 1: his forehead, getting pistol whipped by a random lackie, a
24:26
Speaker 1: stooge for his psycho cousin Mark. When the rest of
24:29
Speaker 1: Rick's crew was heard coming up the hall, the shakedown ended.
24:33
Speaker 1: The stooge threatened with the pistol butt one more time,
24:36
Speaker 1: give Mark what he's owed, or we're coming back on you.
24:39
Speaker 1: You hear, and then he ducked out the window down
24:41
Speaker 1: the fire escape when Rick's boys entered, Oh that anyone
24:45
Speaker 1: could do was untie him. But it wasn't over. Rick
24:48
Speaker 1: knew there'd be more attacks. Mark Plumber was a fucking
24:53
Speaker 1: menace and he was all up in slick Rick shit.
24:56
Speaker 1: He threatened to kill Rick and his mother. One day,
25:00
Speaker 1: Rick came home to a fresh round of bullet holes
25:02
Speaker 1: in his front door. This game of intimidating cat and
25:05
Speaker 1: mouse with Mark dragged on for months. There was no
25:08
Speaker 1: end in sight. Rick continued to self medicate. The paranoia
25:11
Speaker 1: inducing weed made it all especially tough to handle. His
25:15
Speaker 1: twitchiness had become background noise, an unavoidable fact of life.
25:19
Speaker 1: He kept his one eye on the door at all times,
25:22
Speaker 1: and the rest of his life at the moment was
25:23
Speaker 1: one big blind spot. But the hell with it. A
25:27
Speaker 1: man needed to let loose every once in a while.
25:32
Speaker 1: So one warm night in April nineteen ninety where he
25:35
Speaker 1: put on his finest eye patch, best chains and hit
25:37
Speaker 1: the club in full slick Rick regalia, it was about
25:41
Speaker 1: damn time to let us some steam, and it didn't
25:43
Speaker 1: take long for him to attract a gag little girls
25:45
Speaker 1: to his private table have his pick of who would
25:47
Speaker 1: be his queen for the night. For a moment, he
25:50
Speaker 1: forgot his troubles and enjoyed being who he was Slick Rick,
25:53
Speaker 1: the ruler. At three am. Rick and a woman he
25:56
Speaker 1: met earlier that night stumbled outside the club and beelined
25:59
Speaker 1: for Rick's as Rick was a gentleman and saw his
26:02
Speaker 1: girl into the passenger's seat, but when he rounded the
26:04
Speaker 1: car to get into the driver's side, he found himself
26:07
Speaker 1: confronted with a gang of roughnecks who looked vaguely familiar
26:10
Speaker 1: Mark Plumber's posse. What do you want now, motherfucker, Rick said.
26:15
Speaker 1: He instinctively patted his waistband for his gun, but realized
26:18
Speaker 1: it was in his glove box. Shit we want you,
26:22
Speaker 1: said one of mark S thucks. Two of them pulled
26:24
Speaker 1: the glocks and in an instant shots fired. A hail
26:33
Speaker 1: of bullets rained out all over the club parking lot.
26:35
Speaker 1: Rick dove for cover, but not fast enough. Three bullets
26:38
Speaker 1: pierced his skin. He felt a lead burn in his arm,
26:41
Speaker 1: and his shoulder and his leg. It was hard to
26:44
Speaker 1: tell where all the pain was coming from, and the
26:46
Speaker 1: heat of the moment the pain fuelled in the fight
26:48
Speaker 1: for his life. Rick's club Queen caught astray in the
26:51
Speaker 1: passenger's seat, and the parking lot suddenly sank a gunpowder
26:54
Speaker 1: and blood. Club Queen screamed, the gunman screwed out of there.
26:58
Speaker 1: Slick Rick slid over into the driver's seat. He checked
27:00
Speaker 1: his wounds, checked Queen's nothing fatal, fucking amateurs. He put
27:04
Speaker 1: the keys in the ignition and started the suv. As
27:08
Speaker 1: he drove to the nearest hospital, his raid shifted into overdrive,
27:11
Speaker 1: and he had had enough. When this punk senses boys
27:14
Speaker 1: to kill me. He doesn't even show his own face.
27:16
Speaker 1: And what kind of lola, cowardly piece of shit? He
27:19
Speaker 1: swore to himself. Never again, No more leaving the gun
27:22
Speaker 1: in the car, no more catching him off guard. Next
27:25
Speaker 1: time he lay his eye on menacing Mark Plumber, he'd
27:28
Speaker 1: be looking at him over the barrel of his gun.
27:31
Speaker 1: Slick Rick was gonna kill his cousin. The voices on
27:53
Speaker 1: the New York City streets formed a hum that was
27:55
Speaker 1: familiar to Rick. He'd grown up here and growing to
27:58
Speaker 1: expect the enveloping sound of the city. But the constant
28:01
Speaker 1: street chorus had warped itself into a menacing mi lounge
28:04
Speaker 1: of paranoia. At any given moment, Rick didn't know who
28:08
Speaker 1: or what he was listening to. Was it the street
28:11
Speaker 1: or was it the psycho Mark Plumber haunting him? Fucking
28:14
Speaker 1: with him? Rick dug in steeled himself for what he
28:18
Speaker 1: knew was a coming confrontation with his cousin. He turned
28:21
Speaker 1: his new car into a weapons locker on wheels. Handguns
28:24
Speaker 1: under his seat, stashed in the door, sawed off in
28:27
Speaker 1: the back, brown paper bags of AMMO at his feet,
28:29
Speaker 1: loose bullets rolling around the floor, and of course, an
28:33
Speaker 1: automatic pistol tucked into his waistband on his person always
28:37
Speaker 1: it was needed. He was tweaking, fully paranoid in his condition,
28:42
Speaker 1: He picked up his girlfriend Lisa for a day of
28:44
Speaker 1: Chinese food and shopping. Lisa was in a condition of
28:47
Speaker 1: her own, soon to be Rick's baby mama. She was
28:50
Speaker 1: seven months pregnant, and their plan for this beautiful Tuesday
28:53
Speaker 1: in July was to buy a crib in newborn clothes.
28:56
Speaker 1: Don't worry about that shotgun in the back seat and
28:58
Speaker 1: ignoring the live rounds clicking against you. Shit, just some
29:00
Speaker 1: normal precautions in the life of Slick Rick. But ignore
29:03
Speaker 1: that noise. Today's all about us, and their day could
29:07
Speaker 1: have been all about them if they hadn't seen that
29:09
Speaker 1: psycho predator, Mark Plumber, walking out of a storefront on
29:12
Speaker 1: two hundred and forty first Street like he didn't have
29:14
Speaker 1: a care in the world. What dun luck shopping for
29:17
Speaker 1: baby gear would have to wait? Rick sprang into action.
29:20
Speaker 1: He slammed the brakes and with the gun out from
29:22
Speaker 1: his pants, two shots out of the gate, no warning.
29:25
Speaker 1: They whizzed by Mark, barely missing him. One of them
29:28
Speaker 1: caught the foot of an innocent bystander on the corner.
29:30
Speaker 1: He went down, screaming in pain. Unlucky bastard. Mark had
29:34
Speaker 1: no idea what was happening. Rick had no time. Mark
29:37
Speaker 1: saw him. Now they locked eyes, both knowing the score
29:40
Speaker 1: even tied up, but today winner take off three more shots.
29:45
Speaker 1: Rick cut them off before Mark could do anything besides
29:47
Speaker 1: stare with that stupid fucking grin of his. This time,
29:50
Speaker 1: Rick shots connected, two in Mark's leg, one in his arm,
29:54
Speaker 1: but no kill shot, just spray and pray. The adrenaline
29:58
Speaker 1: kicked in. Mark gripped his wounds to them the bleeding
30:00
Speaker 1: and dove inside the nearest storefront to escape. For a moment,
30:07
Speaker 1: there was an eerie calm, a scene out of some
30:09
Speaker 1: imagined cinematic city trench warfare movie. Rick aiming from his car,
30:14
Speaker 1: Mark peering back from a bodega window. The hard top
30:17
Speaker 1: of the Bronx stretched out between them like a no
30:20
Speaker 1: man's lamb, screaming pedestrians, a wounded civilian writhing in pain.
30:25
Speaker 1: Rick had to make a split second decision. Chase marked
30:27
Speaker 1: down to finish the job or get the fuck out
30:30
Speaker 1: of there before the NYPD descended on the scene. Let's go,
30:33
Speaker 1: let's go, let's go, Lisa demanded. She pounded on the
30:36
Speaker 1: dash and ended the quiet of the standoff. Rick knew
30:39
Speaker 1: she was right. He sent the message. The more he
30:41
Speaker 1: stuck around, the worst things would get. By the second
30:45
Speaker 1: Rick through the ride in the gear and peeled out
30:47
Speaker 1: from the scene. He hooked a turn at the corner
30:50
Speaker 1: and aimed for the Bronx River Parkway fastest exit row
30:53
Speaker 1: and fuck consequences and Rick's mind, this is all self defense.
30:57
Speaker 1: That monster kept robbing him, threatening his family. This is
31:00
Speaker 1: the righteous kind of drive by, and he had no
31:02
Speaker 1: intention of having to explain it to a judge. But
31:04
Speaker 1: it was too late. He and Lisa were only a
31:06
Speaker 1: couple of blocks in the parkway. When multiple blue and
31:08
Speaker 1: white Crown Vics sirens blaring and whipped around the same corner,
31:12
Speaker 1: he just fled and began drafting in his wake. No
31:15
Speaker 1: way the ruler was going out like this. Rick put
31:17
Speaker 1: the pedal to the floor, closed the last couple of blocks,
31:20
Speaker 1: and hit the on ramp. There was only one move here.
31:22
Speaker 1: Gained some distance on the squad cars, stunt the sharpest
31:25
Speaker 1: turn he could at the next ramp to surprise them
31:27
Speaker 1: and lose the cops behind it in a few lanes
31:30
Speaker 1: of traffic. He gunned it as hard as he could
31:33
Speaker 1: up the parkway. Lisa parayed in the seat next to him,
31:36
Speaker 1: guns to God, and under six seconds Rick made a
31:38
Speaker 1: hard yank with the steering wheel and skid it in
31:40
Speaker 1: a wide arc from the far left lane towards the
31:43
Speaker 1: far right ramp. Knowing that the move without a make
31:45
Speaker 1: or break is escape. This is it his getaway. He
31:49
Speaker 1: thought that right up until he lost control of the
31:51
Speaker 1: car and the turn, sliding out of the angle he
31:53
Speaker 1: was aiming for and slamming full force into a tree
31:56
Speaker 1: along the parkway in bankment. Crashed after a moment in
32:03
Speaker 1: a concussive shock. Rick came too. Looked around the front
32:06
Speaker 1: end of the car was a smoking, crumpled heap. The
32:09
Speaker 1: dashboard had intruded on the cabin from the impact. Lisa
32:12
Speaker 1: was frozen in shock and for a second Rick feared
32:15
Speaker 1: she was dead, but no. He could see her breathing
32:17
Speaker 1: and her belly and her baby were unharmed, but her
32:20
Speaker 1: legs were clearly broken, pinned by the collapsed front end
32:24
Speaker 1: of the car. The platoon of police Crown Vis pulled
32:27
Speaker 1: up and surrounded the crash site. An officer gun drawn
32:31
Speaker 1: approached the driver door. Don't move, Shipbird, you're under arrest,
32:35
Speaker 1: and the disasters drive by and car chase landed Rick
32:38
Speaker 1: in prison for five years on attempted murder charges. It
32:41
Speaker 1: stunted his recording career, but def Jam recording stuck by
32:45
Speaker 1: him and allowed Rick to produce an album from behind
32:48
Speaker 1: Barros titled Behind Bars. Lisa had the baby and Rick
32:52
Speaker 1: started a correspondence with another beautiful woman named Mandy, his
32:55
Speaker 1: future wife, and it wasn't all bad. And after humiliating
33:00
Speaker 1: Rick on that cruise ship in Miami, when i Ands
33:02
Speaker 1: began their decade long attempt to make an example of
33:05
Speaker 1: Rick and having deported judges based out of New York,
33:08
Speaker 1: and in the score, the Feds were just playing red
33:10
Speaker 1: tape games while fishing for headlines with a hip hop
33:13
Speaker 1: star on the hook, hoping to keep Rick locked up
33:16
Speaker 1: long enough so they could boot him out of the States.
33:18
Speaker 1: It wasn't on the level. Back in New York, Russell
33:21
Speaker 1: Simmons and ricks fans famous and otherwise had his back.
33:25
Speaker 1: The Free Slick Rick movement launched, and it worked. He
33:28
Speaker 1: was freed, got a full pardon from New York Governor
33:30
Speaker 1: and longtime Slick Rick fan David Patterson. In the City
33:34
Speaker 1: of the Blind, the One Eyed Man is King, or
33:36
Speaker 1: at least the ruler, and after it all died down,
33:40
Speaker 1: Rick became a full US citizen and was eventually inducted
33:43
Speaker 1: into the Bronx Walk with fame. Finally, Slick Rick understood
33:48
Speaker 1: the real power of hustle, and the payoff wasn't the
33:50
Speaker 1: money of the women, or the drugs or any of
33:52
Speaker 1: the bullshit the billionaire boys club back at Lehman were pedaling.
33:56
Speaker 1: This was the payoff community empowerment. Years of grinding on
34:01
Speaker 1: the block, on stage and on record, creating music true
34:05
Speaker 1: art had inspired legions of fans who when his back
34:08
Speaker 1: was up against the wall, had his back and all
34:11
Speaker 1: the sentimentality aside. Isn't that what America is really about?
34:15
Speaker 1: Being there for your neighbor and their time of need?
34:18
Speaker 1: Or is it just about rewarding hard work or more
34:21
Speaker 1: specifically and cynically, rewarding the hustle, no matter the disgrace.
34:27
Speaker 1: I'm Jake Brennan and this is Disgraceland. Disgraceland was created
34:43
Speaker 1: by Yours Truly and is produced in partnership with Double Elvis.
34:47
Speaker 1: Credits for this episode can be found on the show
34:49
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34:53
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