Description
Slick Rick – The Ruler’s Back – Fruit Punch Vinyl Record
The Ruler’s Back is Slick Rick’s second studio album, originally released by Def Jam in 1991 after The Great Adventures of Slick Rick had established his distinctive voice in hip-hop. The twelve-track record retains his interest in character, narrative and an unmistakably individual delivery, while moving into a brisker early-1990s production setting. Vance Wright, Slick Rick and Mr. Lee contribute to the production, with Wright involved across most of the program. I Shouldn’t Have Done It, Mistakes of a Woman in Love with Other Men and It’s a Boy were among the album’s singles. This 2023 reissue presents the original album on a single fruit punch colored vinyl LP.
Rick’s vocal identity is central to the album. His British-born background, conversational phrasing and ability to move between a narrator’s position and a character’s point of view gave his records a recognizable place within New York hip-hop. The Ruler’s Back applies that approach to a program whose movement can be quick and compact. Songs such as I Shouldn’t Have Done It place the emphasis on a situation and its consequences, giving the performance more shape than a succession of disconnected lines. The interest comes from the way the voice controls timing and perspective, with the production supplying rhythmic support and sampled detail around it. That relationship makes Rick’s personality the connecting element across the record.
King opens the first side before I Shouldn’t Have Done It, Bond, Moses and Tonto. Mistakes of a Woman in Love with Other Men closes the side, bringing another of the album’s recognizable singles into the sequence. The variety in those titles reflects Rick’s preference for specific situations and figures rather than a program built around one repeated subject. The backing draws on a broad sample vocabulary, including soul, funk and earlier hip-hop recordings. References to his own work also link the album with the musical identity established before it. The result belongs firmly to the sample-based hip-hop production of its period while remaining shaped by the rapper’s particular voice and storytelling instincts.
Venus begins the second side, followed by Ship, It’s a Boy, Top Cat and Runaway. Slick Rick – The Ruler closes the album, with Mr. Lee supplying the production on that final selection. The six-track side continues the movement among narratives, character-based songs and pieces centered more directly on Rick’s persona. It also gives the album a clear closing statement after the preceding situations and voices. Across the twelve selections, the production credits show a close working relationship between Rick and Vance Wright, with the final track introducing a different collaborator. The original LP structure keeps those contributions within a concise two-sided album rather than expanding the release into a collection of later material.
The Ruler’s Back occupies the space between Rick’s debut and Behind Bars, making it an important part of the progression through his original Def Jam albums. It reached number 29 on the Billboard 200, and I Shouldn’t Have Done It became one of its strongest individual chart performers. For listeners familiar mainly with the debut, this album provides a view of how his delivery and production developed in the next stage of his recording career. The fruit punch vinyl reissue preserves all twelve original tracks, with six selections on each side. Its appeal lies in the combination of Rick’s recognizable narration, the sample-driven backing and a program that gives that voice several different situations to inhabit.
Brand new, never played and still sealed in the factory plastic
Track Listing
A1. King
A2. I Shouldn’t Have Done It
A3. Bond
A4. Moses
A5. Tonto
A6. Mistakes of a Woman in Love with Other Men
B1. Venus
B2. Ship
B3. It’s a Boy
B4. Top Cat
B5. Runaway
B6. Slick Rick – The Ruler
