Who knows if hip-hop would’ve ever made it this far without Slick Rick? A style icon, rhyme maestro, and gifted storyteller, the London-born rapper/producer set the tone in the mid-’80s as Ricky D alongside Doug E. Fresh in The Get Fresh Crew. By the end of that decade, he’d transcended those auspicious beginnings with the full-length solo debut under his now best-known moniker, The Great Adventures of Slick Rick. In the more than three and a half decades since that album, a lot changed in the genre as well as in his personal and professional lives. Yet over all those years, even as his output slowed or stalled, respect for The Ruler never waned. For VICTORY, his first album since 1999’s The Art of Storytelling, a 60-year-old Rick doesn’t even try to play in the contentious spaces currently occupied by viral drill and trap stars. Instead, he’s back for the love of the rap game, choosing playful production to match his seasoned flow. Lest anyone need an introduction, “I Did That” runs through his résumé with ease before dipping into clubland for “Come On Let’s Go.” The unmistakeable spark of his narrative rap greatness flicks on once again for “Landlord,” a witty if scathing barrage of rent-due anecdotes timed for the first of the month, and “So You’re Having My Baby,” a jazzy chronicle that packs plenty in scarce little time. Even his guest selection, while highly limited, speaks to his own exquisite tastes rather than the marketplace, with Giggs popping in for “Stress” and Nas putting his stamp on “Documents.”