Imitation #4 (1980's): Slick Rick, Children's Story

Raced up the block doing 83

Crashed into a tree near university

Escaped alive though the car was battered

Rat-a-tat-tatted and all the cops scattered

Ran out of bullets and still had static

Grabbed a pregnant lady and pulled out the automatic

Pointed at her head and he said the gun was full o' lead

He told the cops "Back off or honey here's dead"

Slick Rick is rapping about a teenage criminal in the 80's. He committed his first robbery with a friend and he couldn't stop after that. The last time he tried to rob someone, it was an undercover detective. The incident quickly turns physical and the kid gets innocent people involved. A shoot out breaks out and the rap ends with the a cop killing the kid. This piece is a narrative poetry because it tells a specific story. He uses end rhymes throughout the whole rap. In these 8 lines, he uses "rat-a-tat-tatted" as either onomatopoeia because it is the sound of guns, or a metaphor because instead of saying it was a shoot out, he replaces it with that. It is also an internal rhyme because when listening to it, he makes "tatted" rhyme with "scattered" and that is two rhymes in one line. Slick Rick is directing this rap to other teenagers who live in these types of communities. He is warning them to not get caught up in robbery or crime. This piece is a a critique. He tells a story as an example of how not to live your life. He confesses that people are easily convinced into this way of living, but if one acts like this, it will not end well.