Slick Rick gives raucous ride

Throughout the mid-to-late '80s, when oversized characters ruled hip-hop, Slick Rick managed to stick out more than most. He even had the nickname to prove it: Rick the Ruler.

That made him perfect to headline Friday's opening of Popped! Music Fest at the Trocadero. You had to rule to Pop. It's just a shame more people didn't see him; the Troc was only a third full.

The British-born MC was - and is still - an anomaly, what with his sing-song patois and lilting cadences woven into the fabric of his voice, only occasionally accented by his British birthright.

His rhymes were a silly roller-coaster ride that jumped through the rhythmic shuffling and saxophone tooting of "Mona Lisa."

This wasn't simply a rote retelling of the Nat King Cole standard. This Mona's a pizza-eating virgin quoting Dionne Warwick tunes, with Rick singing her part and his. That's one of his less ribald songs.

Rick was always a smart, funny storyteller whose misogynistic tendencies rarely got him into trouble. Vulgarity only made him seem oddly likable.

Rick wore thick gold chains as adornment and an eye patch as necessity because of a childhood accident. That look gave the friendly Rick just a bit of mad swagger.

But Rick was always more gangster than most, what with having shot two guys (one his cousin) in 1990 and spending five years in prison after being convicted of attempted murder and weapons violations.

In a word, he's beyond influential. He's swashbuckling. He's even in the clear since, on May 23, New York Gov. David Paterson gave Rick a full, unconditional pardon to save him from deportation.

Perhaps it was this sense of freedom that made Rick's performance so loose and breezy. Some of his lullaby rhymes - like "Children's Story" - were harried. But backed by a nicely raw R&B-ish live band, Slick Rick tucked comfortably into the groove like a pig hunting for truffles.

And when he hit "La-Di-Da-Di" - his signature rude soliloquy - he let lines like "can't be your loverrrr" roll as if he were reciting Shakespeare.