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Children's Story

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"Children's Story"
Song

"Children's Story" is a song recorded by hip hop artist Slick Rick. Taken as the second single from his album The Great Adventures of Slick Rick, the song was a Top 5 hit on both the Hot R&B Singles and the Hot Rap Tracks charts.

Song content

The lyrics begin with children, upon their bedtime, asking "Uncle Ricky" to read them a bedtime story (thus the song title). Rick responds with a story about "once upon a time" in a village where there was law and order, where a little boy lived. He was led into a life of crime by another child into robbing people for quick money. He tried to rob an undercover police officer who hits the boy, which provokes him to pulling a gun on him. Rather than risk shooting the officer and facing jail time, he leads police officers on a footchase throughout town. He runs into Dave the dope fiend in an abandoned building, who gave him a powerful shotgun. He steals a car, only to crash into a tree but he survives the wreck. He opens fire on the officers, and then holds a pregnant woman hostage. He lets her go, and officers surround the boy who drops the gun. At only 17 years, he is gunned down by the cops as he screams in agony. The story ends with a moral to the story that a life of crime is not a joke and can mean life or death. "Uncle Ricky" says goodnight to the kids who ponder the story.

Samples Used In Production

The song reinterprets the notes of the bassline from Bob James's famous song "Nautilus". (Nautilus is the tenth-most-sampled track, in hip hop, of all time, to date.)[citation needed]

Reception

About.com listed it at 44 on their list of the top 100 rap songs,[1] and is ranked #61 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of Hip Hop.[2]

Covers

The song has been covered by:

  • Tricky on his 1996 album Nearly God,
  • Everlast on his 2000 album Eat at Whitey's,
  • Black Star (Talib Kweli and Mos Def) on their collaborative album Black Star,
  • Eminem re-interpreted it as a diss song entitled "Can-I-Bitch"; including shots towards Jermaine Dupri and Canibus. It follows the flow and concept as the original, including the intro of children asking "Marshall, will you please tell us a bedtime story?".
  • The Game on his 2008 Mixtape BWS Radio 5; and was entitled "Compton's Story". He uses an accent much like Slick Rick's throughout the song.

In 2004, "Children's Story" appeared in the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, on classic hip hop radio station Playback FM. The song was also featured on the True Crime: New York City soundtrack and Tony Hawk's Proving Ground.

Montell Jordan samples this song in "This Is How We Do It", as does Ol' Dirty Bastard in "Got Your Money".

The lyrics "Knock 'em out the box" were also used in Star Wars Gangsta Rap.

The Black Eyed Peas sampled this song in their song Light Up The Night from their 2010 album The Beginning.

The song was also played in the films Notorious & "The Sitter".

The lyrics "I need bullets, hurry up run!" are also used by Eminem in the track "Bad Guys Always Die" featuring Dr. Dre from the Wild Wild West (soundtrack).

The lyrics "Now this ain't funny so don't you dare laugh" are used in the chorus of "Shit Can Happen" by D12 on the album Devil's Night.

Children's Story (1988) was sampled in

References

  1. ^ Top 100 Rap Songs
  2. ^ Stereogum: VH1’s 100 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs
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