Slick Rick returns after 26 years with 'Victory' album

Hip-hop legend Slick Rick is proving his creative spark is far from fading.

The English-born rapper — known for his signature eye patch and masterful storytelling — returned to the booth with his first new project in nearly three decades. He's reminding the world of his timeless rap prowess on his visual album, “Victory,” out now.

It marks Slick Rick's first album since 1999's “The Art of Storytelling.” This new project is largely self-produced, with the rapper handling 95% of the production and sharing executive producer duties with Emmy-nominated actor and occasional rapper-DJ Idris Elba, who appears on the album alongside Nas, Giggs and Estelle.

“You was a young adult, then a middled aged man and now you’re an older man, so my mentality has to grow with it,” said Slick Rick, known for his rap classics such as “Children's Story,” “La Di Da Di” with Doug E. Fresh and “Mona Lisa.” His debut album, “The Great Adventures of Slick Rick,” in 1988 hit No. 1 on the Billboard R&B/hip-hop charts.

“Victory” was four years in the making, with Slick Rick, now 60, writing and recording the album between his birthplace of London then France, while the visuals were filmed in the United States, United Kingdom and Africa.