As a Black disabled poet and founder of Krip-Hop Nation, I started to break down Slick Rick’s spoken word track, I Did That, from a Black disability perspective in a short video first then a long written ongoing piece.  This kind of breakdown needs to be in both Disability Studies and Hip-Hop Studies!

Are we finally seeing well known Black men in Hip-Hop not only coming out with their disabilities but putting it on wax?  The latest example is the new album by Slick Rick on his spoken word track, “I Did That” with the line, “I flipped being blind into a luxury brand..”

We can go back to Bushwick Bill who always brought up his disability like on a song, Size Ain’t Shit (1989) or Prodigy with his song, You’ll Never Feel My Pain rapping about having sickle cell, that came out in 2000. In 2003 rapper, Brother Ali who rapped about being albino who is blind on the track, Forest Whitiker.  One of my favorites, Pharoahe Monch’s Still Standing where he raps about being a boy with Asthma ends with him in the recording booth having an asthma attack that came out in 2011.  The one that really brought me to tears because it was not only paying respect to the late J. Dilla For me it was a coming out song of their two health disabilities, I’m talking about Dear Dilla by the late Phife Dawg and the video for that song can be a class in Disability and Hip-Hop Studies that came out in 2014.

Now in 2025 we have Slick Rick’s new album, Victory, that not only has a spoken word track, I Did That but also has a twenty-nine minute movie where Slick Rick and a lot of people appear with that one eye wearing the bling bling eye patch.

This recent frame of disability from Black men in Hip-Hop is a different frame from the usually hyper masculinity and over proving their manhood almost trying to do the impossible, erasing disability.  The examples that I mentioned above is coming to awareness and learning from their identity aka disability showing living with their disability plus we also have to notice the artists I mentioned above are/were in their thirties and forties thus all had a chance to grow older with their disability.  This is one measure of growth of different ways where disability has changed and shows up in Hip-Hop.  Recently even non-disabled Hip-Hop artists from Berkeley, CA  Lil B who in 2023 put out a whole album with a positive disability theme on his album, Winged Wheelchair Squad.  

On the flip side has Hip-Hop learn a bad habit from Hollywood of having non-disabled Hip-Hop using disability, we must ask why has it been easier for well known non disabled Hip-Hop artist to use disability in their songs compare to a real Hip-Hop artist with a disability coming up in Hip-Hop?

This short essay needs to be not only expanded but should be in Hip-Hop and Disability Studies.  Krip-Hop Nation continues to lead the way, stay tuned!  Hip-Hop and Disability Studies welcome to Krip-Hop Nation!