Al B. back!

Not to be outdone by Big Daddy Kane's records with Teddy Riley or Rakim's appearance on Jodie Watley's Friends, MC Ricky D scooped himself a piece of crossover pie with this Andre Harrel A&R-ed remix of If I'm Not Your Lover by Al B. Sure!, as seen live here on Oprah in 1988. Fast forward to the 0:30 mark because the video features that same Webbie hosted Jigg City Clothing commercial as the video of Mystikal doing Y'All Ain't Ready Yet on Soul Train :

It's a good thing Rick and his polka dots were present to lend a helping hand with this performance because, minus the comfort blankets of studio alchemy and a video choreographer, Al B. was revealed as a generic doe-eyed R&B jobber with a voice like Brotha William Hung and as much natural rhythm in his body as that cracka-ass-cracka Patti Astor when she tries to breakdance in Wild Style. As for his black PVC ensemble, let's just say that it didn't have the same sartorial impact as Eric and William's Dapper Dan suits on the cover of Follow The Leader that same year before swiftly moving on to the studio version of the song, which is one of the better New Jack Swing collisions with Rap and as well as a historical benchmark since Rick's "here's your chance, honey, take it/and I might just let you see Al B. naked" line surely has to rank as one of Rap's earliest instances of AYO!, my dude-appropriate lyricism :

Al B. Sure! ft. Slick Rick - If I'm Not Your Lover remix
(From If I'm Not Your Lover 12"; 1988)



Rick's general steez was far better suited to Rap & Bullshit jams than the rest of his golden-era peers so you suspect he'd have parlayed his way into semi-regular Uptown Records cameo spots for Andre and Puffy's artists had he not been sent upstate. A Slick Rick track on Mary's What's The 411 remix album in 1993 would've been a certainty, as would a feature on a Heavy D album; a Jodeci remix employing the Ruler's services also seems probable and it's entirely plausible that he'd have even ended up being managed by Puffy around the same period that Puff was orchestrating LL's career circa the Mr Smith album and the In The House TV show in 1995.

For some multi-layered schadenfreude I refer you to Rick having a more successful 90s than former potna-in-rhyme Doug E. Fresh when he spent 6 years of the decade behind bars trying not to get bummed in the showers.