Slick Rick on Mobo Awards honour and shaping hip-hop: 'We took novels to the next level'

If hip-hop is the folk music of the post-industrial age, then Slick Rick is its Woody Guthrie. Born in London and raised in the Bronx, the rapper essentially invented the smooth-talking storytelling style that has inspired everyone from De La Soul and Digital Underground to Snoop Dogg and Kendrick Lamar. His witty, thoughtful verses broadened the scope of hip-hop with stories about treating your mother with respect and catching your girlfriend cheating with the postman, alongside hard-hitting lyrics about social deprivation and immigration. Eminem described himself as "a product of Slick Rick", Jay-Z likened the star to Matisse, and Questlove called his voice "the most beautiful thing to happen to hip-hop culture". Amy Winehouse immortalised him in the song Me and Mr Jones. On Thursday, he will receive a lifetime achievement prize at the Mobo Awards after performing a career-spanning set with Estelle. Speaking from his home in New York, Slick Rick is remarkably humble about the honour. "That feels great, the appreciation," he says. "Thank you, England." Born to Jamaican parents in Mitcham, south London, in 1965, Ricky Walters was blinded in one eye by broken glass as an infant and