"Children's Story" is a song recorded by British-American hip hop artist

Slick Rick Richard Martin Lloyd Walters (born January 14, 1965), better known as Slick Rick, is an English-American rapper and record producer. He rose to prominence with Doug E. Fresh & the Get Fresh Crew in the mid-1980s. Their songs " The Show" and " ...

. Taken as the second single from his album ''

The Great Adventures of Slick Rick ''The Great Adventures of Slick Rick'' is the debut studio album by hip hop recording artist Slick Rick, released on November 1, 1988. It topped ''Billboard''s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart for five nonconsecutive weeks and peaked at number 31 o ...

'', the song was a Top 5 hit on both the

Hot R&B Singles The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by ''Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 p ...

and the

Hot Rap Tracks Hot Rap Songs (formerly known as Hot Rap Tracks and Hot Rap Singles) is a chart released weekly by ''Billboard'' in the United States. It lists the 25 most popular hip-hop/rap songs, calculated weekly by airplay on rhythmic and urban radio statio ...

charts. It is one of the most sampled rap songs of all time.

Background

The song interpolates the notes of the

bassline Bassline (also known as a bass line or bass part) is the term used in many styles of music, such as blues, jazz, funk, Dub music, dub and electronic music, electronic, traditional music, traditional, or classical music for the low-pitched Part ( ...

from Bob James' song "

Nautilus The nautilus (, ) is a pelagic marine mollusc of the cephalopod family Nautilidae. The nautilus is the sole extant family of the superfamily Nautilaceae and of its smaller but near equal suborder, Nautilina. It comprises six living species in t ...

". Throughout the outro, it contains vocal samples from

Lyn Collins Gloria Lavern Collins (June 12, 1948 – March 13, 2005), better known as Lyn Collins, was an American soul singer best known for working with James Brown in the 1970s and for the influential 1972 funk single, "Think (About It)". A favorite a ...

and

James Brown James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, dancer, musician, record producer and bandleader. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th century music, he is often referred to by the honor ...

in their song "

Think (About It) "Think (About It)" is a funk song recorded by Lyn Collins and released as a single on James Brown's People Records in 1972. The recording was produced by Brown (who also wrote the song) and features instrumental backing from his band The J.B.'s. ...

Reception

About.com Dotdash Meredith (formerly About.com) is an American digital media company based in New York City. The company publishes online articles and videos about various subjects across categories including health, home, food, finance, tech, beauty, l ...

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

Commercial performance

Children's Story reached 5 in the Hot R&B Singles, staying there for 19 weeks and 2 on the Hot Rap Tracks, remaining on the charts for 11 weeks. This was the best performing single from ''

''.

Covers, samples and uses in popular culture

*The 1995

Montell Jordan Montell Du'Sean Barnett Jordan (born December 3, 1968) is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. Best known for his 1995 single "This Is How We Do It", Jordan was the primary male solo artist on Def Jam's Def Soul imprint until le ...

song "

This Is How We Do It "This Is How We Do It" is the debut single by American singer Montell Jordan. It was released by Def Jam Recordings on February 6, 1995 as the lead single from his debut album, also titled ''This Is How We Do It'' (1995). The single was Def Jam ...

", while vastly different lyrically, is musically based on an enhanced sample of Children's Story. *The opening lines of the song "Once upon a time, not long ago..." were used by Outkast on the song "Wheelz of Steel" off their 1996 album ''

ATLiens ''ATLiens'' is the second studio album by American hip hop duo Outkast. It was released on August 27, 1996, by Arista Records and LaFace Records. From 1995 to 1996, Outkast recorded ''ATLiens'' in sessions at several Atlanta studios—Bosstown ...

''. *The song was covered by Tricky on his 1996 album ''

Nearly God ''Nearly God'' is the unofficial second album by English rapper and producer Tricky. It was released in February 1996 under the pseudonym "Nearly God", which originated from an interview during which Tricky was asked "so how does it feel to be Go ...

'', *

Everlast Erik Francis Schrody (born August 18, 1969), known by his stage name Everlast, is an American musician, singer, rapper, and songwriter, who was the frontman for hip hop group House of Pain. He was also part of the hip hop supergroup La Coka ...

covered the song on his 2000 album '' Eat at Whitey's'', *A cover by Black Star (

Talib Kweli Talib Kweli Greene (; born October 3, 1975) is an American rapper. He earned recognition early on through his collaboration with fellow Brooklyn rapper Mos Def in 1997, when they formed the group Black Star. Kweli's musical career continued with ...

and

Mos Def Yasiin Bey (; born Dante Terrell Smith, December 11, 1973), previously and more commonly known by his stage name Mos Def (), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and actor. His hip hop career began in 1994, alongside his siblings in the s ...

) is featured on their collaborative album '' Black Star'', *

Eminem Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), known professionally as Eminem (; often stylized as EMINƎM), is an American rapper and record producer. He is credited with popularizing hip hop in middle America and is critically acclai ...

re-interpreted it as a diss song entitled "Can-I-Bitch"; including shots towards

Jermaine Dupri Jermaine Dupri Mauldin (born September 23, 1972) is an American rapper, songwriter, record producer, record executive, entrepreneur, and DJ. Early life Jermaine Dupri Mauldin was born on September 23, 1972, the son of Tina (Mosley) and Michael ...

and

Canibus Germaine Williams (born December 9, 1974), better known by his stage name Canibus, is an American rapper and actor. He initially gained fame in the 1990s for his ability to freestyle, and eventually released his debut album Can-I-Bus in 1998. ...

. It follows the flow and concept as the original, including the intro of children asking "uncle Marshall, will you 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 Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

'' Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas'', on

classic hip hop Classic hip hop is a music radio format focusing primarily on hip hop music from the 1980s, 1990s, and the early to mid-2000s. Although stations with such a format date back as far as 2004, the format was first popularized in October 2014, after ...

radio station

Playback FM '' Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas'' is an open-world, action-adventure video game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. First released on 16 October 2004 for the PlayStation 2, ''San Andreas'' has an in-game radio that can tu ...

. The song was also featured on the soundtracks for '' True Crime: New York City'', ''

Tony Hawk's Proving Ground ''Tony Hawk's Proving Ground'' is a 2007 skateboarding video game developed by Neversoft for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, Vicarious Visions for the Nintendo DS, and by Page 44 Studios for the PlayStation 2 and Wii. ''Proving Ground'' is the ni ...

'' and ''

Def Jam Rapstar ''Def Jam Rapstar'' is a music video game based on rapping, developed by 4mm Games and Terminal Reality. It was released on October 5, 2010 in North America and on November 26, 2010 in Europe.(2010-11-26"MAKE THE WORLD YOUR STAGE WITH DEF JAM RAP ...

''. *The lyrics "Knock 'em out the box" were also used in

Star Wars Gangsta Rap The "Star Wars Gangsta Rap" is a parody song based on the original ''Star Wars'' trilogy. The song was later popularized as a Adobe Flash, Flash-animated music video and was the first winner of the Audience Choice Award in the Lucasfilm-sponsored ...

. *The song was also played in the films '' Notorious'' & ''

The Sitter ''The Sitter'' is a 2011 American dark comedy film directed by David Gordon Green and written by Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka. The film follows a slacker college student who, after being suspended, is forced by his mother to fill in for ...

''. *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 D12 (an initialism for The Dirty Dozen) was an American hip hop collective from Detroit, Michigan. Formed in 1996, the group achieved mainstream success with its lineup of ''de facto'' leader Eminem, Proof, Bizarre, Mr. Porter, Kuniva and Swift ...

on the album ''

Devil's Night Devil's Night is a name associated with October 30, the night before Halloween. It is related to the "Mischief Night" practiced in parts of the United States such as Philadelphia but is chiefly associated with the serious vandalism and arson seen ...

''. *It was heavily sampled on "Cops Shot the Kid" by

Nas Nas (born 1973) is the stage name of American rapper Nasir Jones. Nas, NaS, or NAS may also refer to: Aviation * Nasair, a low-cost airline carrier and subsidiary based in Eritrea * National Air Services, an airline in Saudi Arabia ** Nas Air ( ...

featuring

Kanye West Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and fashion designer. Born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, West gained recognition as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in the ea ...

from his album ''

Nasir Nasir ( ar, ناصر, translit=Nāṣir) is a masculine given name, commonly found in Arabic which can mean "helper" or "one who gives victory" (grammatically the Stem I masculine singular active participle of consonantal verb root ''n-ṣ-r''). ...

''. * The song "

Just Another Case "Just Another Case" is song by American hip hop group Cru featuring a verse from Slick Rick. It was released on June 17, 1997, through Violator/Def Jam Recordings as the lead single from their debut album ''Da Dirty 30''. Recording sessions took ...

" by the band Cru uses the lyrics "Now this ain't funny so don't you dare laugh, just another case about the wrong path" as the refrain. The song also guest stars

and features a narrative similar to the original song.

Adaptations

On March 21, 2017, it was announced that "Children's Story" was going to be produced into a

children's book Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader. Children's ...

by Get On Down, a record label based in Boston, Massachusetts. The book was released with a reissue of the album on

Record Store Day Record Store Day is an annual event inaugurated in 2007 and held on one Saturday (typically the third) every April and every Black Friday in November to "celebrate the culture of the independently owned record store". The day brings together fa ...

Charts

Weekly charts

References

{{authority control 1989 singles 1988 songs Slick Rick songs Columbia Records singles Def Jam Recordings singles Songs written by Slick Rick