However, after the success of The Great Adventures, the musician was arrested for shooting at his cousin – a former bodyguard who had threatened the family after trying to extort money.
Rick pled guilty to a charge of attempted murder and spent five years in prison (he was given a full pardon in 2008).
During that time, he released two albums recorded while on bail or day release, but he generally glosses over them as unsatisfactory when discussing his career.
That’s a shame, as they contain some gems – not least All Alone, the heart-rending story of a young single mother whose life “never goes the way she may have wanted it to”.
Full of empathy, it’s the sort of song that led to Rick being called the “gold standard” for hip-hop lyricists. It’s a description he wears with pride.
“I think we took novels to the next level, we took writing to the next level, because we’re talking to people’s imagination visually,” he says.
Freed from prison in 1997, he quickly got to work on his comeback album, The Art of Storytelling – featuring Nas, Snoop Dogg, Redman and OutKast.
But his legal troubles weren’t over.
In 2002, he was seized by immigration officers in Miami. Threatened with deportation, he was held in prison for 17 months, with everyone from Will Smith to Rev Jesse Jackson petitioning for his release.
Those experiences fed into the song We’re Not Losing – a standout track on last year’s Victory Album – which takes aim at politicians who blame immigrants for America’s woes.
“That’s my way of venting about the errors we see in leadership,” he says.
“I feel like the world needs a moral compass, you know? A motherly [approach to] law and order, that shows compassion when she needs to, and sternness when she needs to.”
These days, Rick is a naturalised US citizen – but he’s proud to be coming back to his birthplace for the Mobos, and he’s confident the lifetime achievement award marks the start of a new chapter, rather than an epilogue.
So what keeps him going, almost 50 years after he stepped up to the mic?
“You know, the main thing is just that music enriches your existence,” he muses.
“Then you bring it to the marketplace and enrich others. But it’s really just about enriching your own life.”