In honor of the appearance of Snoop Dogg at Otto’s Niteclub on April 10, the M.O.O.S.E. wanted to highlight one of the Dogg’s mentors and boyhood idols, Slick Rick.

“Lodi Dodi,” off of the platinum-selling “Doggystyle” album, was a cover of Slick Rick’s. Both men have a chilled approach to the craft of rhyming. They both found trouble with the law and both men know how to throw a party.

A silky voice and a bottle of Crystal made Slick Rick’s music great, while phat gold chains and a black eye patch made the man great.

Slick Rick’s voice was as distinguished as his past, which began in his birthplace: London. He was born to Jamaican parents. His family would later move to the Bronx, N.Y., in the late ’70s. So combine Rasta with a British accent and, bickety bam, we’ve got the professor of pimpin’ it.

And what were the slickster’s first words on his 1988 debut album, “The Great Adventures of Slick Rick?”

“Treat her like a prostitute.” The song, along with the entire album, sparked flames of controversy. But before the one-eyed rapping sensation could bask in the hysteria, he was arrested for attempted murder.

Everyone’s friend, rapper Russell Simmons, posted his bail and put Slick Rick into the studio. Three weeks later, Rick had his second album and promptly was shuffled off to prison.

Rick admits that his second album, “The Ruler’s Back,” was a bit rushed. After Rick put in two years, he recorded his 1994 album, aptly titled, “Behind Bars.”

But by 1994, rap itself had been taken to a new level with Dr. Dre, Ice Cube and a rapper then called Snoop Doggy Dogg.

Slick Rick was on the wrong coast for rapping and had missed the boat for mainstream success. One of the founding fathers of street-life storytelling couldn’t keep up with the crews from the West Coast. America already knew what was happening on the streets of New York and it wanted to know what was going down on the streets of Compton.

But did this fact put a damper on Slick Rick’s players’ parade? Not by a long shot. Rick brought it all back home with his 1999 release, “The Art of Storytelling.” The album showed the rap community that Rick was as heavy as the gold that draped around his neck.

Teen-agers across the country played their albums with headphones on so their parents wouldn’t hear the blunt vulgarity Rick peppered onto his stories of the street.

Since the album’s success, Rick has flexed his vocal and producer skills on other albums.

He helped produce Jermaine Dupree’s “Life in 1472” and has rocked the mic on Jay-Z’s “Blueprint” and Macy Gray’s “Id.”

Slick Rick has the smoothness and the rudeness, still rippin’ tracks like a baller at Rucker Park (home of the street basketball championships in New York).

So when Snoop Dogg breaks out the flava of “Lodi Dodi” Wednesday, just remember who came with it first.