“[Rihanna] saw a photo of me on Instagram, found me, and we hit it off,’ she says. ‘You ever loved someone so much that every time you see them, you end up in tears somehow? She reminds me of my mother. Like, they’re the same person. I tell them they remind me of each other all the time.’
It’s high praise, as Slick puts her mother on a pedestal above all others. Though her mum is still in prison, they talk three times a day in approved 15-minute intervals. ‘We talk about everything – except modelling. She asks me how my day is. We don’t need to talk about magazines,’ she says. ‘Being a gang member, everybody expected her not to be the best mum. But my mum was very hands-on with me as a child. My mummy read to me in the womb. And she’s proud because she knows that everybody expected me to be exactly what she was. She went to prison when she was 19. I became a model at 19. And I can take care of my mother when she gets out.’
This brings us to the tears, which stream down Slick’s face when she discusses her child in relation to her own upbringing. ‘At 14, 15, I never expected to ever be giving any type of life; to be this happy with having a child. From not having family to being able to create your own,’ she says. ‘Things you lacked, things you missed out on, trauma – you can erase that by creating new life. All those things you didn’t get, all those hugs and kisses. I can retract those things with my son’s life. In giving him that childhood, it heals you as well. In hugging your son, it’s giving a piece of that back to you, too. I need him as much as he needs me.’
Before we say goodbye, Slick stops to think about the strength she can offer her child through her own vulnerability. Symbolised, she says, By that famous absence of hair on her head. Without long locks, she feels exposed to the world, without armour. ‘I don’t have anything to protect myself. It’s just like, I’m happy today or I’m sad today. And that’s OK,’ she says. ’I’m going to stand up for my son. I want him to feel proud as a black man. Everyone is telling men it’s wrong to express their feelings, but I will not let him feel like his feelings are wrong.’ It turns out that, in all of her hopes and fears and needs, in her desire to give her child a better life than she had, the most unique thing about Slick Woods is actually how comfortable she is being just like everybody else.
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