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Biography
Other usesInfobox musical artist|name = Tricky|image = Tricky mp3h1944.jpg|caption =|image_size =|background = solo_singer|birth_name = Adrian Nicholas Matthews Thaws http://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bin/sse.dll? MS_AdvCB=1& gl=ROOT_CATEGORY& rank=1& new=1& so=3& MSAV=1& msT=0& gss=ms_r_f-2& gsfn=Adrian& gsfn_x=1& gsln=Thaws& gsln_x=1& rg_81004010 date=1968& 81004010 date_x=1& msbpn_x=1& msbpn__ftp_x=1& msrpn_x=1& msrpn__ftp_x=1& 81004030__date_x=1& msdpn_x=1& msdpn__ftp_x=1& _8000C000_x=1& _80008000_x=1& _80018000_x=1& _80014000_x=1& _80010000_x=1& 81004200__date_x=1& _82004200-gpid_x=1& _82004200__ftp_x=1& 81004210__date_x=1& _82004210-gpid_x=1& _82004210__ftp_x=1& _82004280-gpid_x=1& _82004280__ftp_x=1& _82004290-gpid_x=1& _82004290__ftp_x=1& 81004240__date_x=1& _82004240-gpid_x=1& _82004240__ftp_x=1& 81004020__date_x=1& _82004020-gpid_x=1& _82004020__ftp_x=1& 81004230__date_x=1& _82004230-gpid_x=1& _82004230__ftp_x=1& gskw_x=1& _83004002_x=1& 81000000__date_x=1& _82000000-gpid_x=1& _82000000__ftp_x=1& 810002A0__date_x=1& _820002A0-gpid_x=1& _820002A0__ftp_x=1& sbo=0& ne=21 "Birth Registration Details" Ancestry.co.uk (Retrieved: 20 July 2009)|alias = Tricky Kid|birth_date = Birth date and age|1968|1|27|df=y|death_date =|origin = Knowle West , Bristol , England |instrument = Singer|Vocals , keyboard instrument|keyboards , harmonica |genre = Trip hop , alternative music |occupation = Producer, mixer, musician|years_active =|label = Island Records , Domino Records |associated_acts = The Wild Bunch (sound system)|The Wild Bunch Massive Attack |url = URL|www.trickysite.com|current_members =|past_members =Use dmy dates|date=August 2010 Tricky (born Adrian Nicholas Matthews Thaws , 27 January 1968) is an England|English http://www.endclub.com/node/48562 musician and actor . As a record producer|producer and a musician, he is noted for a dark, rich and layered sound and a whispering sprechgesang lyrical style. Culturally, Tricky encourages an intertwining of societies, particularly in his musical fusion of rock music|rock and hip hop music|hip hop , High culture|high art and pop culture . His debut album Maxinquaye was nominated for the Mercury Prize and voted Album of the Year by NME Magazine.
Early life
Tricky was born in Knowle West , Bristol , England to a Jamaican father and a mixed-race Ghanaian-English mother. His father left the family before he was born and his mother, Maxine Quaye, committed suicide when he was only four. He named his solo album after her - Maxinquaye - and once said that though he hardly knew her, he feels like she's speaking through him with his words.Cite web |url= http://www.moon-palace.de/tricky/bio1.html |title=Tricky biography|work=moon-palace.de |accessdate=18 December 2010
He spent his youth in the care of his grandmother, who often let him watch old horror movies instead of going to school. At 15 he began to write lyrics ( "I like to rock, I like to dance, I like pretty girls taking down their pants" MixMag 1996).Citation needed|date=July 2010 At 17, he spent some time in prison because he bought forged £50 notes from a friend, who later informed the police. In an interview, Tricky said: ''"Prison was really good. I'm never going back" .Cite web |url= http://www.moon-palace.de/tricky/nme95-1.html |title=New Musical Express - January 14, 1995 |work=moon-palace.de |accessdate=18 December 2010
Early career
Eventually he met DJ Milo and hung out with a sound system (DJ)|sound system called The Wild Bunch (sound system)|The Wild Bunch , which by 1987 evolved into Massive Attack . He received the nickname 'Tricky Kid' and at 18 he became a member of the Fresh 4 , a rap group built from The Wild Bunch. He also rapped on Massive Attack's acclaimed debut album Blue Lines (1991).
In 1991, before the release of Massive Attack's album Blue Lines , he met Martina Topley-Bird . Some time later she came to his house, and mentioned to Tricky and Mark Stewart (musician)|Mark Stewart that she could sing. Martina was only fifteen years old, but her 'honey-coated vox' impressed them and they recorded a song called "Aftermath" (though The Face (magazine)|The Face '95 mentions that the first song they recorded together was called "Shoebox"). Tricky showed "Aftermath" to Massive Attack , but they were not interested. So in 1993 he decided to press a few hundred vinyl copies of the song. He cut it directly off of the tape, so that the song is basically "just bassline and hiss" . ( NME 1994). Finally, a white label got him a contract with Island Records and he started to record his first solo album.
Breakthrough
Tricky left Massive Attack to release his debut album, Maxinquaye . The album was a massive success and Tricky was catapulted to international fame, something he was notably uncomfortable with.Citation needed|date=March 2009 This was because the impact of his album truly set the stage for trip-hop within the United Kingdom. Tricky was able to do so much with his music by incorporating different musical genres in his sound, but ultimately making sure he made the overall product his own. In fact, the Maxinquaye album review by the Rolling Stone magazine read, "Tricky devoured everything from American hip-hop and Soul music|soul to reggae and the more melancholic strains of 80s British rock."" http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/tricky/albums/album/249416/review/5941140/maxinquaye Album Reviews: Tricky - Maxinquaye" In Rolling Stone. Feb. 2 1998. It is important to note that Tricky paid tribute to early hip-hop artists whose music was, and still is, influential in the hip-hop scene. He also incorporated commercial pop music into his music, and by combining early hip-hop and pop samples in his music, he found a way to appeal to both audiences, which rarely happens. As Hesmondhalgh and Melville wrote, "Tricky showed his debt to hip-hop aesthetics by reconstructualizing samples and slices of both the most respected black music ( Public Enemy (band)|Public Enemy ) and the tackiest pop (quoting David Cassidy ’s “How Can I Be Sure? ”)."David Hesmondhalgh and Caspar Melville, "Urban Breakbeat Culture: Repercussions of Hip-Hop in the United Kingdom," in Global Noise: Rap and Hip-Hop Outside the USA (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2001), 104-105. Mixing all of these elements, Tricky created "a mercurial style of dance music that immediately finds it own fast feet."
Tricky failed to complete a number of lyrics for the Massive Attack album Protection (album)|Protection and gave the band some of the lyrics he had written for Maxinquaye instead. Different versions of the same songs appear on both albums - called "Overcome" and "Hell is 'Round the Corner" on Maxinquaye and "Karmacoma" and "Eurochild" on Protection . When Massive Attack were asked, in a radio interview on CFNY (Toronto), about why the lyrics were the same, they jokingly said that it was because he was lazy.Citation needed|date=December 2008 Tricky found it difficult to cope with the huge success of Maxinquaye and he subsequently eschewed the laidback soul sound of the first album to create an increasingly edgy and aggressive Punk rock|punk tinged music that echoed his personality as he became more erratic and unreliable.Citation needed|date=December 2008 In 1996, Neneh Cherry and Björk appeared as guests on his second album Nearly God . The opening number was a cover of the Siouxsie and the Banshees pre-trip-hop song " Downside Up|Tattoo " http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=dC5-h_qWrF4 "Tattoo" a pre trip-hop song initially recorded in 1983 that had previously inspired Tricky when he forged his style.Allmusic|class=artist|id=p132766|pure_url=yes AMG Tricky page Tricky "Influenced By" Siouxsie and the Banshees.
In 2001 Tricky appeared on the Thirteen Ghosts soundtrack with the song "Excess" which (briefly) features Alanis Morissette during two of the choruses. In 2002 that song also appeared on the Queen of the Damned soundtrack.
Idiosyncrasies and media controversies
By the time Pre-Millennium Tension was released, Tricky was increasingly irritated with the press, particularly articles written in The Face (magazine)|The Face magazine. The Face had been an early champion of Maxinquaye , but saw Tricky as more a duo than a solo project.Citation needed|date=July 2008 The Face published an article claiming that vocalist Martina Topley-Bird had to single-handedly bring up the child that Tricky had fathered.cite news| url= http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2003/may/25/features.magazine37 | work=The Guardian | location=London | title=Girl interrupted | date=25 May 2003 | accessdate=26 May 2010 | first=Sean | last=O'Hagan
He has also been concerned with racial stereotyping of the media. In the documentary Naked & Famous he explained how photographers want him to frown angrily in photos, because that is how black artists are marketed. He points to a recent cover of The Big Issue , where he has a more ambiguous, confused look on his face, as being more how he feels.Citation needed|date=July 2010 In the song "Tricky Kid" from Pre-Millennium Tension , he wrote "As long as you're humble/Let you be the king of jungle." (This lyric is a reference to Goldie and their spat over Björk .)
Throughout his work, Tricky blurs the normally clear sexual definitions found within hip hop. Despite the heavy influence he drew from American hip hop in his debut album, Maxinquaye , he fights against typical sexual representations by, for example, dressing as a woman on the side sleeve of his album cover.David Hesmondhalgh and Caspar Melville, "Urban Breakbeat Culture: Repercussions of Hip-Hop in the United Kingdom," in Mitchell, Global Noise , 104. As many of his tracks blend elements of varying types of music creating a difficult to define sound, so his lyrics create a more ambiguous and blurry take on sexuality. http://www.fastnbulbous.com/rev03.htm Reviews and Rants 2003 Archive.
Side projects and film career
Tricky has guest starred on a number of albums, including a notable appearance on Live (band)|Live 's fifth studio album, V (Live album)|V . This appearance came as Tricky and Live's lead singer Ed Kowalczyk had developed a close friendship, with Kowalczyk contributing vocals to 'Evolution Revolution Love', a track on Tricky's album Blowback (album)|Blowback .
Tricky has also acted in various films. He appeared in a significant supporting role in the 1997 Luc Besson film The Fifth Element , playing the right-hand man "Right Arm" to evil businessman Mr. Zorg. He reportedly put off actor Gary Oldman (who played Zorg) because, while he had his back to the camera, he was eating a Twix bar, to Oldman's anger ("He's facking eatin' a Twix!"). "But Gary Oldman took me in, used to make me cups of tea and shit like that. He's got a real deep soul. Y'know, he permitted me to hang out with him and he's up there." http://www.moon-palace.de/tricky/5thelement.html. He also appears briefly in both the 1997 John Woo directed Face/Off (his single "Christiansands" is also played during his brief cameo) as well as the 2004 Olivier Assayas film Clean (movie)|Clean , playing himself, and had a large role in the music video for "Parabol/Parabola" by Tool (band)|Tool .
In 2001 Tricky appeared in online advertising for the web series We Deliver , about a marijuana delivery service in New York City|New York . Though he did not actually appear in any episodes, in the advertising it appears as if he is a customer of the service.Citation needed|date=July 2010
Recent work
Tricky's website last reports him busy at work with the musical acts signed to his http://www.brownpunk.tv Brown Punk record label. Several new solo works have been featured in television programs such as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation , The L Word and Girlfriends , and he contributed "Au Revoir Emmanuelle" to a compilation entitled Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited .
Tricky's 2008 studio album, Knowle West Boy , was released in the UK and Ireland in July 2008 and September 2008 in the U.S. The first single was "Council Estate". In an interview with The Skinny (magazine)|The Skinny in July 2008, Tricky mentioned that it was the first time that he had decided to let someone co-produce an album with him, the person in question being Bernard Butler , ex- Suede (band)|Suede guitarist. Less than enamoured with Butler's technical prowess, Tricky finished by totally re-recording all of the material.cite news |title=Tricky: Real Gone Kid |author=Dave Kerr |url= http://www.theskinny.co.uk/article/43387-tricky-real-gone-kid |newspaper=The Skinny |date=30 July 2008 |accessdate=14 August 2011
On 8 December 2009, Tricky's 1995 debut album Maxinquaye was reissued with a bonus 13-track CD featuring B-sides, out-takes and 7 previously unreleased mixes including three new mixes of "Overcome", "Hell is Round the Corner", and "Black Steel".
On 10 December 2009, Daddy G. revealed that he met Tricky in Paris and asked him to work on a future project. Tricky agreed.
During an interview on 1 July 2010, Tricky stated that his new album, titled Mixed Race (album)|Mixed Race , was scheduled for release on 27 September 2010. The first single from the album became available on 23 August. The album included contributions from Franky Riley, Terry Lynn, Bobby Gillespie , Hamadouche, Blackman, and Tricky's youngest brother Marlon Thaws.
On December 13, 2010 Tricky's tour bus was caught in a blizzard near Sarnia, Ontario, Canada (near the U.S./Canadian border). The band was scheduled to play Tuesday night in Minneapolis, but had to cancel because they didn't make it out on time. A local farmer, John Prins, came to their rescue. The farmer reported that "they were sitting in their tour bus for 30, 35 hours, without any food", and said, "They said they were surviving on Jack Daniels."
In early 2011, Tricky was booked to headline Blissfields Festival.cite web|title=Blissfields|url= http://www.blissfields.co.uk/|accessdate=5 August 2011
The new single from the "Mixed Race" album "Time To Dance" being released featuring remixes by Maya Jane Coles, Doorly and Fifi Rong internationally on 18 July 2011.
On 26 June 2011 Tricky appeared on stage during Beyoncé|Beyoncé's headline slot on the pyramid stage at Glastonbury for the track " Baby Boy (Beyoncé Knowles song)|Baby Boy ".
Discography
Studio albums
Maxinquaye (1995) #3 UK Certified: Gold BPI http://www.bpi.co.uk/certifiedawards/search.aspx
Nearly God (1996) #10 UK
Pre-Millennium Tension (1996) #30 UK, #140 US
Angels with Dirty Faces (Tricky album)|Angels with Dirty Faces (1998) #23 UK, #84 US
Juxtapose (album)|Juxtapose (1999) (with DJ Muggs and Dame Grease ) #22 UK, #182 US
http://www.dailymusicguide.com/Reviews/tricky-meets-south-rakkas-crew-cmon-baby-single-review-13112009-0056.aspx Review of 'C'Mon Baby' by Tricky Meets South Rakkas Crew on the Daily Music Guide
http://www.brownpunk.tv/ Tricky at Brown Punk
http://hollywoodrecords.go.com/tricky/ Tricky at Hollywood Records
http://www.music-map.com/tricky.html Tricky at Music Map
http://musicfeeds.com.au/tv/tricky-interview-at-playground-weekender-2011/#title Tricky at Playground Weekender 2011
http://www.moon-palace.de/tricky/bio1.html Very detailed Biography
http://www.knowlewestboy.com/ Promotional site for "Knowle West Boy" album
http://www.last.fm/music/Tricky Audio Samples at Last.fm
IMDb name|id=0872635
http://rocknvivo.com/2009/08/23/tricky-en-santiago-energia-y-libertad/ Tricky live in Chile
http://www.facebook.com/group.php? gid=117539154948818& v=app_2392950137& ref=mf#!/group.php? gid=110989425611228& ref=mf/ Tricky Facebook Fan Group
Persondata | NAME = Tricky | ALTERNATIVE NAMES = | SHORT DESCRIPTION = | DATE OF BIRTH =27 January 1968 | PLACE OF BIRTH = | DATE OF DEATH = | PLACE OF DEATH = Category:Electronica musicians Category:English film actors Category:English rappers Category:English television actors Category:Trip hop musicians Category:Living people Category:Music in Bristol Category:People from Bristol Category:1968 births Category:Black British musicians Category:Black British actors
