Adrian Nicholas Matthews Thaws (born 27 January 1968), better known by his stage name Tricky, is a British music artist, record producer,[5] vocalist and rapper.

[6] Born and raised in Bristol, in southwest England, he began his career as an early member of the band Massive Attack, alongside Robert Del Naja, Grant Marshall and Andrew Vowles.

The release won Tricky popular acclaim and marked the beginning of a lengthy collaborative partnership with vocalist Martina Topley-Bird.

[7] He has collaborated with a wide range of artists over the course of his career, including Terry Hall, Björk, Gravediggaz, Alanis Morissette, Grace Jones and PJ Harvey.

[1] Tricky was born Adrian Nicholas Matthews Thaws on 27 January 1968 in Knowle West, Bristol,[8] to a black Jamaican father and a part-white, part-black, Anglo-Ghanaian mother.

"[17] In the mid-1980s, Tricky met DJ Milo and spent time with a sound system called the Wild Bunch, which, by 1987, evolved into Massive Attack.

He received the nickname "Tricky Kid," and, at age 18, became a member of the Fresh 4, a rap group built from the Wild Bunch.

[20] Tricky left Massive Attack to release his debut album, Maxinquaye, co-produced by himself and Mark Saunders and prominently featuring singer Martina Topley-Bird.

[21] The Maxinquaye album review by Rolling Stone read: "Tricky devoured everything from American hip-hop and soul to reggae and the more melancholic strains of '80s British rock".

[22] Authors David Hesmondhalgh and Caspar Melville wrote in the book Global Noise: Rap and Hip-Hop Outside the USA: "Tricky showed his debt to hip-hop aesthetics by reconstructualising samples and slices of both the most respected black music (Public Enemy) and the tackiest pop (quoting David Cassidy's "How Can I Be Sure?").

"[23] As the Rolling Stone article further explained, Tricky created "a mercurial style of dance music that immediately finds it [sic] own fast feet.

Tricky found it difficult to cope with the huge success of Maxinquaye and subsequently eschewed the laidback soul sound of the first album to create an increasingly edgy and aggressive punk style of music.

[19] The opening number was a cover of the Siouxsie and the Banshees pre-trip-hop song "Tattoo"[24] that had previously inspired Tricky when he forged his style.

[25] In 2001, Tricky appeared on the Thirteen Ghosts soundtrack with the song "Excess" which (briefly) features Alanis Morissette during two of the choruses.

"[26] In an interview with The Skinny in July 2008, Tricky mentioned that Knowle West Boy was the first album for which he decided to enlist a co-producer.

[27] On 8 December 2009, Tricky's 1995 debut album Maxinquaye was reissued with a bonus 13-track CD featuring B-sides, outtakes and seven previously unreleased mixes of songs such as "Overcome", "Hell is Round the Corner" and "Black Steel".

The album includes contributions from Franky Riley, Terry Lynn, Bobby Gillespie, Hamadouche, Blackman and Tricky's youngest brother Marlon Thaws.

[32] In April 2012, Tricky performed Maxinquaye with Martina Topley-Bird at several concerts around the UK including, for the first time in several years in his home town of Bristol.

[39] His thirteenth official studio album, ununiform, was released on 22 September 2017, and featured collaborations with Asia Argento, Avalon Lurks, and Martina Topley-Bird, as well as a cover of Hole's "Doll Parts".

The self-titled album featured collaborations with Lee "Scratch" Perry, Idles' frontman Joe Talbot and Maxïmo Park's Paul Smith.

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.

[18] He also appears briefly in the 2004 Olivier Assayas film Clean, playing himself, and had a large role in the music video for "Parabol/Parabola" by Tool.

In 2001, Tricky appeared in online advertising for the web series We Deliver, about a cannabis delivery service in New York City.

[41][42] In April 2023 The German electro pop duo Berlin Banter released the singel I'll Wait featuring Tricky.

By the time Pre-Millennium Tension was released in 1996, Tricky was increasingly irritated with the British press, particularly articles written in The Face magazine.

[53] The Face published an article claiming that vocalist Martina Topley-Bird had to single-handedly bring up the child that Tricky had fathered.

[61] Tricky fathered a daughter, Mina Mazy, on 19 March 1995 with Martina Topley-Bird, a musician he discovered when she was sitting on a wall near his Bristol home.