Tricky (born
Adrian Nicholas M. Thaws on 27 January 1968) is an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
musician and actor. As a producer and a musician, he is noted for a dark, rich and layered sound and a whispering
sprechgesangSprechgesang and Sprechstimme are musical terms used to refer to an expressionist vocal technique between singing and speaking...
lyrical style. Culturally, Tricky encourages an intertwining of societies, particularly in his musical fusion of
rockRock music is a genre of popular music that entered the mainstream in the 1960s. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, rhythm and blues, country music and also drew on folk music, jazz and classical music....
and
hip hopHip hop music is a musical genre which developed alongside hip hop culture, and is commonly based on concepts of loop, rapping, freestyle, DJing, scratching, sampling and beatboxing. The music is used to express concerns of political, social, and personal issues...
,
high artHigh culture is a term, now used in a number of different ways in academic discourse, whose most common meaning is the set of cultural products, mainly in the arts, held in the highest esteem by a culture. In more popular terms, it is the culture of an elite such as the aristocracy or intelligentsia...
and pop culture. His debut album
MaxinquayeMaxinquaye is the debut album of Tricky, released in 1995. Expanding on the sonic template of fellow Bristolians Massive Attack, and featuring then-girlfriend Martina Topley-Bird on vocals, Maxinquaye is a dark, mysterious album featuring a combination of hip-hop, soul, dub, rock and electronica...
was nominated for the Mercury Prize and voted Album of the Year by
NMEThe New Musical Express is a popular music magazine in the United Kingdom which has been published weekly since March 1952. It was the first British paper to include a singles chart, which first appeared in the 14 November 1952 edition. The magazine's commercial heyday was during the 1970s when it...
Magazine.
Early life
Tricky was born in Knowle West,
BristolBristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, west of London, and east of Cardiff.With an estimated population of 416,400 for the unitary authority in mid-2007, and a surrounding urban area with an estimated 561,500 residents, it is England's sixth, and...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. 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 -
MaxinquayeMaxinquaye is the debut album of Tricky, released in 1995. Expanding on the sonic template of fellow Bristolians Massive Attack, and featuring then-girlfriend Martina Topley-Bird on vocals, Maxinquaye is a dark, mysterious album featuring a combination of hip-hop, soul, dub, rock and electronica...
- and once said that though he hardly knew her, he feels like she's speaking through him with his words.
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" MixMagMixmag is a British dance music and clubbing magazine. It styles itself as "the world's biggest selling dance music magazine", with an ABC audited circulation of 30,159 . Having begun 1982 in the United Kingdom, it covers dance events, and reviews music and club nights...
'96). 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" (
NMEThe New Musical Express is a popular music magazine in the United Kingdom which has been published weekly since March 1952. It was the first British paper to include a singles chart, which first appeared in the 14 November 1952 edition. The magazine's commercial heyday was during the 1970s when it...
'95).
Early career
Eventually he met DJ Milo and hung out with a
sound systemA sound system is a group of DJs and engineers contributing and working together as one, playing and producing music.-Origin:The sound system concept originated in the 1950s in Kingston, Jamaica. DJs would load up a truck with a generator, turntables, and huge speakers to set up street parties...
called
The Wild BunchThe Wild Bunch were a sound system outfit based in the St Pauls district of Bristol, England from 1983 to 1986. The group was renowned for playing sets that drew large crowds on the club scene and had performed shows as far away as London. They performed in soundclashes against other Bristol sound...
, which by 1987 evolved into
Massive AttackMassive Attack are a British music duo from Bristol, UK, considered to be progenitors of a genre referred to as trip hop, that assemble a collective of various favoured session musicians and guest vocalists with whom they make records and tour live...
. 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 LinesBlue Lines is the debut album by British electronica group Massive Attack, released on 8 April 1991 by Virgin Records....
(1991).
In 1991, before the release of Massive Attack's album
Blue LinesBlue Lines is the debut album by British electronica group Massive Attack, released on 8 April 1991 by Virgin Records....
, he met
Martina Topley-BirdMartina Topley-Bird is a British vocalist who first gained fame as the featured female vocalist on trip hop pioneer Tricky's debut album Maxinquaye . She was educated at Clifton College where she sang in the choir. It was while she was a young precocious teenager at the school that she met trip hop...
. Some time later she came to his house, and mentioned to Tricky and
Mark StewartMark Stewart may refer to:*Mark Stewart , martial artist, founder of IJKD *Mark Stewart , British musician, founding member and vocalist of The Pop Group...
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 FaceThe Face was a magazine started in May 1980 by Nick Logan out of his publishing house Wagadon. Logan had previously created titles such as Smash Hits, and had been an editor at the New Musical Express in the 1970s during one of its most successful periods.The magazine, often referred to as the...
'95 mentions that the first song they recorded together was called "Shoebox"). Tricky showed "Aftermath" to
Massive AttackMassive Attack are a British music duo from Bristol, UK, considered to be progenitors of a genre referred to as trip hop, that assemble a collective of various favoured session musicians and guest vocalists with whom they make records and tour live...
, but they weren't 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 '94). Finally, a
white labelWhite label records are vinyl records with adhesive plain white labels affixed. Test pressings, usually with Test Pressing written on the label, with catalogue number, artist and recording time or date, are produced in small quantities to evaluate the quality of the disc production...
got him a contract with
Island RecordsIsland Records is a record label that was founded by Chris Blackwell in Jamaica. It was based in England for many years, but is now owned by Universal Music Group and is operated in the United States through The Island Def Jam Music Group and in the UK through Island Records Group...
and he started to record his first solo album.
Breakthrough
He left Massive Attack to release his debut album,
MaxinquayeMaxinquaye is the debut album of Tricky, released in 1995. Expanding on the sonic template of fellow Bristolians Massive Attack, and featuring then-girlfriend Martina Topley-Bird on vocals, Maxinquaye is a dark, mysterious album featuring a combination of hip-hop, soul, dub, rock and electronica...
. The album was a massive success and Tricky was catapulted to international fame, something he was notably uncomfortable with. This was because the impact of his album truly set the stage for trip-hop within the black community in 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
soulThe soul, in many religions, spiritual traditions, and philosophies, is the spiritual and eternal part of a living being, commonly held to be separable in existence from the body; distinct from the physical part. It is typically thought to consist of ones consciousness and personality, and can be...
to
reggaeReggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s.While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady. Reggae is based...
and the more melancholic strains of 80s British rock." 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) and the tackiest pop (quoting
David CassidyDavid Bruce Cassidy is an American actor, singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is best known for his role as Shirley Jones's eldest son, Keith Partridge, in the 1970s musical/sitcom The Partridge Family from 1970 to 1974...
’s “How Can I Be Sure?”)." 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
ProtectionProtection is Bristol-based trip-hop collective Massive Attack's second album.-Sound:Protection was featured in the top ten of Rolling Stone magazine's 'Coolest Albums of All Time List,' calling it "great music for when you're driving around a city at 4 am," due to the 'chill out' nature of the...
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.
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
punkPunk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed the perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
tinged music that echoed his personality as he became more erratic and unreliable.
In 1996,
Neneh CherryNeneh Mariann Karlsson and known as Neneh Cherry is a two-time Grammy Award-nominated and MTV Europe Music Award-winning singer-songwriter and rapper. Cherry is also an occasional DJ and broadcaster...
and
BjorkBjörk Guðmundsdóttir is a critically acclaimed Icelandic avant-garde singer-songwriter, composer, actress and music producer, whose work includes seven solo albums and two film soundtracks....
appeared as guests on his second album
Nearly God-Album name, recording history, collaborators:The album's title comes from an interview where Tricky was asked "So how does it feel to be God... well, nearly God."...
. The opening number was a cover of the
Siouxsie & the BansheesSiouxsie & the Banshees were a British rock band formed in 1976 by vocalist Siouxsie Sioux and bassist Steven Severin, the only constant members....
pre-trip-hop song "
TattooDownside Up is a four-disc box set collecting B-sides and bonus material from the catalog of Siouxsie & the Banshees. Also included is The Thorn EP, originally released in 1984....
" that had previously inspired Tricky when he forged his style.
In 2001 Tricky appeared on the Thirteen Ghosts Soundtrack with the song "Excess" which features
Alanis MorissetteAlanis Nadine Morissette is a Canadian-American singer-songwriter, record producer and occasional actress. She has won 12 Juno Awards and seven Grammy Awards. Morissette began her career in Canada, and as a teenager recorded two dance-pop albums, Alanis and Now Is the Time, under MCA Records...
being slightly heard during two of the choruses.
In 2002, Tricky also appeared on the Queen of the Damned soundtrack with the same song "Excess."
Idiosyncrasies and media controversies
By the time
Pre-Millennium Tension-Album Background:Tricky originally said in an interview with Raygun in October 1996 that he wanted to make an 'out-an-out punk record' and that..He also said that he hated being stuck with the :-Album Production:...
was released Tricky was increasingly irritated with the press, particularly articles written in
The FaceThe Face was a magazine started in May 1980 by Nick Logan out of his publishing house Wagadon. Logan had previously created titles such as Smash Hits, and had been an editor at the New Musical Express in the 1970s during one of its most successful periods.The magazine, often referred to as the...
magazine.
The Face had been an early champion of
MaxinquayeMaxinquaye is the debut album of Tricky, released in 1995. Expanding on the sonic template of fellow Bristolians Massive Attack, and featuring then-girlfriend Martina Topley-Bird on vocals, Maxinquaye is a dark, mysterious album featuring a combination of hip-hop, soul, dub, rock and electronica...
, but saw Tricky as more a duo than a solo project.
The Face published an article claiming that vocalist
Martina Topley-BirdMartina Topley-Bird is a British vocalist who first gained fame as the featured female vocalist on trip hop pioneer Tricky's debut album Maxinquaye . She was educated at Clifton College where she sang in the choir. It was while she was a young precocious teenager at the school that she met trip hop...
had to single-handedly bring up the child that Tricky had fathered.
He has also been concerned with racial stereotyping of the media. In the documentary Naked & Famous he explains how photographers want him to frown angrily in photos, because that's how black artists are marketed. He points to a recent cover of
The Big IssueThe Big Issue is a street newspaper published in eight countries; it is written by professional journalists and sold by homeless individuals. It was founded by John Bird and Gordon Roddick in September 1991...
, where he has a more ambiguous, confused look on his face, as being more how he feels. In the song "Tricky Kid" from
Pre-Millennium Tension, he writes "As long as you're humble/Let you be the king of jungle." (This lyric is a reference to
GoldieClifford Joseph Price, better known as Goldie is an English electronic music artist, disc jockey, visual artist, and actor. As a musician he works mainly within the jungle and drum and bass genres, and has helped to promote these styles globally.-Early life, graffiti:He is of Jamaican and...
and their spat over
BjorkBjörk Guðmundsdóttir is a critically acclaimed Icelandic avant-garde singer-songwriter, composer, actress and music producer, whose work includes seven solo albums and two film soundtracks....
.)
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,
MaxinquayeMaxinquaye is the debut album of Tricky, released in 1995. Expanding on the sonic template of fellow Bristolians Massive Attack, and featuring then-girlfriend Martina Topley-Bird on vocals, Maxinquaye is a dark, mysterious album featuring a combination of hip-hop, soul, dub, rock and electronica...
, he fights against typical sexual representations by, for example, dressing as a woman on the side sleeve of his album cover. Within many of his tracks he blends elements of varying types of music, and use his lyrics to create a much more ambiguous and blurry reality of sexuality.
Side projects and film career
Tricky has guest starred on a number of albums, including a notable appearance on
LiveLive is an American alternative rock/post-grunge band from York, Pennsylvania, comprising Ed Kowalczyk , Chad Taylor , Patrick Dahlheimer and Chad Gracey...
's fifth studio album,
VV, originally titled Ecstatic Fanatic, is the fifth album by the band Live, released in 2001. It featuring the singles "Simple Creed" and "Overcome", the latter of which received significant exposure following the September 11 attacks...
. 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
BlowbackBlowback is the sixth album by Tricky, released in 2001. Like Nearly God, Blowback contains several collaborations, but the album's sound is much brighter and more relaxed by comparison. Tricky himself said that he wanted to get airplay with this album, while most of his earlier albums were made to...
.
Tricky has also acted in various films. He appeared in a significant supporting role in the 1997
Luc BessonLuc Besson is a French film director, writer and producer. He is the creator of EuropaCorp film company. He has been involved with over 50 films, spanning 26 years, as writer, director, and/or producer, including the Transporter series.-Early life:Besson was born in Paris to parents who were both...
film
The Fifth ElementThe Fifth Element is a 1997 science fantasy, action-comedy, techno thriller film directed by Luc Besson, starring Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman, Milla Jovovich, Ian Holm, and Chris Tucker. The production design for the film was developed by French comics creators Jean Giraud and Jean-Claude Mézières...
, playing the right-hand man "Right Arm" to evil businessman Mr. Zorg. He reportedly put off actor
Gary OldmanGary Leonard Oldman is an English actor and filmmaker .He found fame in roles such as Sid Vicious in Sid & Nancy, Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK, Count Dracula in Dracula and Ludwig Van Beethoven in Immortal Beloved...
(who played Zorg) because, while he had his back to the camera, he was eating a
TwixTwix is a chocolate bar made by Mars, Inc., consisting of a cookie finger, topped with caramel and coated in milk chocolate. Being somewhat smaller in width than other confectionery bars, Twix bars are typically packaged in pairs...
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 WooJohn Woo Yu-Sen is a Chinese film director and producer from Hong Kong. Recognized for his stylized films of highly choreographed action sequences, Mexican standoffs, and use of slow-motion, Woo has directed several notable Hong Kong action films, among them, A Better Tomorrow, Hard Boiled, and...
directed
Face/OffFace/Off is a 1997 film directed by John Woo, starring John Travolta and Nicolas Cage. The two both play an FBI agent and a terrorist, sworn enemies who assume the physical appearance of one another....
(his single "Christiansands" is also played during his brief cameo) as well as the 2004
Olivier AssayasOlivier Assayas is a French film director and screenwriter.He made his debut in 1986, after directing some short-films and writing for influential film magazine Cahiers du cinéma.-Career:...
film
Clean, playing himself, and had a large role in the music video for "Parabol/Parabola" by
ToolTool is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 1990. Since their inception, the band's line-up has included drummer Danny Carey, guitarist Adam Jones, and vocalist Maynard James Keenan. The current bassist is Justin Chancellor, who has been with the band since 1995...
.
In 2001 Tricky appeared in online advertising for the webisodal show
We Deliver, about a marijuana delivery service in NYC. Though he didn't actually appear in any episodes, in the advertising it appears as if he's a customer of the service.
Currently
Tricky's website last reports him busy at work with the musical acts signed to his
Brown Punk record label. Several new solo works have been featured in television programs such as
CSI: Crime Scene InvestigationCSI: Crime Scene Investigation is an American crime drama television series, which premiered on CBS on October 6, 2000. The show was created by Anthony E. Zuiker and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer...
,
The L WordThe L Word is an American and Canadian co-production television drama series originally shown on Showtime portraying the lives of a group of lesbian, bisexual and transgender people and their friends, family and lovers in the trendy Los Angeles-area city of West Hollywood, California...
and
GirlfriendsGirlfriends is an American sitcom that premiered on September 11, 2000 on UPN and aired on UPN's successor network, The CW, before being cancelled in 2008.The final episode aired on February 11, 2008. The theme song to Girlfriends is sung by R&B musician Angie Stone...
, and he contributed "Au Revoir Emmanuelle" to a compilation entitled
Monsieur Gainsbourg RevisitedMonsieur Gainsbourg Revisited is a tribute album to the works of late French singer/songwriter Serge Gainsbourg. First released on Virgin Records in 2006, it consists of English language cover versions of Gainsbourg songs, performed by a diverse array of contemporary artists...
.
In October 2006, soundgenerator.com reported that Tricky would release a new album in 2007. The February 2008 issue of music magazine MOJO reported that Tricky's new album would be released in April 2008, but it was not. Titled
Knowle West BoyKnowle West Boy is the eighth studio album by rapper and producer Tricky, released by Domino Records on 7 July 2008 in Europe, and 9 September 2008 in North America.-Track listing:All tracks written by Tricky unless noted.# "Puppy Toy" – 3:34...
, it was reported to chronicle his upbringing on a tough Bristol council estate. It was released in the U.K. and Ireland in July 2008 (September 2008 in the U.S.); the first single, "Council Estate," came out on 30 June. In an interview with
The Skinny in July 2008, Tricky suggested that the album's release was delayed by
Bernard ButlerBernard Butler is an English musician and record producer.-Career:...
, who allegedly demanded a co-producer credit on the album after contributing to recording sessions which were ultimately discarded by Tricky.
Albums
- Maxinquaye
Maxinquaye is the debut album of Tricky, released in 1995. Expanding on the sonic template of fellow Bristolians Massive Attack, and featuring then-girlfriend Martina Topley-Bird on vocals, Maxinquaye is a dark, mysterious album featuring a combination of hip-hop, soul, dub, rock and electronica...
(1995) #3 UK
- Nearly God
-Album name, recording history, collaborators:The album's title comes from an interview where Tricky was asked "So how does it feel to be God... well, nearly God."...
(1996) #10 UK
- Pre-Millennium Tension
-Album Background:Tricky originally said in an interview with Raygun in October 1996 that he wanted to make an 'out-an-out punk record' and that..He also said that he hated being stuck with the :-Album Production:...
(1996) #30 UK, #140 US
- Angels with Dirty Faces
Angels with Dirty Faces is the fourth album of Bristol, England rapper/producer Tricky, released in 1998."Broken Homes" features English singer/songwriter PJ Harvey. "Carriage for Two" features the guitar playing of Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian....
(1998) #23 UK, #84 US
- Juxtapose
Juxtapose is the fifth album by Tricky, in collaboration with DJ Muggs and Grease . Two tracks with DJ Muggs find their way to the only single "For Real" and the Japanese release...
(1999) (with DJ MuggsLawrence Muggerud , and better known as DJ Muggs, is Cypress Hill's DJ and producer.-Cypress Hill :...
and Grease) #22 UK, #182 US
- Blowback
Blowback is the sixth album by Tricky, released in 2001. Like Nearly God, Blowback contains several collaborations, but the album's sound is much brighter and more relaxed by comparison. Tricky himself said that he wanted to get airplay with this album, while most of his earlier albums were made to...
(2001) #34 UK, #138 US
- Vulnerable
-Title Significance:-Album Production:The main female collaborator on this album was the Italian singer Costanza Francavilla, a previous fan who approached Tricky at one of his shows and gave him a CD with songs: On the 17th of December 2001, Tricky, one of Costanza's favourite artists ever, came...
(2003)
- Knowle West Boy
Knowle West Boy is the eighth studio album by rapper and producer Tricky, released by Domino Records on 7 July 2008 in Europe, and 9 September 2008 in North America.-Track listing:All tracks written by Tricky unless noted.# "Puppy Toy" – 3:34...
(2008) #63 UK, #147 US
Compilation albums and others
- The Crow: City of Angels soundtrack
The original soundtrack of the 1996 motion picture The Crow: City of Angels, sequel to the 1994 film The Crow. The album includes a cover of the Fleetwood Mac song "Gold Dust Woman" by Hole, as well as tracks by other heavyweight artists such as White Zombie, Korn and Iggy Pop...
(1996)
- The Crow: Salvation soundtrack
The soundtrack to the third in the Crow film series, The Crow: Salvation album is once again compiled and produced by Jeff Most. As with the soundtrack to The Crow: City of Angels, Salvation includes an otherwise unavailable cover version by Hole: this time of Bob Dylan's "It's All Over Now, Baby...
(2000)
- A Ruff Guide
A Ruff Guide is a compilation album by Tricky, with songs from the albums released during the Island Records period. It was released in 2002.-Track listing:# "Aftermath" # "Poems" # "For Real"# "Black Steel"...
(2002)
- Back to Mine
Back to Mine is a series of mix albums, usually mixed by renowned DJs or composers of electronic music. The compilations usually feature artists other than the artist compiling the album, and are based on what the artist would play at home after a night out, rather than as part of a nightclub...
(2003)
- [] (2000)
- []{The Baby Namboos} (1999)
Singles and EPs
| Year |
Song |
UK singles The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record industry. The full chart contains the top 200 singles based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 of this list...
|
Album |
| 1994 |
"Ponderosa" |
- |
Maxinquaye |
| 1995 |
"Aftermath" |
69 |
| "Overcome" |
34 |
| "Black Steel" |
28 |
| Hell is Around the Corner |
12 |
| "Pumpkin" |
26 |
| "I Be The Prophet" |
|
Nearly God |
| 1996 |
"Poems" |
28 |
| Grassroots EP |
- |
- |
| "Christiansands" |
36 |
Pre-Millennium Tension |
| 1997 |
"Tricky Kid" |
28 |
| "Makes Me Wanna Die" |
29 |
| 1998 |
"Money Greedy" / "Broken Homes" |
25 |
Angels with Dirty Faces |
| 1999 |
"For Real" |
45 |
Juxtapose |
| 2000 |
Mission Accomplished EP |
- |
- |
| 2001 |
"Evolution Revolution Love" |
- |
Blowback |
| 2002 |
"You Don't Wanna" |
|
| 2003 |
"Anti Matter" |
- |
Vulnerable |
| "How High" |
- |
| 2008 |
"Council Estate" |
- |
Knowle West Boy |
| "Slow" |
- |
| 2009 |
"Puppy Toy" |
- |
Collaborating artists
- Damon Albarn
Damon Albarn , is a Grammy Award-winning English singer-songwriter and record producer. He has been involved in many high profile projects and collaborations throughout his career...
of BlurBlur are an English alternative rock band. Formed in London in 1989 as Seymour, the group consists of singer Damon Albarn, guitarist Graham Coxon, bassist Alex James and drummer Dave Rowntree. Blur's debut album Leisure incorporated the sounds of Madchester and shoegazing...
- Ambersunshower
Ambersunshower is an R&B singer and former member of the rap duo Groove Garden. Gee Street Records released Ambersunshower's debut solo album, Walter T. Smith, in 1996...
- Björk
Björk Guðmundsdóttir is a critically acclaimed Icelandic avant-garde singer-songwriter, composer, actress and music producer, whose work includes seven solo albums and two film soundtracks....
- Pete Briquette
Pete Briquette is the stage name of Patrick Andrew Cusack . His pseudonym refers to the fact that he hails from the Irish countryside; peat briquettes are a type of refined turf burned in fires instead of coal.He was the bass guitarist, backing vocalist, occasional songwriter, and sometimes...
- Bernard Butler
Bernard Butler is an English musician and record producer.-Career:...
- Rob Cavallo
Rob Cavallo is a record producer. He is currently a senior Vice President at Level 7, a multi level entertainment marketing firm based in Orange County.- History :...
- Neneh Cherry
Neneh Mariann Karlsson and known as Neneh Cherry is a two-time Grammy Award-nominated and MTV Europe Music Award-winning singer-songwriter and rapper. Cherry is also an occasional DJ and broadcaster...
- Cath Coffey
Cath Coffey is one of the earliest members of British rap band Stereo MCs. The single Elevate My Mind, off the Stereo MCs album Supernatural, in which Coffey was the backing vocalist, was the first British rap single to reach the US pop charts.After the release of their album Supernatural, the...
- Greg Cohen
Greg Cohen is a jazz bassist. He is perhaps best known for his work with John Zorn's Masada quartet; more recently he has been touring with Ornette Coleman, and performed on Coleman's much-praised Sound Grammar album. He has also often played traditional jazz, including work with Ken Peplowski,...
- Lisa Coleman
Lisa Coleman is an American musician. Coleman plays piano and keyboards.Coleman's father, Gary Coleman, was a session musician in the 1960s and 70s and formed a friendship with fellow musician Mike Melvoin...
- Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s, and later became associated with the punk rock and New Wave musical genres...
- DMX
Earl Simmons , better known by his stage name DMX, is an American entertainer who rose to fame in the late 1990s. His stage name stands for Dog Man X, the name he used when he first started rapping in 1990. To date, his best-selling album is his 1999 album ...And Then There Was X, which featured...
- Carmen Ejogo
Carmen Elizabeth Ejogo is a US-based British actress.-Early life:Born and raised in London, Ejogo is the daughter of Charles and Elizabeth Ejogo . Her father is a Nigerian entrepreneur and her mother a Scottish tour guide. During her childhood, Ejogo remembers her mother as being "a hippie"...
- Flo
Mark Volman is an American rock and roll singer, best known as a founding member of the 1960s band The Turtles...
- Nelly Furtado
Nelly Kim Furtado is a Canadian singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. She has sold over 18 million albums worldwide, and currently resides in Toronto...
- Garbage
Garbage is an American rock group formed in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1994. The band consists of Scottish vocalist Shirley Manson and American musicians Duke Erikson, Steve Marker and Butch Vig, and has counted worldwide album sales of over 14 million units....
- Alison Goldfrapp
Alison Elizabeth Margaret Goldfrapp is an English soprano singer-songwriter with the duo Goldfrapp.Goldfrapp was born in Enfield , London, the youngest of six children. She was raised in Alton, Hampshire where she went to Alton College...
- Gravediggaz
Gravediggaz was an American hip hop group from New York City, well-known for its dark sense of humor and abrasive, menacing soundscapes. The group was formed in 1994 and was effectively a supergroup, bringing together Prince Paul , Frukwan , Too Poetic and RZA...
- Terry Hall
Terry Hall is the lead singer of The Specials, and formerly of Fun Boy Three, The Colourfield, Terry, Blair & Anouchka and Vegas. He has released two solo albums and also collaborated with many artists including David A...
- PJ Harvey
Polly Jean Harvey is an English musician and singer-songwriter. Raised in Corscombe, Dorset, Harvey formed the band as a teenager with drummer Rob Ellis and bassist Ian Olliver, who was replaced with Steve Vaughan. The trio released their first album Dry in 1992...
- Chesney Hawkes
Chesney Lee Hawkes , is an English pop singer, songwriter, and occasional actor. He is best known for his 1991 single "The One and Only", which topped the charts in the UK and went Top 10 in the U.S.-Life and career:...
- Scott Ian
Scott Ian Rosenfeld , better known by the stage name Scott Ian, is an American musician, best known as the rhythm guitarist for the heavy metal band Anthrax. Ian is also the guitarist and a founding member of the crossover thrash band Stormtroopers of Death...
- Inner Circle
Inner Circle is a Jamaican reggae group. The group was formed in 1968 by the brothers Ian and Roger Lewis in Jamaica. With Jacob Miller as their frontman and lead singer the band was one of the most popular in Jamaica during the 70's, and one of few reggae bands that performed live...
- Afrika Islam
Afrika Islam also known also as the "Son of Bambaataa", is an American hip-hop producer .-Life:In the 1980s he moved to Los Angeles where he co-produced Ice T's early albums Rhyme Pays and Power....
- Grace Jones
Grace Jones is a Jamaican-American singer, model, and actress.-Early life:Jones was born in Jamaica, the daughter of Marjorie and Robert W. Jones, who was a politician and Apostolic clergyman. Her parents took Grace and her brother Randy to relocate to Syracuse, New York in 1965...
- Josh Klinghoffer
Josh Klinghoffer is a musician and record producer from Los Angeles, California. He has toured with and played on records of numerous musicians including Ataxia, Beck, Butthole Surfers, Golden Shoulders, John Frusciante, Jon Brion, PJ Harvey, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sparks, that dog., The Bicycle...
- Ed Kowalczyk of Live
Live is an American alternative rock/post-grunge band from York, Pennsylvania, comprising Ed Kowalczyk , Chad Taylor , Patrick Dahlheimer and Chad Gracey...
- Cyndi Lauper
Cynthia Ann Stephanie "Cyndi" Lauper is an American singer-songwriter and actress. She achieved success in the mid-1980s with the release of the album She's So Unusual and became the first artist to have four top-five singles released from one album. Lauper has released 11 albums and over 40...
- Lawrence "Tricky Loz-Dog" Leung
- Live
Live is an American alternative rock/post-grunge band from York, Pennsylvania, comprising Ed Kowalczyk , Chad Taylor , Patrick Dahlheimer and Chad Gracey...
- Mad Dog
- Massive Attack
Massive Attack are a British music duo from Bristol, UK, considered to be progenitors of a genre referred to as trip hop, that assemble a collective of various favoured session musicians and guest vocalists with whom they make records and tour live...
- Wendy Melvoin
Wendy Melvoin is an American guitarist and singer-songwriter, best known for her work with Prince as part of his band "The Revolution" and for her collaboration with Lisa Coleman as one half of the duo Wendy & Lisa...
- Alanis Morissette
Alanis Nadine Morissette is a Canadian-American singer-songwriter, record producer and occasional actress. She has won 12 Juno Awards and seven Grammy Awards. Morissette began her career in Canada, and as a teenager recorded two dance-pop albums, Alanis and Now Is the Time, under MCA Records...
- Mos Def
Dante Terrell Smith is an American actor and MC known by the stage name Mos Def. Mos Def started his hip hop career in a group called Urban Thermo Dynamics, after which he appeared on albums by Da Bush Babees and De La Soul. With Talib Kweli, he formed the duo Black Star, who released the album...
- Alison Moyet
Alison Moyet , is an English pop singer-songwriter noted for her bluesy voice.-Early life:...
- DJ Muggs
Lawrence Muggerud , and better known as DJ Muggs, is Cypress Hill's DJ and producer.-Cypress Hill :...
- Paul Oakenfold
Paul Oakenfold is an English record producer and a trance DJ.-Early career :Paul Oakenfold's career was set to be a chef, after having hopes of becoming part of a band. He describes his early life as a "bedroom deejay" in a podcasted interview with Vancouver's 24 Hours, stating he grew up...
- Tim Pierce
- Red Hot Chili Peppers
Red Hot Chili Peppers is an American alternative rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1983. For most of the band's existence, the members have been vocalist Anthony Kiedis, guitarist John Frusciante, bassist Michael "Flea" Balzary, and drummer Chad Smith...
- Marc Ribot
Marc Ribot is an American guitarist and composer.His own work has touched on many styles, including no wave, free jazz, and Cuban music...
- Mark Saunders
Mark Saunders is a British record producer who has worked on a number of albums. Mark relocated to New York in 1996 and currently works from his facility in Manhattan....
- Jane Scarpantoni
Jane Scarpantoni is a classically trained cello player who has played on a number of alternative rock albums.She was a member of Hoboken, New Jersey's Tiny Lights in the mid-'80s, then went on to play with other musicians especially those associated with the Hoboken underground rock scene of the...
- Émilie Simon
Émilie Simon is a sexy and talented singer and composer of electronic music.-Émilie Simon:In May 2003, she released her debut album Émilie Simon. The electronic album was critically acclaimed and went on to become a commercial success. To promote her album, she did numerous live performances and...
- Sub Sub
Sub Sub were a British dance act from Manchester, England, composed of Jimi Goodwin and twin brothers Andy and Jez Williams.The threesome met at school in 1985 and became regulars at The Haçienda while composing their own material together...
- Sunshine
Sunshine is a disco act whose members include the real-life sisters of singer Donna Summer . Their 1978 number one Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play hit "Take It the Zoo," which was featured on the "Thank God It's Friday" film and soundtrack, was co-written by Summer , who also sings background...
- Terranova
- Mark Thwaite
- Tool
Tool is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 1990. Since their inception, the band's line-up has included drummer Danny Carey, guitarist Adam Jones, and vocalist Maynard James Keenan. The current bassist is Justin Chancellor, who has been with the band since 1995...
- Martina Topley-Bird
Martina Topley-Bird is a British vocalist who first gained fame as the featured female vocalist on trip hop pioneer Tricky's debut album Maxinquaye . She was educated at Clifton College where she sang in the choir. It was while she was a young precocious teenager at the school that she met trip hop...
- Keisha White
Keisha White is a English R&B singer. She has released two albums so far, Seventeen, which was released in 2005, and her latest album Out Of My Hands, which was released on 3 July 2006.-Biography:...
- Zeb
Drummie Zeb is the drummer and one of the lead singers for Aswad, as well as being a record producer.He is a former pupil of Holland Park School in London...
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