Adrian Thaws (born January 27, 1968), better known as Tricky, is an English rapper and musician important in the trip-hop and british music scene (despite loathing the “trip-hop” tag).

He is noted for an asthmatic whispering lyrical style that is half-rapped, half-sung. As a producer and a musician he is known for having an aversion to perfection preferring to build up a dark, rich and layered sound. Culturally, Tricky bridges white and black Britain particularly in his fusion of rock and hip-hop, high art and pop culture. He drew his influences from rap Public Enemy to post-punk (he covered a Siouxsie and the Banshees’s song Tattoo).

He has was in Massive Attack and appeared in the movie The Fifth Element as well as the music video for Parabola by Tool. He has collaborated extensively with other artists on tracks on his various releases, including Björk, Alanis Morissette, Cyndi Lauper, Anthony Kiedis, John Frusciante and Flea (of the Red Hot Chili Peppers), Martina Topley-Bird, and Alison Goldfrapp of Goldfrapp also many others.

After his initial success in the latter 1990’s, he started his own label called Durban Poison. Currently he is heading a new imprint called Brown Punk. A new album, titled Knowle West Boy was released in the first half of 2008.

Tricky originally said in an interview with Raygun in October 1996 that he wanted to make an ‘out-an-out punk record’ and that “I thought it was going be heavier. I thought it was just going to be an out-an-out punk record. But you end up straying. What I wanted to do was a total fast album. Some of the tracks are fast and hard, but they did ‘t come out like that.” He also said that he hated being stuck with the trip-hop tag so “That’s why I did Nearly God, and that’s why I did Pre-Millennium Tension. You can’t see them as trip-hop albums. So I just keep running away from it. But the farther you run, it’s still there. They’ll find you.”