Tricky situation
Bristolian legend Tricky is hitting the road to perform his 1995 masterpiece Maxinquaye in its entirety. He talks to Stuart Clark about the album’s eventful creation, the current state of hip hop and brazenly flouting ireland’s no-smoking laws.
Stuart Clark, 18 May 2012
“Is it starting to happen? That is wicked! I knew it would eventually.”
Tricky is delighted with me telling him that after decades of misguided mid-Atlanticisms, Irish hip-hop has finally found its own voice and, more importantly, accent. He’s been keen to collaborate with one of our homegrown rappers for years – indeed, Hot Press put out a call for demos on the Bristolian’s behalf a few years ago, which sadly came to nowt when a planned Tricky trip to Dublin had to be shelved. We’ve just sent another big bag of CDs to Mr. Thaws in Paris, so if you’re an Irish rapper and get a call from a bloke who sounds like a cross between Shabba Ranks and The Wurzels, you’ll know what
it’s about.
“The Irish are just really good storytellers and they’ve got attitude as well,” he proffers. “If there’s someone who’s got their shit together I’d love to work with them.”
The big news is that 13 years after going their separate professional and personal ways, Tricky and Martina Topley Bird are preparing to perform 1995’s Mercury Music Prize-winning Maxinquaye album in its entirety. So far there are only three confirmed shows – Bristol, London and Manchester at the end of this month – but the word from its creator is that there will definitely be an Irish date this summer.
Asked the obligatory, “Why get back together now?” question, he explains: “One of the reasons was being asked to play at the first Sundance Festival in London. I’m not sure if the invite came from Robert Redford himself, but there’hhbs no way I was going to turn that down. We’ve been touring my last album, Mixed Race, for 18 months now and to be honest I’m a bit tired of it. There’s a new record but I’m not ready to play all of it live yet, so I came up with the idea of doing Maxinquaye in its entirety followed by the songs that are coming out before Christmas as singles. The album will be early 2013.”
Hopping on the tour bus with Tricky and Martina will be their 17-year-old daughter, Mazy.
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