2. Massive Attack – Blue Lines
This was – for me as a kid – one of the defining albums regarding what I wanted to do and wanted to be a part of. I grew up in between London and Bristol so that sound was very defining for us as kids, and everything about that record was perfect: the fact that it was a British, alternative take on hip-hop and what was going on there. The artwork, the dynamic, and that it came out of sound system culture, that was one of the big inspirations for me. When I first heard it, I got a tape of it, and I couldn’t stop playing it. I’d sit in my bedroom with my headphones and just play it back and back. It was taking what was going on with hip-hop, reggae and sound system and putting it all together – it was such a unique, English infusion.
