13. Tricky – False Idols
Tricky is really a person who is at the very forefront of multi-genre music, bringing in rock and funk and club elements. He is unclassifiable, because he’s always going to surprise you with his albums as he seamlessly goes through all these different components in his music. His compositional and engineering skills are also great, and I think every musician should really study these. He is an artist incorporating all these different styles in a very unself-conscious way, and it is one of the things that makes him a controversial figure, but also one of the things that make him a true visionary.
I have loved Tricky for years and years. He is groundbreaking and he has always done this, he has always pushed through barriers. And he has his own record label now so it is not like people can tell him what to do, because I think for a while labels were trying to tell him what to do and I am really glad that he does not have that burden anymore. Because he is wild, he is like a wild stallion, he is his own person, extremely eccentric and he is not going to listen to someone telling him what to do. He is a rebel.
