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 worked together with 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 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 by Tricky titled Knowle West Boy is scheduled to appear in the first half of 2008.