Born: Jan. 27, 1968, as Adrian Nicholas Matthews Thaws in
Bristol, England.  Sounds like: A dark alley you shouldn't have
walked through; a rave in a smoky old jazz club.  For fans of:
Portishead, Massive Attack, Tom Waits, Brian Eno, Sade, Curtis
Mayfield, Lil Wayne.  Latest release: Mixed Race, which breeds
Tricky's hallmark dark and minimal electronic vibe with jazz and
world-music influences.  Why you care: In the mid-'90s, Tricky
was heralded from the underground to the mainstream press as a
great musical visionary who was bound to become—along with Moby
and that tri-hawked guy from Prodigy—an enduring voice of an
emerging electronic generation. Hearing his 1995 debut,
Maxinquaye, it was hard to argue the point. A brooding, funky
disc full of fucked-up reggae and hip-hop swagger, the disc
sounded like nothing before it. Three albums later, Tricky had
lost some of his mysterious appeal, and much of the world lost
interest. Tricky's 1998 release, Angels With Dirty Faces, traded
in long, psychedelic tracks