Reality and Council Estates
“Can anyone who didn’t grow up on a council estate really get it?
I wouldn’t have thought so. People must reflect on it, and the lyrics, ‘when they call you things like crime rate/and can’t go straight’, hopefully might make people think a bit.”
New Music
“Artists come out every year, and the press call it ‘new music’.
To me, raggamuffin is the only music that evolves. They’ll have five verses in a row without a chorus; there
are no rules! They don’t give a
shit about technology, they can
use rubbish drum sounds and
make do. It’s still evolving.”
Re-imagining ‘La Haine’
“In Paris they give me so much love at the council flats. One of the kids there put up a segment of the film La Haine on YouTube, with my music. Those kids have more to complain about than anyone else in Europe, because of the mixed culture. You have Moroccan, Algerian and Arabic; they have it very hard. They aren’t really welcomed into Paris. They won’t let them into clubs. The Council Estate clip was filmed in Paris by a lady called Valerie Pearson – in the French suburbs.”
Old Music
“When people used to ask me
what I’d call myself, I said ‘I’m a modern day blues artist’, so I’ve always had an affinity to blues.
The first music I remember
hearing was Billie Holiday,
from my grandmother.”
Slow: Covering Ms Kylie Minogue
“I love that song! I loved the video. She is incredible: she just jumps off the screen. A lot of young guys in R‘n’B try and be ‘sexy’. Kylie – that’s what I call sexy.”
Want to sell? Sex excels.
“You see Kanye West in a video trying to be ultra sexy. That’s pop star stuff. You’re a rapper! You don’t have to be all ‘tough’, but when rappers are trying to be a sex symbol, I don’t understand the concept.”
Knowle West Boy is out now via Domino/EMI. Tricky plays Splendour in the Grass, and Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, July 30-August 3.
