Genre bending UK artist Adrian Thaws aka Tricky first hit the scene with the Wild Bunch, the English collective that went on to become Massive Attack, prior to launching his solo career in 1994 with the epic Maxinquaye, a startling and singular album which revolutionized U.K. hip-hop and featured such vocalists as Martina Topley-Bird, Allison Goldfrapp, Ragga and Mark Stewart. Rolling Stone hailed it as one of the "essential recordings of the 90s" and it topped many year-end polls including Melody Maker and NME.

"Maxinquaye was an album of its time largely because it made its time what it was. For better or for worse. Out of its time, it belongs to a category beyond that of mere genre. It's one of those albums whose radicalism is matched by its brilliant immediacy, an inescapable barrage of pleasure bombs whose revolutionary impact is succeeded by an undimmed afterlife. Revolver, Highway 61 Revisited, Supa Dupa Fly, Technique, Maxinquaye." - David Bennun, The Quietus