Tricky Presents Skilled Mechanics

The album’s called Mixed Race because being mixed race is the single biggest influence on my music. You sat down at the table in my house and you saw every colour. It’s made me much more open-minded than I could’ve been. I come from both worlds. Mixed Race is a gangster album. I can’t do gangsta rap. That’s not me. I can’t talk about being a bad boy, ‘cos I’m not. But I’ve been around that. So this is the closest I can get to a gangsta album. Its very gully, as Jamaicans call it… very dark. Tense, street and urban. It’s like a movie, almost.

And it’s true that I’ve agreed to work with Massive Attack again. A year ago I would’ve said no. But what I like about it now is that, if we do an album together, people’s expectations are gonna be high. It won’t be easy. We’re gonna have to make something really special. I think it’s a challenge.