4.9K
RA“Hell Is Round the Corner” by Tricky is often misunderstood, especially when it gets lazily framed against Portishead. The reality is that Tricky didn’t sample Portishead, and Portishead didn’t sample Tricky — they both sampled the same source: Ike’s Rap II by Isaac Hayes. Two radically different emotional outcomes from the same foundation. Portishead turned it into noir melancholy. Tricky turned it into something far more claustrophobic and exposed.
The tension in “Hell Is Round the Corner” its given by the emotional duality of Tricky’s voice contrasting Martina Topley-Bird. His delivery is guarded, half-whispered, almost defensive, while Martina floats through the track like a counterweight.
I think Tricky is one of those artists who never quite received the recognition he deserves. He didn’t just contribute to trip-hop , he disturbed it, stripped it of comfort, shaped its atmosphere, and injected vulnerability where polish was expected. Martina Topley-Bird’s role in that legacy is inseparable.
Growing up in Bristol, Tricky lived near a street notorious for crime, a place so dangerous that he and his friends nicknamed it “Hell.” As kids, they would dare each other to run down it. So when Tricky says hell is round the corner, he means it in the most physical sense possible. Danger isn’t abstract. It’s nearby. Inevitable. Always waiting.
#triphop #90smusic #bristolsound #britishartist #ukmusic
@rarepeacemag
