 Tricky eventually grew frustrated with his role in Massive Attack , finding it limiting , and wanted to record an album with a female vocalist whose singing would offer another dimension to his lyrics and their meaning . In 1993 , he discovered Martina Topley @-@ Bird , then a teenager at Clifton College , when he saw her sitting against a wall near his house , singing to herself . " That 's really how it happened , " she recalled . " A few weeks later , I went around to his house with some friends . We 'd been drinking cider after our GCSEs . We were banging on his door , but he wasn 't in . Then Mark Stewart , who lived there , came up to us and said : ' Yeah , this is Tricky 's house , jump in through the window . ' " Tricky , whose lyrics had matured from simplistic raps about street violence and sex to more personal and introspective writing , said Topley @-@ Bird found his songs " quite depressing " , which he believed was because of her more privileged background : " It 's just reality . She 's been a student all her life , grew up in Somerset , and I don 't think she 's ever faced the real world . She finds it all a bit weird . But she 's my best mate . " They would form a musical and romantic partnership over subsequent years , and their first recording together , " Aftermath " , later appeared on Maxinquaye . After offering the song to Massive Attack , who were not interested in including it on their 1991 album Blue Lines , Tricky released " Aftermath " independently to local record stores in September 1993 before he signed a record deal with 4th & B 'way . 
