Resplendent in a gleaming white ensemble, Tricky strolls into VH1.com like he's back from the dead. In fact, he's just driven in from West Orange, N.J., where the English-born rapper currently lays his Kangol. "Oh yeah," he laughs in a gravelly West Country accent," I love it there, man. It's beautiful."

Since his remarkable 1995 debut Maxinquaye, Tricky's claustrophobic rhythms have been anything but the sound of the Garden State. But with his new album Blowback and the help of A-list guests like Live's Ed Kowalczyk, Cyndi Lauper, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Alanis Morissette, his distinctive rap has moved from the outer fringes of cultdom onto your FM dial.

"We just did it at my house," he says of Blowback. "Not even to do an album. I've got recording equipment there. I record to socialize sometimes. I'll get some friends over who are going to do vocals and we'll cook food and stuff. When you're going into a new [record] deal, people want to know where you're going. So I used a couple of tracks off of this to say, 'This is what I'm up to.'

The starry line-up are fans who phoned Tricky up asking to work with him, while his new label Hollywood brought in Alanis to sing on "Excess." But while Tricky's all for different voices singing his lyrics, he warns, "It's not celebrity music. It's not a celebration of fame, fortune, girls, money. It's not a celebration of ego. It's personal. If you put a dishonest vocal on my music, it sticks out like a sore thumb."

So Tricky is just as buzzed working with the unknown raggaman Hawkman, heard on Blowback chatting over the anthemic single "Evolution Revolution Love." Hawkman is part of Tricky's new regime: he's replaced his longtime singing foil Martina, cleared the fog of musical obscurity with a new melodic fire, and fully intends to show the fakes on MTV and BET how it's done.

One of the reasons for his newfound positivity, Tricky explains, was a diagnosis of candida. The condition, he realized, was partly responsible for the rage and paranoia that spilled over into albums like Angels With Dirty Faces and nearly caused him to jump out of a window. He treats the disorder with a special diet, but admits he has a curious relationship with his condition.

"I felt like I got more than one career now," he says. "I can make an album like Angels with my eyes closed. But now I've also got another side, like this new album Blowback. It's almost like I was supposed to have candida. I feel like one of those old painters, you know? I got to make music on the verge of madness. It's turned me into a real artist. I love the fact that I found out I got it."

The Tricky prowling the sidewalks of suburban New Jersey is a far cry from the spliffed-up conspiracy theorist of yore. "I'm a normal guy," he explains. "I'm into cooking. I'll go for walks in the countryside around my house and play with my daughter. I'm really into tai chi. So this whole 'drugged up, dark depressed' thing, it's not..." Then he laughs. "You know, at 9:30 in the morning, I'm skipping outside my house and drinking lemon juice!"