The album that made Kanye West sign Mr Hudson: “I’m sure I owe him a pint”
For much of the 2000s, Mr Hudson was just getting his footing in the music industry. Born in Birmingham, the singer/producer recorded music with bands like Mansize, The Hudson Sound and Phoenix Green, before forming Mr Hudson and the Library, which would change his life forever. The group made waves by touring with Amy Winehouse and performing on Later… with Jools Holland, but it wasn’t until he stepped into his solo career that things really changed, thanks to Kanye West.
Mr Hudson and the Library released their debut album, A Tale of Two Cities, in 2007. The project showcased Hudson’s talent as a singer and songwriter. Ye came across the LP and couldn’t stop playing it, prompting him to give him a record deal.
Hudson signed to G.O.O.D. Music in 2008 and played an important role in Kanye’s 808s & Heartbreak, featuring on the song ‘Paranoid’, co-producing ‘Street Lights’ and providing more vocals on ‘Say You Will’ and ‘Amazing’. Then, he landed a feature on Jay-Z’s ‘Young Forever’ in 2009, which featured on The Blueprint III and peaked at number ten on the Billboard Hot 100 and UK Singles Chart. Hudson also toured with Hov, which included a show at Alexandra Palace where the music video was filmed.
“I was chipping away but [Kanye] really kicked in the door for me,” he told Clash Magazine. “He signed me to his label, then there was Jay-Z and the tour, and I have a lot to thank him for, really. I’m sure I owe him a pint by now! Basically, he heard the first album, A Tale of Two Cities, and he was just playing it on repeat and was like, ‘I want to sign this guy and help him out,’ and it happened. It’s a bit of a fairytale, really. It was like, ‘Why don’t we make you a pop star?’ And I was like, ‘All right.’”
Speaking on ‘Young Forever’, Hudson said, “We were just making music and not really worried about what was going to happen. It’s hard to look in the tea leaves and know that it was going to be such a massive track. I didn’t know that was even going to be a single, that song. And then I just get an email from my aunt who’s in New Zealand saying, ‘They’re playing it in the sandwich shop’… It puts a smile on my face. It’s sort of a mission accomplished, really.”
Around that time, Kanye gave Hudson the ultimate praise, telling the MTV Europe Music Awards, “I believe Mr Hudson has the potential to be bigger than me, to be one of the most important artists of his generation.” He went on to release his debut album Straight No Chaser on Ye’s label in October 2009, landing a hit single, ‘Supernova’, which featured Kanye. The song reached number two on the UK Singles Chart and remains his highest-charting solo single to this day.
Hudson collaborated with Kanye and Jay-Z once again in 2012 on ‘Why I Love You’ from the Watch the Throne album. He’s released a couple more albums since, Never Grow Up as BIGkids in 2012 and When the Machine Stops in 2019, while working impressively behind the scenes with iconic bands like Duran Duran. While he might not be a superstar artist today, he remains one of the most talented musicians working in pop music.