MN8 - Career

Career

MN8's 1995 debut hit single, "I've Got A Little Something For You", credited as written by Dennis Ingoldsby and Mark Taylor, became a success throughout Europe, Asia Pacific and the U.S. Notably the song was one of P. Diddy's earliest Bad Boy Records remixes. It was featured in the film, Bad Boys. The song was also Columbia UK's first homegrown Top 10 record in over a decade, held off the number 1 spot in the UK Singles Chart by Celine Dion's "Think Twice" which topped the UK chart for seven weeks. Nonetheless, MN8 finished the year ahead of Seal's "Kiss from a Rose" as one of the biggest selling UK singles for the year. MN8 followed up with 6 more UK Top 30 hits including "If you Only Let Me In", "Baby Its You", "Tuff Act To Follow", "Dreaming", "Pathway To The Moon" and a cover of the Surface hit "Happy".

Their debut album, To The Next Levelreached number 13 in the UK Albums Chart. To The Next Level included a contribution from Pamela Sheyne, who wrote the song "Baby It's You".(Source: M Magazine/ PRS MCPS, Issue 14, September 2004) Besides P Diddy and Sheyne, MN8 collaborated with the late Oji Pearce (Montell Jordan's "This Is How We Do It"), Simon Climie, Arthur Baker, Steve Silk Hurley, Connor Reeves, Blacksmith and Dalvin DeGrate (Jodeci).(Source: Smash Hits - June 1995)

MN8 toured alongside Janet Jackson, Diana King, Brownstone, Spice Girls, Madonna, Celine Dion, Robbie Williams, Boyzone, East 17, Backstreet Boys and Ricky Martin. They also appeared at Smash Hits Poll Winners Party, Midem, Notting Hill Carnival, Sweden's Water Festival and other European music festivals.

In 1997 MN8 parted ways with Sony/Columbia & 1st Avenue. Once the deal had expired, MN8 partnered with the French concert promoter Gerard Drouot to tour France in 1997 and 1998. After their last show at the end of 1998, MN8 decided to take a break indefinitely to pursue other opportunities.

In an interview with Digital Spy on 13 April 2009, lead singer KG said of the split and any prospects of a reunion: "Around 1998 and 1999 we did our last European shows. We were at the end of our deal with Sony and weren't really sure what we wanted to do. We decided to take a break and think things through. Quite a lot's happened in the past few months actually. We're in tentative talks about maybe putting MN8 back together and doing a tour. The thing about MN8 is that we never did the sort of music we should have done. We had the right aesthetic but the potential to do so much more. If you look at the commercial side of R&B these days, we would have fitted in better. We were kind of ahead of our time in some ways." (Source: Digital Spy, Monday 13 April 2009).

Recently MN8 were referenced in the media in relation to upcoming boyband JLS:

"There hasn't been a British R&B boy band of any note since MN8" - wrote Simon Price (Source: The Independent, Sunday 8 November 2009).

"Another Level and Blue achieved maximum exposure with a low-level interracial mix, but both Damage and MN8, the last all-black British boy bands, dipped at the crucial pop moment where success turns to phenomenon" - wrote Paul Flynn. (Source The Guardian, 20 July 2009).