I've Got A Little Something For You

DISCO GRAPHIC

THE FIRST All Male Singing Group I ever loved, before Next, 112, Goodfellaz, Damage and even Ultimate Kaos (whose second album, in 1998, just so happened to be called The Kaos Theory...), was MN8.

They made my teenage hormones do backflips, with all their crotch-grinding, pec-thrusting sexiness. They had it all - the face, the body, the hair... And there was one in every flavour: light-skinned prettyboy KG, cute joker in the pack Dee-Tails, big, beefy, sexy G-Man, and smooth, delicious Kule-T (they're pictured left to right on the cover, above). Musically, they were hot too - but you'd have had to look a little deeper than the singles and albums released by Sony UK, who creatively stifled the band and simply didn't understand (or have any real interest in) black urban music. What Sony wanted was a black Take That. Ultimate Kaos (contemporaries of MN8, but younger and poppier) had the same problem. Before they were MN8, the two lead singers - KG and G-Man - had already gained underground credibility as The Jeuce; as MN8, it was the dirtier, street-influenced B-side tracks 4 Ya Flava and Someone To Love that were more sought after than their parent single, the Disney-esque Pathway To The Moon.

In 1996, MN8 released their second album. The choice of singles was mind-bogglingly bad. Instead of the nasty, sextastic title track Freaky, Sony/Columbia released the poppy Tuff Act To Follow, followed by the smooth (but unexciting) Dreaming. The label totally failed to capitalise on the huge success the band enjoyed with their first album, both in the UK and overseas (I've Got A Little Something For You even featured on the soundtrack of Will Smith's Bad Boys).

Fortunately, those weak singles were accompanied by the real sound of MN8, in the shape of three tight B-sides: the lush, magical Magic Ride, the downright filthy The Player, and the impossibly catchy Dreaming ('Bout U). Why the record label thought these tracks shouldn't be on the album, given the calibre of some of the material that did make it onto Freaky, is anyone's guess.

1994's I've Got A Little Something For You is still a tune. But to this day, I don't know what some of the lyrics mean. Just what, exactly, is the gift that "you and I'll enjoy"?

Bound to be something freaky.

Every MN8 video:

If You Only Let Me In

Happy

Baby It's You

Pathway To The Moon

Tuff Act To Follow

Dreaming.