Mazierska/Sounds Northern, 9. The Missing Star of MC Tunes

MC Tunes (born Nicholas William Dennis Hodgson, 1970) is a British rapper from Manchester, who achieved commercial and artistic success, while fronting a British electronic music group, 808 State. He played a significant role in the Madchester music scene during the 1980s and 1990s, yet failed to achieve global success or even sustain a national fame, as demonstrated by the fact that his second record, to be released by ZTT Records in the early 1990s, was rejected by the label and only released in 2015 in a limited edition format. The career of MC Tunes plays into two well established narratives; the first is of the working class artist, entertainer or sports star who finds success, but then cannot cope with sudden wealth and celebrity. The second is of the northern working class artist who is ‘discovered’ by the London based music industry and then exploited commercially before being discarded. Neither of these narratives provides a complete or satisfactory description of a career which was shaped by a compl