00s pop icon confirms comeback 20 years after Eminem clash

It’s been 20 years since 00s band 3 of a Kind shocked the nation by going straight in at number one in the UK charts with their smash hit Baby Cakes.

But from meeting MC Devine these days you’d have no idea it’s been so long. Devine, whose real name is Nicholas Gallante, formed the trio with friends Liana Caruana (Miz Tipzta) and Marc Portelli (Marky P) and signed their record deal in January 2004.

By the summer, they were top of the charts battling Eminem and Natasha Bedingfield, had been on Top of the Pops to a nationwide audience, and were certified Gold.

Admirably, Devine still talks and thinks with the intensity of someone who feels his next big break is around the corner.

Speaking exclusively with Metro.co.uk – 20 years to the day that Baby Cakes made history – he tells us of a brand new record deal, and our chat takes place in the middle of back-to-back studio sessions as he works on a solo album, Memoirs of a Devine Soul.

Just over two decades ago, Devine was on the cusp of his first big break with his mates Liana and Marc, who he says only met each other for the first time on the day they went into the studio to record their future number one smash.

‘Baby Cakes was the first thing we worked on. Me and Liana were working on tracks that we could do and Baby Cakes was the first in the pipeline for us. We were just gonna do it as a duo but then Marc showed me an instrumental – the one everyone’s heard.

‘Marc and Liana first met each other on the day – it was crazy how things worked out. We put the group’s name together, we got in our local paper, The Advertiser in east London. The rest is history.’

Devine and Liana had come up in the bustling UK garage scene thanks to legendary London stations 96.1 Supreme FM and Rinse FM.

‘Those were our stations and they still are,’ Devine says proudly.

‘We knew Baby Cakes was special when we gave it to Rinse FM DJ Jiggy B – we owe him that one. He played it the first time and I was listening live, and the phone lines were going absolutely insane. They just kept rewinding it and starting again.’

Then, it happened.

‘Four days later we performed our first gig together – Benjy’s Purple E3 on Mile End Road. When we performed the whole crowd was already singing Baby Cakes. We thought “Oh my god, something’s happening here.”‘

After that night on Mile End Road, a deal was signed and months of touring ensued. In August 2004, Baby Cakes was ready to be served, and a chart battle with Pete Doherty and The Libertines was on.

‘I used to see Pete Doherty in a pub…’

It hit close to home for Devine: ‘I used to see Pete Doherty in a pub at the end of my mum’s street – Amy Winehouse too. Pete and his group were always talking about how big they were. I used to overhear him and I never used to think I’d be going up against him.’

Shifting 55,000 copies in its first week, Baby Cakes went to number one as a brand new entry, knocking Busted’s Thunderbirds theme off the top and apparently causing Natasha Bedingfield’s team to delay the release of These Words by seven days.

‘[I got told] her team wanted number one and here we were, a group from Stepney – we sold millions of ringtones and somehow beat Eminem and Crazy Frog and that. Natasha was coming off the success of her brother Daniel, and we were somehow ahead of her and The Libertines.’

Looking back at the ringtone charts from 2004, Devine remembers correctly. Baby Cakes was the top selling ringtone of that year, beating Eminem, Usher, Eric Prydz, and even DJ Casper’s Cha Cha Slide.

To Devine, the success of Baby Cakes wasn’t a surprise: ‘I don’t think there’s any song that could top Baby Cakes. Not just for me, but for many artists around me. If you’re up against it, I can’t see you coming out victorious. That’s not me blowing smoke up my own backside, it’s a powerful track.’

A new entry at number one meant an appearance on Top of the Pops later that week. And they appeared again on the Christmas special to close out 2004.

‘Our label were always chasing to top Baby Cakes’

‘I remember every minute. It was such a long day. I was scared. We didn’t know what to expect. We were walking past Girls Aloud’s dressing room, John Legend’s dressing room. You’re never going to forget something like that.’

However, as quickly as it began, the 3 of a Kind story ended. After the release of Baby Cakes, the trio ceased to be. A planned second single, titled Wink One Eye, was never released, and an album’s worth of material was shelved.

But why?

‘Our label were always chasing to top Baby Cakes. We wanted to try our best and we did every job they gave us, but once we crossed over into the mainstream I was out of my depth. I knew what I had to do in the underground – but if we’d had a second single, would Baby Cakes be as big as it is now?

‘[We were worried about] diluting ourselves by releasing more and more music. Baby Cakes is its own entity and that’s how it should be.’

The overnight success and rapid dissolution of 3 of a Kind meant that Baby Cakes became part of an exclusive club of true one-hit wonders.

‘I had to see the downside of having a hit…’

More than any other scene at the time, the UK garage movement produced several of them: DJ Pied Piper (Do You Really Like It?), Sweet Female Attitude (Flowers), Tina Moore & Kelly G (Never Gonna Let You Go), and the B15 Project (Girls Like Us).

However, that can be a double-edged sword. ‘One hit wonder’ is a loaded term after all, and sometimes employed as a pejorative.

But not to Devine.

‘Whether I’m a one-hit wonder or not, that’s God’s plan. It’s as it says on the tin. Baby Cakes was one song, it was a hit, and it has left you wondering. How do you paint it up to be anything else?

‘But,’ he defiantly adds, ‘I’m so proud. I still perform it. I had to see the downside of having a hit, when it’s not so good and you’re feeling embarrassment. But I’ve got to pat myself on the back. [3 of a Kind] had to move forwards but we’re always proud.

‘Whenever you go to a concert, there’s always that one song everyone can’t wait to hear. I really, truly believe, regardless of how many songs we’d have made, Baby Cakes would still be the one. Let’s not run away from that, Baby Cakes is our only hit but it would have always been our big hit.’

Nicholas, Liana, and Marc are all parents now, and they still keep in touch, even if they have ‘their own lives’. After 20 years, ‘we meet each other halfway.’

Memoirs of a Devine Soul is out soon.

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