WHEN Kanye West – the world’s biggest rapper – says an artist has the talent to be bigger than he is, people tend to listen.

Admittedly, most people were surprised to hear the artist was a relatively unknown, blond-haired singer-songwriter from Birmingham.

Kanye West’s praise didn’t stop there. “He has the potential to be one of the most important artists of his generation,” he said.

But Mr Hudson still has work to do, and part of that hard work continued in front of a couple of hundred people in Newcastle’s The Cluny.

The Cluny – small and stuffy – provided a great atmosphere for Mr Hudson, backed by his band, The Library, to perform his soulful, catchy pop.

With a new album, Straight No Chaser, out in August, the set contained a mixture of old and new songs and it was easy to distinguish which was which.

His new songs offer much more synth and beat, with the wailing vocals on White Lies paying homage to West’s 808 & Heartbreaks album, which features backing vocals from Mr Hudson on three tracks.

The Chicago rapper returned the favour on Mr Hudson’s new single, Supernova, which went down well with the Cluny crowd.

But the tracks from his debut album, A Tale of Two Cities, still have their own charm, the steeldrum, base and piano filling every inch of the sweaty room.

“What tune is that? I don’t know but I like it,” sang Mr Hudson for his encore track Ask The DJ. He might as well have been reading the minds of the crowd.