Alex Da Kid (aka Alexander Grant) wants U2. He wants Cher. He wants Coldplay.
This is not the list of CDs he would like for Christmas.
These are the stars he's calling up to work with in 2011 and - given his track record over the last 12 months - they would be likely to take his calls.
In one of pop's success stories of 2010, the London-born songwriter and producer has gone from relative anonymity to crafting songs for the biggest names in urban music, including Eminem, Rihanna, B.o.B, Dr Dre, Diddy, TI and Nicki Minaj.
"A year ago, I was looking up to those guys, I wanted to be where they were," he says. "To be working with them is pretty cool.
"2010 has definitely been a good year. I just want to make 2011 a bigger year."
On Alex Da Kid's contribution to Eminem's Recovery album with 'Love the Way You Lie' ft. Rihanna:
(Then) it all came down to Rihanna, who had just one chance to record her vocals in a Dublin studio while on tour in May.
"We still didn't know, literally eight or nine hours before the album had to be given in, whether it [the song] would go on the album," Grant recalls.
"If Rihanna didn't do a great vocal performance, there was no time to re-do it. It just wouldn't have made the album. We couldn't have done it another day, it just wouldn't have gone on the album.
"So, it got pretty intense. We were all sitting around in the studio waiting for Rihanna to give us these vocals, and we were all just praying that they were perfect - which they ended up being.
"If it was a bad day for her and she didn't nail it that particular day, normally you'd just go back and re-record it a couple of days later. But we didn't have that time."
The track has been downloaded four million times in the US alone and its success contributed in no small part to the revival of Eminem's reputation and commercial fortunes.
Read the full story:
BBC - Alex Da Kid: The Brit behind 2010's biggest hit
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