It’s not easy being Green.
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lmost five months have passed since Stephen Manderson, a.k.a. Professor Green, released his sophomore album, At Your Inconvenience. While there are already discussions about a new album, he’s still touring and releasing singles from his second record. “I’ve got so much work to do on At Your Inconvenience; we’ve still got a f ew more singles to release and we’re releasing in America this year, the first single being ‘Nightmares’ with Royce Da 5”9. We’ve got to do a video for that.” The man is obviously keeps himself busy. Professor Green has come a long way since his days on Mike Skinner’s label The Beats (of which he speaks of in quite a negative light). On his first mixtape, Lecture #1, Green mainly talks about smoking weed, getting drunk
and popping pills. However on the new LP, it’s obvious he’s made some drastic changes to his life style choice. “I was high out of my box, I’ve kind of reigned that in a little bit. I’m more professional these days. I was a young chipper back then, I was 21 years old. I could do it all and then wake up the next morning and have a smile on my face. Now I do 3 days and I’m like ‘Uhhhhhh, why did I even bother?’” At Your Inconvenience even explores much darker territory that Green never would have discussed before. On the track “Today I Cried”, Green talks about all the repercussions of fame and on the song “Astronaut” he tells the story of a rape victim who turns to heroin abuse for comfort. When asked about why he made this change Green simply says, “I just continue to write about my experience”
Although, the lyrics have moved direction, the beats haven’t changed. There’s still a huge variety, from tracks which sample the Pixies, to songs produced by drum and bass legends Camo & Krooked. Like all of his records, there’s still a huge Jungle influence. “I’m an old school Junglist mate. That was the first music I got into. That was the scene when I first started hanging out and playing on my estate. It’s important for me to give a little nod to that”. Green has also expressed interest in working with Mike Skinner and Skrillex on the new album although he says he’s only spoken to Skrillex over Twitter. However, he did reveal that he’s in the process of working with Raf Rundell of The 2 Bears and Hot Chip. Not only is there talk of work with various producers, but Green has showed interest in working with different artists for the new album. He says that a collaboration with Ed Sheeran will definitely happen, and he’s “just waiting until they get the right track”. This is Professor Green’s second year performing at the Trinity Ball and he seems to have enjoyed it last year. “It was wicked. There was a bit of an issue with sound. Katie B was on and she basically set the place on fire. Quite literally. But we sorted it out and had a good one. Obviously I’ve got more material out in Ireland this time so I’m looking forward to it”. When I mention that Jessie J said it was one of the most difficult gigs of her life he says, “I didn’t find the crowd that difficult. I was quite drunk myself. So I was in a better place for it than she was”. After I inform Green that his former touring companions Rizzle Kicks will also be playing this year he laughs with delight and says “I’ll tell you what they are, they’re fucking brilliant. We had such a good time on tour man. They were a part of one the best headline tours I’ve done so far. They’re wicked man”. Their drunken shenanigans can be seen online through Green’s YouTube page
and hopefully be palpable during their performance. With the line up of this years ball having a quite a lot of British hip-hop artists (i.e. Rizzle Kicks, Labrinth, Dot Rotten), I asked Green what he thought of the scene today. “I think it’s really healthy at the moment and there’s good acts coming through. It’s a weird situation though; I do worry a little bit. This happened with guitar bands, A&R were signing every guitar band and in the end they all went to shit. I do worry a little bit that the same thing could happen with our scene. We’ve got to a place where our music is accepted and it will always be welcomed. I’m not sure if it’s going to work out for everyone. There’s 24 people [major label British hip-hop artists] signed at the moment. That’s a pretty big number if you think how many radio stations will actually play our records. But you know, it’s good for a little while. It’s exciting. It’s good to see such a healthy scene because we’ve never had it before. This is the first time in history”. It’s clear though that Professor Greene has made quite a transformation even since his first album was released. Early interviews suggest that Green was always a bit of a kid at heart, however during our conversation I feel as if I’m listening to a performer who has matured as an artist. When asked about how he finds fame, he simply says, “There’s a lot to think about”. When asked him whether he still is having fun now that he’s considered a big artist, he said “it’s a different type of fun now. I’ve got so many responsibilities. Life is different in general for me now.” Although his attitude towards life has changed dramatically, Green still sounds as if he’s only at the early stages of his career, and he’s still putting on good live shows and still making good music. So has Green got anything planned for Ball? “Same as always; lots of energy and good banter”. Obviously not everything has changed.
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