A deeper shade of Green

THE last time I interviewed chart-topping rapper, Professor Green, he was an angry young man in a hurry.

The Hackney rhymer, born Stephen Manderson, had tweeted controversially about the London riots, saying the mayhem had deep-rooted social causes and could not be blamed on greedy layabouts looting the high street.

The newspapers were full of breathless accounts of his troubled upbringing. Months earlier, a nightclub altercation had left him with a permanent scar across his neck (he was lucky not to have bled to death). A bitter family row was brewing because he addressed his father’s suicide in song, his stepmother accusing him of cashing in on the tragedy.

He’d just racked up his first number one single, the Emeli Sande duet Read All About It. You wondered if it might be his first and last moment in the spotlight. He was tetchy, and defensive, an anxious youngster adjusting to the demands of the big time.

A year on, Manderson’s a changed man — at ease with the attention, chatty and chilled. “I’m kind of oblivious to the fame side of things,” he says, outlining his state of mind. “I live my life the way I always lived it. If my dog is out of food, I’ll go out and buy some. If he’s left a mess on the footpath, I’ll scoop it up. I don’t censor my life because people know who I am.” Such behaviour is natural but he is sufficiently self-aware to understand that it sets him apart from other performers. He doesn’t ‘do’ being famous the ways his peers do.

“I was talking with Jordan, from [chart-topping duo] Rizzle Kicks, and he was surprised at how oblivious I am to fame. I’ll wake up and look like hell and I won’t care,” he says. He’s seen people swallowed by celebrity. He differs because he has never pursued it. Now that he is a household face — in his native UK, at least — he is confident it will not change him.

“Some individuals are consumed by the whole superstar lifestyle thing, whatever that may be. I think it’s all a fallacy. I’m still a normal bloke. I haven’t turned into somebody else.” As he says, he is extremely grounded. That’s probably as well, as he has put up with an extreme level of tabloid intrusion since entering a relationship with Millie Mackintosh, one of the stars of the UK reality show Made In Chelsea (and heiress to the Quality Street confectionery empire).

“On the one hand, our lives have been incredibly public,” he says. “Nobody knows what goes on behind closed doors. We keep that private. When we’re asked about it we say, ‘we’re in a relationship, everything is cool’.” As one half of a celebrity couple, Manderson has a hard time walking down the street uninterrupted, in London at least. If he wants to go for a drink, the chances of being left to his own devices are nil. When the paparazzi aren’t pursuing him, it’s the autograph hunters. It can be overwhelming. Nonetheless, he tries to keep it all in perspective.

“You have to take it with a pinch of salt,” he says. “I find it fine. It’s harder for Millie. She doesn’t deal with it the way I do. She gets awkward, say, if somebody asks for her autograph or a picture. Especially if she’s on her own.”

Sometimes, he says, the attention can get out of hand. A lot of ‘fans’ are quick to take umbrage if you don’t give them the time and attention to which they believe they are entitled.

“There are people who aren’t very polite about it,” he says. “You have to handle every situation differently. Generally, you try to be as nice as you can. You may be in a hurry. The person who approaches doesn’t know that. This might be their only opportunity to ask for an autograph. You need to imagine how you would like to be treated in a similar situation.”

Manderson was known as Professor Green long before he was a rapper. He acquired his handle as a drug dealer in Hackney. In his teens, he sold mostly cannabis and dabbled in music on the side. His dream was to have a hit record, but not because he wanted the money or the fame, particularly. He thought success would help him make peace with himself. The truth, he has discovered, is more complicated.

“I had a misconception that if I had success my problems would go away,” he says. “If anything, they become amplified. Your life is suddenly under a looking glass. It certainly isn’t the case that everything is okay. You will still have bad days.”

A year since the riots, he remains sympathetic towards young people who feel disenfranchised. Ultimately, that’s no excuse for not trying to improve yourself. He speaks, he says, from experience. As a nobody in Hackney, he could have played the victim and blamed the world for his woes.

“If stuff happens to you as a kid, if you make decisions that, really, you are too young to make, then you have an excuse. When you get older and then you use that as a crutch, well, it’s wrong. You have a choice. You can try to make a change. Or you can keep on behaving in a cretinous fashion. I could have gone that way. But I worked damn hard. I sacrificed a lot. I still do. Touch wood, I will continue to enjoy success,” he says.

Whatever else happens in his career, it is questionable whether it will top hearing Read All About It sung by Sande at the London Olympics closing ceremony. A eulogy to Manderson’s late father, it was, he says, hugely moving to witness it being performed to a global audience of millions.

“It was incredible,” he says. “At the same time, it was entirely appropriate. The song was always meant to be a celebration — it’s about triumphing over adversity. A lot of people can relate to that situation, removed from the specifics of my own life.

“They’ve gone through the same struggles I have. That’s why they could empathise with it.”

Professor Green will stop touring for the winter and will spend time on his next album. He is in no hurry and says he will let the songs come as they will. He’s already laid down a few tracks and is working hard to make some A-list collaborations happen.

“Lana Del Rey would be fantastic, man,” he says, referring to the chart-topping Video Games singer. “I’m doing my best to see if it comes about. We’d like it to. But she’s in the middle of a whirlwind right now. I guess it’s a case of wait and see.”

* Professor Green plays Arthur’s Day tonight. Venue yet to be announced