A deeper shade of Green
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.
