Professor Green AKA Stephen Manderson is an English rapper from Hackney, Ea… Read Full Bio ↴Professor Green AKA Stephen Manderson is an English rapper from Hackney, East London, currently signed to Virgin Records, after Mike Skinner's The Beats label closed, and ended a run of his own radio shows on BBC Radio 1.

He was signed to The Beats, a record label run by Mike Skinner and Ted Mayhem from 2006 until 12 February 2008, when the label terminated. He rose to success upon winning the inaugural JumpOff MySpace £50,000 battle rap tournament in July 2008. Following this in 2009, Manderson worked with Lily Allen on her 2009 concert tour.

Growing up on the Northwold estate in Upper Clapton, Green's familial situation saw him being raised by his grandmother while he traded up school attendance for just hanging on the estate, like kids do. The Read All About It Songfacts reports that he had a turbulent relationship with his father, who was rarely around during Manderson's childhood and committed suicide in 2008. In his hit single, Read All About It, Green responds to accusations made by his stepmother that his debut album, Alive Till I'm Dead, was "cashing-in" on his death.

While the usual nefarious stories of low budget living played a part in his life, Green's formative years were also characterised by fun: skating was big on the estate, etc. He also had an early inkling that the art of verbal sparring would somehow play a part in his life, confessing how, he always wanted to be a barrister or a lawyer. "I like debates and I've always been argumentative, I think that's helped me in battles a lot."

However, while becoming obsessed with hip-hop at the age of nine "Biggie [[artist]The Notorious B.I.G.] is my greatest hip-hop influence", Green only switched up from passive fan to active participant at a relatively late stage. After turning 18 years old, he coined his first rhyme completely off-the-cuff when put on the spot at an impromptu freestyle jam session round a friends house. Passing the test with aplomb and impressing his music making peers, the underground rap battle scene suddenly opened up before him.

After seeing a poster advertising a rap battle at the Lyric Pad night in London, Green turned up and won. From that he graduated to competing at the prestigious Jump Off events, performing at venues like The Scala and Sound in Leicester Square, and becoming the first ever contestant to win six straight weekly finals in a row. While his seventh showdown ended in defeat, he returned undeterred, put together a second run of consecutive victories and became the first string seven wins together. Throw in a further series of seven straight wins and a dalliance with pay battles, and Green became a man to fear on the battle circuit.

Cue a change of scene and a flight to the exotic climes of the Bahamas to spar for $50,000.

Entering the Power Summit battle against America's finest freestyle icons (think 8 Mile but with no holds barred), the crowd may have first viewed Green as this white English kid who's not going to do anything, but his gift of gab and ability to coin scathing punchlines saw him through to the final where he faced Jin, a member of DMXs much amped Ruff Ryders camp. The judges decided in Jin's favour, although with the Ruff Ryder man having been given a bye to the final and Green having already been through seven prior knockout bouts (including taking out representatives from Eminem's Shady Records camp), by his own admission it was "more a case of me losing it as opposed to Jin winning it."

Still, with a crowd featuring US big rap guns like Busta Rhymes and Saigon, Green made a name for himself and in September went off to Hawaii to compete in the battle again.

A performance at the B-Boy Championships last summer ultimately paid greater dividends and opened him up to a new audience in Mike Skinner of The Streets fame.

"Mike approached me after the B-Boy Championships and wanted to bring me on tour with The Streets" he recalls. I ended up doing an opening battle on the tour and we formed a great relationship from that. At first it wasn't about me looking for a record deal though it was more a case of us deciding to lay down some tracks and seeing where it went.

At the end of April 2006 he signed on the dotted line to release his debut album on Skinner's The Beats label. And while UK hip-hop's profile is certainly in the ascendancy thanks to acts like Skinnyman, Sway and Kano, Green has his eyes on breaking out beyond the usual urban tag affixed to British rappers.

Name-checking Portishead, Radiohead, Tracy Chapman and Suzanne Vega as song-writing influences, Green is well aware of the importance of adapting his lyrics from the immediacy of the live battle circuit to cater to the depth of the album format.

"The thing with hip-hop is if you take a lot of rap songs outside of rap then they aren't great songs, whereas with something like country if you take them outside of the genre then the song-writing skills are still incredible, he rationalises. And I'd like to take those skills into rap."

So while never completely leaving behind the entertaining punchlines that have characterised his battle persona, the album will take in everything from songs about his estranged parents to wish lists of things to do before he passes away and the plight of the average stereotypical man in the eyes of the average stereotypical female (see Stereotypical Man, complete with the catchphrase "'Til my breathings done I'll be reading page three of The Sun").

As Green concludes of his new goals "I wouldn't be happy to sell just 30,000 copies of my album. I don't think that there's anything wrong with aiming above that, giving people an album they can relate to, and wanting to be successful."

Astronaut
Professor Green Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

She was on her way home he was lying away,
Assistance from others had never led her astray,
She had a good day,
Was persuaded by summer air to walk instead of getting the train,
The decision so innocent as innocent as she,
Uncorrupted so innocent and sweet
An innocence interrupted by an incident
A ? in two people so different in belief

She came from the depths and ascend, bumped into he who dement,
Intent on inflicting the same pain that been led
The decision made by he for she had never consented.
And unprovoked the most venomous attack,
He took from her that which she can't get back,
And left her with that that she can't get rid of
Which is why whenever it's time for lift out

She builds a rocket out of stars in her spoon,
Straps up, the only way to make it to the moon,
Dear god, I hope you haven't forgot
This young brave astronaut
A habit she never wanted,
A pain she needed numbing,
And she'd rather feel nothing than the pain
An evening she can't forget,
Memories she can't stomach
Not for nothing but I need a inner vain
Friends she ignored till the phone stopped ringing,
Till her door stopped knocking,
Her door she only opens to let him in,
But she has no money so she lets him come
You can take that either away

A window she rarely opens so she can see the day,
Her stove she only uses to heat her spoon,
For her the only way she can reach the moon.
She builds a rocket out of stars in her spoon,
Straps up, the only way to make it to the moon,
Dear god, I hope you haven't forgot
This young brave astronaut

Looking up, looking up, looking up for the young brave astronaut
Give it up, give it up, give it up for the young brave astronaut
I know that you're busy but any time you got,
God please make a visit,
To the young, to the young, to the young,
To the young brave astronaut

She opens the window for a glimpse out
And heats a spoon over the stove
Feels a familiar sting and then slips out
With a window that isn't quite closed
With the window open and the stove still lit,
Along with the rain came a gust of wind,
Which blew the fire out,
Gas still running and her still breathing the gas in.

She builds a rocket out of stars in her spoon,
Straps up, the only way to make it to the moon,

Dear god, I hope you haven't forgot
This young brave astronaut

Overall Meaning

The song "Astronaut" by Professor Green tells a story about a girl who was the victim of a violent attack. The first verse sets the scene, describing her innocent decision to walk home instead of taking the train which leads to her encounter with the attacker. The second verse explores the aftermath of the attack and the emotional pain that comes with it. The girl turns to drugs as a coping mechanism, building a "rocket out of stars in her spoon" and using it as the only way to reach the moon and escape the pain.

The choruses repeat the phrase "Dear god, I hope you haven't forgot/This young brave astronaut" in a plea for help and hope for the girl. The last verse takes a dark turn, describing how the girl's drug use leads to a potentially fatal accident as she accidentally leaves the gas on while using drugs.

Line by Line Meaning

She was on her way home he was lying away,
She was heading home while he was in a different state of mind, potentially struggling with addiction or other issues.

Assistance from others had never led her astray,
She had always trusted the help of others and it had never let her down before.

She had a good day,
She was having a positive day before the incident occurred.

Was persuaded by summer air to walk instead of getting the train,
She was influenced by the nice weather to take a walk instead of using public transportation.

The decision so innocent as innocent as she,
The decision she made to walk was a simple and innocent one.

Uncorrupted so innocent and sweet
She was pure and innocent before the incident happened.

An innocence interrupted by an incident
Her innocence was taken away from her due to a traumatic incident.

A ? in two people so different in belief
There was a conflict between two people who had contrasting beliefs or backgrounds.

She came from the depths and ascend, bumped into he who dement,
She had been through difficult times but was starting to feel better until she ran into someone who had issues.

Intent on inflicting the same pain that been led
The other person wanted to hurt her in the same way they had been hurt before.

The decision made by he for she had never consented.
She did not give permission for the other person to hurt her.

And unprovoked the most venomous attack,
The attack was sudden and vicious without any warning or reason.

He took from her that which she can't get back,
The incident took away something from her that she can never regain.

And left her with that that she can't get rid of
She was left with something that she cannot escape from, likely trauma or PTSD.

Which is why whenever it's time for lift out
This is why she turns to drugs to escape her pain and trauma.

She builds a rocket out of stars in her spoon,
She uses drugs (possibly heroin) to escape reality and the pain she feels.

Straps up, the only way to make it to the moon,
She injects the drug into her arm, which gives her an intense high and temporary escape from reality.

Dear god, I hope you haven't forgot
This is a plea to a higher power to not forget about this person who is struggling.

This young brave astronaut
The person who is struggling with addiction is described as a brave astronaut trying to escape their pain.

A habit she never wanted,
The person never wanted to become addicted but felt they had no other way to deal with their trauma.

A pain she needed numbing,
The person uses drugs to numb the emotional pain they feel from the trauma.

And she'd rather feel nothing than the pain
The person would prefer to feel nothing at all than to feel the emotional pain of the trauma.

An evening she can't forget,
The traumatic incident is constantly on her mind and she cannot forget it.

Memories she can't stomach
The memories of the incident are too painful for her to bear.

Not for nothing but I need a inner vain
The person is looking for relief from the pain they feel on an internal level, likely through drugs.

Friends she ignored till the phone stopped ringing,
She has lost touch with her friends due to her addiction, and they have stopped trying to reach out to her.

Till her door stopped knocking,
People have stopped coming by to see her or check on her, likely because she has pushed them away.

Her door she only opens to let him in,
She only lets in the drug dealer who supplies her with the drugs she uses to escape her trauma.

But she has no money so she lets him come
She allows the dealer to come see her even though she cannot pay for the drugs, which shows how desperate she is for relief.

You can take that either away
This is an ambiguous line that could mean that the singer doesn't care about what is taken away from them, possibly their life or freedom.

A window she rarely opens so she can see the day,
She keeps a window closed most of the time but opens it occasionally to see the outside world.

Her stove she only uses to heat her spoon,
She uses the stove to heat up the spoon she uses to prepare the drugs.

For her the only way she can reach the moon.
Using drugs is the only way she can escape the pain and trauma she feels and reach a state of euphoria.

Looking up, looking up, looking up for the young brave astronaut
This is a call to look up (in a spiritual sense) and send positive energy to the person who is struggling with addiction.

Give it up, give it up, give it up for the young brave astronaut
This is an encouragement to support and acknowledge the person who is struggling with addiction.

I know that you're busy but any time you got,
This line is directed at a higher power or deity, asking for them to take time to help the struggling person.

God please make a visit,
This is a plea for divine intervention to help the person who is struggling.

To the young, to the young, to the young,
This is a plea for help for younger people who are struggling with addiction or trauma.

To the young brave astronaut
This is a reminder to continue supporting the young person who is struggling with addiction and trauma.

She opens the window for a glimpse out
She briefly opens the window to look outside and feel some sense of freedom or hope.

And heats a spoon over the stove
She prepares the drugs as a way to escape reality and her pain.

Feels a familiar sting and then slips out
The drugs cause a familiar feeling and she slips into an altered state of consciousness.

With a window that isn't quite closed
She leaves the window slightly open to let in a bit of fresh air or light.

With the window open and the stove still lit,
She leaves the stove on and the window open, creating a dangerous situation.

Along with the rain came a gust of wind,
The wind and rain outside creates a potential hazard with the open window and lit stove.

Which blew the fire out,
The wind extinguishes the flame on the stove.

Gas still running and her still breathing the gas in.
The gas from the stove is still running and she inhales it, leading to potential danger or unconsciousness.

Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: SHAHID KHAN, LUDOVICO EINAUDI, STEVEN MANDERSON, EMELI SANDE

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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