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 Ā£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."
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 Ā£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."
Freestyle
Professor Green Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴
So listen
Its only right, if get into some like
Ill freestyling right now
So I'm going to play a joint
It's a bit different though
I I I'm not going to go with the usual
Like "yeah yeah all of these beats"
I got this joint SICK, but I don't know about
I'm definitely feeling it right now
I want to see what you do over this
This is Semtex!
Ok this is a little different
Know who I be
And you ain't listening to homegrown
You're listening to potent weed
You know who I be - I'm Pro
Kick it sick even when I'm
Spitting like Mike Jones
Yo, the flows never brittle you
Can never break it i spit the realest other
Rappers are the fakest i make this up on the
Spot and keep on flowing
And no, I'm not going to stop
I'm going to keep on going
Talk my name and I'll slay you
Me and rap go together like
Kate Moss and glass tables
"Talk about Rhymefest"
Talk about Rhymefest? That's kinda easy
For starters, he rhymes dead
On the mic, his rhymes are all dead
He looks like he's growing a
Fetus inside his forehead
I'm the sickest to prove that
I'm the sickest at this
When he was born he split his mother in two
Cause his head was so big
The flow is so sick
Everybody knows Pro is no prick
And I ain't legit
And you rappers are all fags
I still got skunk right by my ball bags
Even though I'm on dial
That's a dangerous statement
Everybody understands and knows what
I'm saying is real
I'm the realest one to spit this tight
Everybody knows I rip this tonight
They'll probably rip this and put
This on internet websites i'll wreck tight
Everybody knows when I get mics
I don't stop you have to tell me to slow down
"Talk about Mike Skinner and The Streets"
Mike Skinner and The Streets
They're a dangerous influence
Drugs? Before them I wasn't into them
I'm blinded by lights like Mike is
Before I drop three of
Them speckly white things
He makes my eyes look like ten pence pieces
When he gives me pills - I'm
Joking I shouldn't say this
You're all laughing and making
It hard to spit, but drugs are hard to quit
Especially when you've been smoking since
The age of 13
Everybody knows me from a yout, I burned weed
That's how I got the name
I'm in this game cause I can
Do it - it's easy to me it's like fluid
Flowing through my veins that's
How consistent it is
Everybody knows I rip when I spit
I'm the sickest shit yo, I'm not funny
I spit hot shit like my
Arse does after a curry
I'm the illest in here
Everybody knows I ain't no queer
But some people say I'm gay
Some say I'm a racist
I say they should shut they
Mouth and not say shit
I just spray this, the illest with a flow
You don't know me
I'm still the illest that you know
Yo talk about the Jump Off How you won
The battles consistently, 7 weeks
Like 10 weeks, whatever it was
Yo, I got the sickest of flows
Ain't nobody else ever won seven
Weeks in a row yo, you know that I'm nice
I won seven weeks in a row
I took the piss cause I did it twice
All these other MC's be rapping my name
I'm like "I ain't listening blud
Their rapping is lame"
They ain't nothing to me, ain't nothing to P
I'm like relaxed
At home and puffing the trees
Believe I won, I was laughing
Kicking back in the bohemian sun
What I paid to go to-
Oh wait, I mean I didn't pay to go there
I got paid to go there
Its like no fair, I'm killing it
Everyone knows-
Its only right, if get into some like
Ill freestyling right now
So I'm going to play a joint
It's a bit different though
I I I'm not going to go with the usual
Like "yeah yeah all of these beats"
I got this joint SICK, but I don't know about
I want to see what you do over this
This is Semtex!
Ok this is a little different
Know who I be
And you ain't listening to homegrown
You're listening to potent weed
You know who I be - I'm Pro
Kick it sick even when I'm
Spitting like Mike Jones
Yo, the flows never brittle you
Can never break it i spit the realest other
Rappers are the fakest i make this up on the
Spot and keep on flowing
And no, I'm not going to stop
I'm going to keep on going
Talk my name and I'll slay you
Me and rap go together like
Kate Moss and glass tables
"Talk about Rhymefest"
Talk about Rhymefest? That's kinda easy
For starters, he rhymes dead
On the mic, his rhymes are all dead
He looks like he's growing a
Fetus inside his forehead
I'm the sickest to prove that
I'm the sickest at this
When he was born he split his mother in two
Cause his head was so big
The flow is so sick
Everybody knows Pro is no prick
And I ain't legit
And you rappers are all fags
I still got skunk right by my ball bags
Even though I'm on dial
That's a dangerous statement
Everybody understands and knows what
I'm saying is real
I'm the realest one to spit this tight
Everybody knows I rip this tonight
They'll probably rip this and put
This on internet websites i'll wreck tight
Everybody knows when I get mics
I don't stop you have to tell me to slow down
"Talk about Mike Skinner and The Streets"
Mike Skinner and The Streets
They're a dangerous influence
Drugs? Before them I wasn't into them
I'm blinded by lights like Mike is
Before I drop three of
Them speckly white things
He makes my eyes look like ten pence pieces
When he gives me pills - I'm
Joking I shouldn't say this
You're all laughing and making
It hard to spit, but drugs are hard to quit
Especially when you've been smoking since
The age of 13
Everybody knows me from a yout, I burned weed
That's how I got the name
I'm in this game cause I can
Do it - it's easy to me it's like fluid
Flowing through my veins that's
How consistent it is
Everybody knows I rip when I spit
I'm the sickest shit yo, I'm not funny
I spit hot shit like my
Arse does after a curry
I'm the illest in here
Everybody knows I ain't no queer
But some people say I'm gay
Some say I'm a racist
I say they should shut they
Mouth and not say shit
I just spray this, the illest with a flow
You don't know me
I'm still the illest that you know
Yo talk about the Jump Off How you won
The battles consistently, 7 weeks
Like 10 weeks, whatever it was
Yo, I got the sickest of flows
Ain't nobody else ever won seven
Weeks in a row yo, you know that I'm nice
I won seven weeks in a row
I took the piss cause I did it twice
All these other MC's be rapping my name
I'm like "I ain't listening blud
Their rapping is lame"
They ain't nothing to me, ain't nothing to P
I'm like relaxed
At home and puffing the trees
Believe I won, I was laughing
Kicking back in the bohemian sun
What I paid to go to-
Oh wait, I mean I didn't pay to go there
I got paid to go there
Its like no fair, I'm killing it
Everyone knows-
In the song "Freestyle" by Professor Green, the lyrics depict the artist's confidence and skill in freestyling. He starts off by expressing his intention to do something different from the usual beats, showing his desire to stand out and experiment. He then proceeds to showcase his lyrical prowess by delivering quick-witted lines and clever metaphors.
The first verse asserts his identity as a talented rapper, comparing himself to the likes of Mike Jones and emphasizing his ability to maintain a strong flow. He confidently states that his flows cannot be broken or imitated, setting himself apart from other rappers who he believes are fake. Furthermore, the line "Me and rap go together like Kate Moss and glass tables" suggests a rebellious and risky nature, as both Kate Moss and glass tables are associated with drug use.
The song then transitions to Professor Green's commentary on fellow rapper Rhymefest. He playfully criticizes Rhymefest's rhyming skills and physical appearance, using humor to assert his superiority. The verse also touches on the topic of authenticity, with Professor Green claiming to be the real deal while labeling other rappers as "fags." The mention of skunk by his "ball bags" implies a connection to the drug culture, reinforcing his edgy and rebellious image.
The mention of Mike Skinner and The Streets shifts the focus to the influence of drugs. Professor Green acknowledges that the music of The Streets had an impact on his own drug use, humorously suggesting that it made his eyes look like "ten pence pieces." Despite the lighthearted tone, he admits that quitting drugs is difficult, highlighting the addictive nature of substance abuse.
The song concludes with a reference to Professor Green's victories at the Jump Off battles, where he won consistently for several weeks. This further solidifies his status as a skilled rapper and illustrates his ability to outperform his competition. He boasts about his success, dismissing other rappers as insignificant compared to him.
Overall, "Freestyle" showcases Professor Green's confidence, wit, and ability to deliver clever wordplay in his freestyle performances. The lyrics depict his rebellious and edgy persona, offering a glimpse into his experiences, influences, and successes in the music industry.
Lyrics Ā© O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
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Callum
Back after ten years and this is still dope af!
daniel howes
Still know it word for word. One of the most underrated rappers of all time fam.
Alex Critchley
Same back again see ya guys next time ā
Stuart Kelly
Amen brother
Stuart Kelly
Tbf I could listen to this beat all day.all sorts of ways to attack it!!!
Jordan Harrop
Hahahaha same
freshflowstv
Still one of the best F64's he was meant to do another one but it never happened. Would be sick to see it.Ā
freshflowstv
Maybe it will drop soon then albums meant to be out by May before his tour.Ā
Tom Norton
i remember all the words from 12 years ago.... killed it!
Rhys
I remember 13 year old me downloading this with YouTube converter to my iPod touch š absolute š„