Hey how are you, what’s going on?
All good man, just out walking the dog.
When did you first start rapping?
When I was eighteen.
Had you always been a big hip-hop head?
Yeah since I was like nine or ten, Biggie was the first artist I really started properly listening to.
Who else were you listening to when you were growing up in those early years?
Jay-Z. Wu-tang. All the kind of ‘Golden Era’ stuff really. American hip-hop from like ’93 through to ’97.
What do you enjoy more, the spontaneity of the freestyle battle raps or the structured process of creating studio tracks for albums?
You know what, the spontaneity exists in all aspects, it’s just different in the studio, because, you know, you get that one idea that ends up writing the whole song. So it’s all kind of one and the same to me, I approach everything with the same kind of head space.
So when you’re working on stuff in the studio do you have bars written down on paper to take into the booth with you when you go to record?
No, what I’ll do when I get the beat I’ll go round stuff in my head. Wait until I got my first two bars, make that into four, sometimes I’ll get an eight if I’m lucky and then I’ll put that down so I don’t forget it, and then by the time I got that eight bars in my head I’ll start on the next two, and the next two after that. So by the time I’ve written my verse, I’d say I don’t need to take the paper in the booth because I’ve gone through it so many times that it’s in my head. It might change a little bit from what it was on the paper when I get in the booth but that’s normally just, you know, it usually ends up fitting better that way. I think that way you just get more of a feeling for the track rather than just forcing something.
Do you ever try to cater for your underground fans differently to your mainstream fans? Like, your F64 is worlds apart in lyrical content from your successful commercial song I Need You Tonight is this intentional?
I’m still rapping the same on both tracks. The thing is, I can’t rap one way all the time because I have different ideas and as a person there’s different sides to me. The foundations of the song and the F64 are the same. Rhyme patterns, flows, and there’s a little bit of humour involved. I couldn’t have rapped like I did on my F64 on I Need You Tonight because the concept of I Need You Tonight was of a girl giving me the run-a-round. So I can’t talk about ‘pissing in mouthwash’ in that song, you get what I’m saying? So it’s different sides of me, I don’t consciously try to please anyone. I rap for myself.
The last few months must have been pretty whirlwind for you, pretty much since last summer, how are you coping with the new, high-profile fame that you’ve been experiencing. I saw you rapping with Tubes the other week on Soccer AM, how are you finding these types of new experiences?
It’s crazy man, you know. I’ve been working at this for years but it’s all changed over night. At the same time I haven’t come out of nowhere, I’ve put in a lot of years into this. It’s funny, I was in a club not so long ago and I thought, these people don’t know me yet, and now, it’s a very different situation, it’s weird, like, it’s definitely taken some adjusting to. My face is bait now. I was number one in the TV charts for like two weeks and I was very high up in it for I don’t know how many weeks, so when I walk about now, I feel the difference. And’s it cool, because in the most part it’s love but at the same time it’s a bit scary. It’s weird because so many people know my face and I don’t know them from Adam. It’s gonna take some getting used to and I think we the next single [Just Be Good to Green] that’ll become even more apparent.
Your new album Alive till I’m Dead is out when?
July.
What can we expect from this?
There’s quite a lot of dark undertones but there’s enough upbeat stuff on there for it to not be depressing. Even in the darker tracks there’s a tint of humour behind them. It’s an honest record first and foremost, it’s not trying to be nothing it isn’t, I’m just trying to make the music that I like and appreciate and I listen to a lot of different music so there’s a lot of different influences on there. I’m really excited to get it out because people haven’t really had enough of me to really know what to expect.
Do you have some high-profile collaborates on the record?
Lily’s on there. Mike Skinner’s on there. Think’s on there. Emeli Sandé’s on there. I did a track with Labrinth. I’ve got a track on there too with Example which was a late addition.
What’s the next single you’re dropping?
Just Be Good To Green featuring Lily Allen.
Pro Green + Lily Allen - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U00bBjeZI3E
How did the link-up with Lily come about?
That happened through Facebook man, she just popped up on the chat and I said hello. She was somewhere in Europe at the time and had been with Skream and Benga the night before. We got onto talking about music and I mentioned that I’d paid the usage for the lyrics of Don’t Be Good To Me and she was like, ‘What? That’s my favourite song ever, let me hear it.’ I sent what I’d done over and she said, ‘why don’t you let me sing the chorus and we can perform it live together at festivals’, and that was literally that. She’s lovely, she’s a good girl, you don’t meet too many people with that sort of honesty.
I take it you’re going to have a busy summer lined up then, mashing up gigs and festivals?
Yeah man, my summer is madness. An absolute madness! Recently it has been a whirlwind. This month I’ve got something like twenty-one gigs, amongst that there’s all the promo that’s gonna start for the next single, it’s just gonna be mad. Probably the three biggest festivals I’m gonna be doing are Sonar in Barcelona, Wireless and Glastonbury.
Obviously you were a part of the now infamous ‘The Beats’ label. In those early days did you learn a lot rolling with the likes of Mike Skinner and Ted Mayhem?
I learnt a load from them days, as much how not to do things as actually how to do them if you get me [laughs]. That situation was a massive learning curve for me and although it ceased to exist, everyone involved had the best of intentions.
Do you have personal ambition to break America?
I’d love to man. William Morris who look after GaGa and that kinda level of artist are banging my door down trying to get me over there. They’ve sent over a year-long plan, like, literally a year long schedule with all the dates that they wanna book me for. I’m really interested to get over there but I’ve got business to attend with here first because I’m starting to do Europe now as well. It’s just about taking things one step at a time, and putting things in their place and making sure everyone gets the right attention and things happen at the right time.
In your F64 you open the rap with, ‘Beginning to think I might need a wifey, Dating all these women is getting kinda pricey’, I’m interested to know what is the most expensive date you’ve taken someone on?
I don’t know. I spend a lot of time in Shoreditch House and places like that which tends to end up costing quite a lot. You get a few of bottles of wine in, and you have a meal, and cocktails, and all of a sudden it can get quite dodgy.
F64 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ddj7zY9QLo
What’s Pro Green’s favourite ‘type’ of women?
Oooooh Jessica Alba would be a great representation. I don’t really go for blondes that much.
That could be bad news to some of our female readers…
But at the same time I’m not into prejudice, so if I meet the right blonde it can happen.
What do you do to relax and unwind?
I don’t get time at all at the moment. But, yeah, just mundane stuff like walking my dog, doing the washing up and the cleaning, stuff like that. You know, doing stuff where you’re not actually thinking about anything else, you just get a break from thinking about work. Like, with a nine till five there’s a shut-off point. With what we do in music, you know, my brain’s always ticking over, I’m always thinking about what I’ve got to do next and what I want to do next.
Will you be taking any notice of the World Cup?
Yeah definitely, I’ll pay it attention.
Any little prediction regarding England’s chances?
Yeah, I reckon we’ll get pretty far along the way, maybe the Semi-finals or Final. But you know it always happens that we’ll go out on penalties. It always happens.
Where can people stay up to date with the latest happenings in the world of Professor Green?
Best place would be ProfessorGreen.co.uk and that’s got links to my twitter, my Facebook, my MySpace and everything else.