British Eminem? Nay mate… This chap is much better than that…

Remember the first time you switched on the Tellybox onto MTV or VH1, or whatever music station you peruse half baked and pissed as a student at three in the afternoon, when there was bollocks all else on – and there, for the entire word to see was the Blonde, skinny ghetto fabulous Slim Shady himself, Eminem, confusing everyone with his classy, classic hip-hop – but all the while being as white as your mums Hovis loaf? Can you remember the internal dialogue you had with yourself deciding and arguing and screaming at yourself as you struggled to decide if the crazy bastard was – in fact – rubbish or a Godsend shot in the arm for a genre of music far to long dying from its own self inflicted gangland bullet wounds? I do… Well… Remember how that turned out, when Eminem was confirmed as a visionary, and the world threw itself at his every whim? I do… Well, prepare the do it again. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the fabulous, the amazing, the catch your breath at his brilliance… PROFESSOR GREEN. Bona fide as the UK’s legitimate answer to Marshal Mathers the IIIrd, and genuinely scary talent of quite epic proportion. Prof Green explode sinto the cultural zeitgeist, riding on the success of Example and PLAN B, and waltzing into the public eye with his ever-so cheeky songs, and his ever-so cheeky little direct to camera asides… But what is not given with the great singles I NEED YOU TONITE and Lily Allen co-starring JUST BE GOOD TO ME, is just how lyrically, musically and socially switched on this fella is… The beats come across like Eminem, the raps are like Eminem, but somehow, SOMEHOW, there is a fat greasy line of deep originality to every song on this album, and the moments when he magpies a line or riff or a second from another song do nothing but highlight the strikingly brilliant moments where he is on fire all on his own – and burning the dance-floor away with his rhymes and his stunning voice. This is a fiercely, ferociously dazzling debut… I suggest you wear asbestos pants and headphones when listening to it as this shit… It’s hot… Highlights include emotional gut wrencher WHERE DO WE GO – all about what ifs and relationships, and the Examples co-starring MONSTER, which does a good line in look in the mirror self-hate… Prof green has marked the appearance of a fresh new scary good talent with this album… A bit like your uncle Johns Rottweiler puppy, big, scary and fucking brutal… but rub his belly and give him a treat and you’ll find a wealth of hidden, nuanced fun… ALIVE UNTIL I’M DEAD. I hope he stays alive for a fair while yet, because this album is like cake… And I want fucking more.

Andi James Chamberlain