Professor Green: My fear that I’ve been forgotten by fans

Professor Green fears music fans might have forgotten about him after three years without an album.

The 30-year-old Hackney rapper will release his third album next month but believes the industry is changing so rapidly that he’ll need to prove himself all over again.

He spoke as he launched Pardon Me, a new song with producer-of-the-moment Naughty Boy for the Lynx Peace campaign, which seeks to raise awareness of World Peace Day on September 21.

He told the Standard that the trend of artists linking up with brands was now a fact of life, saying: “The music industry has diversified so much. There are so many more mediums now so I just think you’ve got to embrace that or get left behind. You see that with record labels — it’s taken them a while to catch up. I’m not sure if they have.

“The industry is going through so many rapid changes. Even in the few years I haven’t released an album things have changed. It’s scary coming back.”

Professor Green’s new single Lullaby is about his experiences with depression after his father’s suicide in 2008. He wrote about his struggles in a piece earlier this week and has been overwhelmed by the response.

The rapper, who was joined at the event at The Vaults in Waterloo by wife Millie Mackintosh, added: “The response to that has been phenomenal. I’ve got a lot going on at the moment — Lullaby, this song and also [new song] Hugs and Kisses featuring Stormzy and Fekky. But I don’t want to slow down. I want to frontload these projects as heavily as I can. Because people may have forgotten me, so I’m going to give them a reminder!”