I’m a chart-topping rapper but didn’t earn a penny for 10 years – I worried about paying my mortgage, says Pro Green
HE’S sold over three million records and had a number one single but mainstream success didn’t bring Professor Green the riches you might expect.
The UK rapper and mental health advocate – real name Stephen Manderson – spent sleepless nights worrying about paying his mortgage as he contended with record deals that saw the money flow back out as quickly as it came in.
He’s now teamed up with British Gas Energy Trust after a study found 27 percent of adults are struggling with their mental wellbeing because of the cost-of-living crisis, rising to 70 percent of 18-24-year-olds and 52 percent of 25-34-year-olds.
The findings also come as a recent music industry study found nearly half of musicians earn less than £14,000 a year – less than half of the UK’s average salary.
“It’s not lucrative for most people,” admits Green, reflecting on his own industry. “I didn’t really earn a penny apart from the odd battle where I won a grand from the age of 18 to 28, and even then I was in a record deal prior to signing to Virgin, which was independent and with a sister company and my publisher, and everyone was just so happy things were moving and at such a pace as we were signing to Virgin I was the only one putting my hand up saying ‘hey, we’re still in a record deal’.
“So my Virgin deal was 82 (percent) 18(percent). Obviously the 18 percent is my share, that’s what I have to pay 50 percent of all costs out of before I can then earn money off my recordings, which is why there’s been no earnings off of recording during that whole time I was with Virgin.”
Green estimates he also paid more than £800,000 to his former label in non recoverable income, adding further to his financial woe.
He continued: “This is just a little lesson for anyone who wants to get into music, but then I was in two deals so I had to pay my way out of the other deal which meant I wasn’t earning anything even when I was earning.
“Everyone’s situation is unique. Some people get huge advances but then that’s a lot of pressure that comes with that. You have a record that doesn’t perform and then all of a sudden that record label’s not looking at you too kindly, so the idea of an artist earning 14 grand a year is not surprising to me because for 10 years I didn’t earn a penny.”
Unlike other professions, the music world is full of uncertainty and hard work alone is no guarantee of success.
“It’s not like you’re in a job with a bank or a company or a newspaper and they’re stepping stones ‘OK, start here as an intern and build my way up’. It doesn’t work like that, man,” explains Green. “Ultimately, it comes down to is my song released on the right day? Is it on the right playlist? Are the right people hearing it? Is the right influencer using it? And does it catch fire? Because that’s going to be the significant shift in whether or not you make money, otherwise you get a job within the industry, right?”
The rapper’s music has always had a cathartic effect on him, no more so than on his biggest single to date, Read All About It ft Emeli Sandé, the number one single written about his dad’s tragic suicide.
But while his output has allowed him to process personal trauma, the pain of his lifelong gut health issues and get a handle on his own struggles with depression and anxiety, the industry itself has impacted on his mental health.
“It just starts to feel unfair,” he continues. “You’re doing crazy, crazy hours. Sometimes getting offstage at God knows what time of night and having to be driven back to London to do TV first thing in the morning to promote this single you’re putting out on some label you’re then having to give an extra 25 percent of your money to on top of everything else.
“You’ve got 20 percent going to management, 10 percent to the agent then you’ve got to pay for the tour bus, catering, hotels, all this stuff and then go and give 43 percent to the taxman and then you’ve got to pay your accountant, so you’re like ‘how have I got myself into this situation? How do I pay my mortgage? I’m the one that’s flat out everyone else is sleeping fine. I’m the one that’s falling into bad patterns finding a way to get myself to sleep at times’.
“Your mental health does start to deteriorate. You have to find a way through it without becoming bitter and jaded because these are just parts, give or take, of any business. They might look a little bit different in the music business but all music comes with a challenge and you’ve got to try and keep your head on our shoulders the best you can. And I didn’t always manage that because I was a human and I was learning as I was going.”
Now 39 and father to two-year-old son Slimane, Green hopes his involvement with the British Gas Post Office Pop-Up campaign will cut through to the younger demographic most in need of help with their finances and mental health.
The pop-ups, of which there are 120 nationwide, provide free, confidential money and energy advice, and access to energy debt grants of up to £1,500 (£2,000 in exceptional circumstances).
“There’s real good to be done here,” he says. “Especially with the mental health impact of the cost of living crisis inequalities in society pose a threat by way of significant increase in mental ill health. Poverty is front and centre of that because constant high levels of stress due to struggling to make ends meet and living in an overcrowded or unsafe house, worries of crime all of those things impact a person’s mental health. Stress, anxiety and depression can all be caused by money worries and what that does it becomes a self perpetuating cycle and makes it harder to get up and make money because all of those things impact your ability to do so.
“I would hope my voice still reaches 18 to 24-year-olds [laughs], this is where I come in and so some good. The majority of people who access this fund or help form British Gas Energy Fund thus far are 35 to 55, yet 70 percent of 18 to 24-year-olds are struggling. Is it just they’re not aware? Or are they burying their heads in the sand, as kids generally do a little bit more than older adults and are more wiling to run up debt and live in that tense state of fear and anxiety.”
As well as his mental health advocacy, Green is hard at work on what will be his first album in 10 years and insists he’s lost none of the fire for his craft that catapulted him to fame in his 20s.
Record deal wrangles and the coronavirus pandemic may have combined to slow his career progression, but if this year’s Nervous EP is anything to go by, the wait will have been worth it.
He says: “There would have been an album before now if it wasn’t for Covid, but I’m looking forward to getting this one out. There’s some really really special records on there. The last song to come out from the EP, Selfish Love, I’d have liked that to have been on the album, but there’s another Selfish Love [laughs].”
To find your nearest British Gas Post Office Pop-Up, visit: https://www.britishgas.co.uk/post-office-pop-up-advice
To find out more about The British Gas Energy Trust, visit: https://www.britishgas.co.uk/energy/british-gas-energy-trust.html