Professor Green

Opera House, Cork Thurs 8pm €29 021-4270022

Once upon a time the words “English” and “rapper” had no meaning whatsoever; these days we’re overrun with them. Professor Green, though, is a cut above the rest – 28-year- old Stephen Manderson first came to mainstream attention when, following a sequence of wins at various freestyle/MC events in his native London, he was signed to The Streets/ Mike Skinner’s label The Beats.

Picked up by Virgin/EMI when The Beats went belly-up, Green released in quick succession the albums Alive Till I’m Dead (2010) and At Your Inconvenience (2011), each of which consolidated his position as a rapper who articulately expressed subjects close to his heart (the suicide of his father, family dysfunction, and so on).

Green follows his Cork gig with a show in Dublin’s Olympia on April 21st. Expect hands in the air, mouthed lyrics and a sense that commercial hip-hop has found itself yet another hero.

Can't see that? Catch this:

Ryan Adams Thurs, Dublin