stage name Professor Green, is an English rapper. He was signed to The Beats, a record label run by Mike Skinner and Ted Mayhem, until 12 February 2008, when the label terminated. He rose to success upon winning the inaugural JumpOff MySpace £50,000 battle rap tournament in July 2008. Following this in 2009, Manderson worked with Lily Allen on her 2009 concert tour. In 2006 he released his first mixtape, Lecture #1. After his first record label, The Beats, went under he produced on his own an EP called The Green EP. After he toured with Lily Allen he was signed to Virgin Records and released "I Need You Tonight", based around INXS's "Need You Tonight" through the label. He also joined up with Lily Allen in "Just Be Good To Green" which is based around The SOS Band's "Just Be Good to Me". Green released his debut album, Alive Till I'm Dead, on 19 July 2010, which features guest vocals from Lily Allen, Emeli Sandé, Fink, Labrinth and Example, as well as The Streets, who used to own The Beats. Manderson was born in Hackney, East London on 27 November 1983. and was raised by his grandmother, Patricia, from the age of one on the Northwold Estate. His father, Peter, committed suicide in 2008 in Brentwood, Essex. Green has stated previously he feels his father's death has made him a better person, saying: "I'd had a turbulent relationship with my dad. He was always in and out of my life and I was raised by my grandmother Patricia. Mum, who had me at 16, was there for the most part but my grandmother was the most influential. I last saw my dad alive on my 18th birthday. He came over to see me but after that we just stopped talking. There was no real reason. He hanged himself and I had to go and identify the body in the morgue." Manderson also talked about his father's death in the song "Goodnight" from the album "Alive Till I'm Dead" and about the problems with his family in "Read All About It" from the album "At Your Inconvenience". Manderson said he "fell in to rapping accidentally" as he was at a party at a friend's house, where everyone was freestyling, and he got put on the spot and he said it worked for him. Then, on seeing a flyer for a freestyle night called LyricPad, he decided to go. Despite having no experience freestyling, he won. After going to LyricPad again the next month, a scout from JumpOff spotted him. From there he battled and won every week, eventually becoming Champion. As of June 2011, he remains the only MC to win seven times in a row, a feat he accomplished twice. At JumpOff, Mike Skinner from The Streets saw and signed Manderson up to his record label, The Beats, although Manderson is never very complimentary when asked about his experiences there. Manderson gained the alias of 'Professor Green', the 'Green' part derives from the slang of cannabis, and he continued to sell cannabis until he was signed to The Beats. On 23 May 2009 Manderson was attacked with the neck of a broken bottle in the Cargo nightclub in Shoreditch, East London. Manderson has a tattoo of the word "lucky" where he was stabbed with a bottle, although this was prior to the attack on his neck. His assailant was later convicted of the crime and sentenced to eight years in prison. It emerged in December 2011 that Manderson is dating Millie Mackintosh