Grown up side of Green

PROFESSOR Green is having a terrible time of it lately. Given his image as a rapid-firing rapper with a pithy one-liner about some celebrity or other always on the tip of his tongue, and a troublesome past he's talked about at length, you might think the things bothering him at the moment were slightly less wholesome than they are.

This week, however, it's his dogs and his new lawn driving him up the wall.

"£980 I paid for that turf, including the laying of it," he says, exasperated. "I have to water it for an hour a day and no one is allowed to walk on it. And we've just got the dogs back from the kennel, so they're all over the place. And Millie's away this week, so I'm doing it all on my own..." he trails off.

Indeed, his beloved dogs – a Doberman with severe separation anxiety and a Staffordshire Bull Terrier – have just returned after a few months being looked after elsewhere. He's nearing the end of a renovation in south London, which has gone on longer than expected and cost more than he and wife Millie Mackintosh, the former Made In Chelsea star, wanted it to. Talking to him about skirting boards, plastering and his new kitchen, Green sounds like one of the deflated homeowners Kevin McCloud encounters each week on Grand Designs.

In fact, he and McCloud have struck up an unlikely friendship since meeting at the Baftas a couple of years ago, with the Channel 4 presenter apparently offering the odd piece of advice during the restoration. Maybe Green, real name Stephen Manderson, should hire an assistant?

"I don't think I could afford it after the amount we've spent on the house," he says. "And in any case, I like doing all this stuff, the laundry and walking the dogs and all of that. Sweeping the leaves is doing my head in at the moment, though. We haven't had enough dry days, so they're not easy to get up."

When he released Alive Till I'm Dead, his 2010 debut, it was highly unlikely Green ever thought he'd be having these conversations. A few years previously, he'd become one of the best battle rappers in London, and was the champion at a night called Lyric Pad, winning an unprecedented and still-unbeaten seven contests in a row. He was later signed to Mike Skinner of The Streets' label, The Beats, and started releasing mixtapes.

This period is, of course, overshadowed by a frightening incident outside an east London nightclub in 2009 when Green was attacked with a bottle and was stabbed in the neck. Now, five years later, his life is very different, although trouble does still find him.

In 2013, he injured his leg when he was crushed between two cars as he crossed the road.

Then in March this year, he was fined and banned from driving for 12 months after pleading guilty to drink-driving. The court was told the star got behind the wheel of his Mercedes after being robbed of his £40,000 Rolex watch on the doorstep of his home in the early hours. He got into his car because he feared Millie was being chased by the attacker, according to Green and his defence.

He's still angry about the way he was treated – at one stage he was threatened with a charge of perverting the course of justice by officials who did not believe he had been robbed, or that he feared Millie might be attacked.

He says now: "They basically wanted to hear that I'd faked the robbery, to cover up the drink driving. But the police were never there, so if I'd wanted to cover that up, I just wouldn't have told them, I'd have put the car back on the drive and gone into my house. No one would've been any the wiser. The trial by media and being called a liar were the hardest things to take. And of course, the fact the charge for perverting the course of justice was dropped immediately is never reported."

These incidents meant Green's forthcoming tour was delayed, twice. He admits losing his focus so much that he says as soon as his tour is done next month, he's going straight back into the studio to start work on his fourth album.

"It would be nice to write a happy album for once. I'm not sure what people would think, but it would be good for my mental state. It would give me a chance to write without having to draw on bad things that have happened, so I could just explore ideas.

"I'm a bit sick of all the ups and downs. I'm getting to a point in my life where I just want to chill out. I want to work, I don't want to be lazy, but I want to just work, and just be married and just live and just walk the dogs, without all the stuff and drama that seems to go with it."

As a vocal campaigner for mental health and anxiety awareness, having been a sufferer of both, he's aware of the pitfalls that are so easy to fall into. Earlier this year, he wrote a powerful article for The Guardian about dealing with depression, drawing on his experience with his dad's suicide when he was 24, urging young men not to suffer in silence when it comes to mental health issues.

"I need to understand what it is I do that makes my life more difficult," he says today. "A lot of the time, we don't realise what we do that makes things hard, so we have to take a step back and work it out. One thing I know is I've learned my lesson from having too much time on my hands. I've got my focus back and I don't want to lose that."

• Professor Green's album Growing Up In Public is out now. He tours to Newcastle's O2 Academy on Saturday, November 29. For more information, visit professorgreen.co.uk