The Problem With Fame: Professor Green

The Problem With...

James Smith

Society & Culture

4.9 • 9.5K Ratings

🗓️ 4 November 2025

⏱️ 112 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Rapper Professor Green joins James Smith for an unfiltered conversation about the problem with fame, the illusion of success and the hidden loneliness behind recognition. From growing up in Hackney to playing Glastonbury, Professor Green reveals how fame promised to fix everything… and nearly broke him instead. They dive into the darker side of success, the pressure to perform, the loss of privacy and the mental health toll of living as a public persona. Green opens up about his late autism and ADHD diagnosis, the self-sabotage of success and learning to rebuild a life grounded in honesty, fatherhood and self-awareness rather than applause. He explains: ◼️ Why fame magnifies your problems instead of solving them ◼️ How childhood trauma shapes ambition and anxiety ◼️ The reality of addiction, ego, and escapism in celebrity culture ◼️ Why becoming a dad finally made him stop performing ◼️ How self-understanding saved his life Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I think I've probably got more questions than answers.
0:02.0	I had this stupid idea if I became successful as a musician that I'd be absolved of all of the problems I had in my life. It was the year I was to get married. It was also the year that my third album was meant to come out. It would have been three albums in three years. And it was also the year that I was playing the period stage at Glastonbury. We had four witnesses, CCTV, DNA.
0:21.2	There was literally no reason for me to be there.
0:23.6	This has got very dark, very quickly.
0:31.0	I want to understand the problem with fame.
0:35.6	Help me understand it.
0:37.3	I think I've probably got more questions and answers, as is often the case.
0:45.3	Problem with fame, I reckon how people handle it. I think the largest problem with fame
0:52.3	are the preconceived ideas and notions of it that people have
0:57.0	before they achieve success because that's what I ever wanted to be successful in music.
1:01.0	I didn't want to be famous.
1:03.0	The fame being a by-product and the illusion of it absolving you of all your problems up until that point.
1:11.6	So I had this stupid idea that if I became successful in music, if I became successful as a musician,
1:24.6	that I'd be absolved of all of the problems I had in my life.
1:31.4	It would be solved. Everything.
1:36.5	And it wasn't because it wouldn't be, would it?
1:39.8	Because there is no any, there is no one thing that can solve all things, or once things have happened,
1:45.0	they've happened.
1:46.0	You can't, you can't change them.
1:49.1	I think maybe when people grow up, the biggest issue we face is money.
1:53.1	First, you're young, your family, from your upbringing, even people that nowadays you
1:57.4	could consider from solid upbringings, 16, 17, 18, 19, you've got nothing.
	...

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