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Professor Green ft. Ed Drewett - 'I Need You Tonight'

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Fraser McAlpine | 10:38 UK time, Thursday, 8 April 2010

Professor Green

The first and most obvious thing to point out is that this is the song which samples the chunterfunky '80s hit 'Need You Tonight' by INXS. That is how you will already know it even if you think you do not.

It's not the most interesting thing about the song though, that's the good Professor's voice and demeanour. He raps like some kind of helium duck, and yet, possibly in order to compensate for this, he puts on a very confident front. He's a living, breathing, quacking example of the idea that if you walk tall, people will act as if you are tall.

It's just as well he has chosen a career in UK hip hop, really. I doubt he'd get much call-centre work.

(. Good neck-tatts, fella.)

Now, about that sample: it's entirely appropriate that a song about naked lust by a very randy rock star should be sampled for a song about the sheer nerve of some women in turning down the advances of an extraordinarily sexually-attractive (according to him) rapper. It's that combination of the brilliantly cocky old school rock star attitude, undercut by a little bit of nowadaysy self-depreciation. A most intoxicating cocktail. Arrogant, but funny.

And you just KNOW he doesn't really mean the humbleness, especially once you've experienced the amazing thing that happens in the fadeout - AKA The Bit You Possibly Won't Hear On The Radio.

We've got past the fact that a disgruntled Profgreen cannot understand a world in which he's into a girl that is not into him, and then, in the dying seconds of the song, he suddenly squeals: "it's just a song, in real life this would never happen to me. I am a pimp. Women chase me, I do not chase women!"

Luckily for the Prof, the song disappears before he can finish the rest of his impassioned rant, which presumably goes something like this: "...and not just ugly women either! Really hot women! Like I can go into a club, right, and all the hot women will be all over me and all the munters and the boyfriends will all disappear suddenly like magic. It's amazing, I've even seen CCTV footage of it happening, I was on this desert island, right and all these hot girls in bikinis started running towards me like I was magnetic and stuff, and then I put on these glasses and oh no hang on that's a Specsavers advert spoofing a Lynx advert. Dammit!"

There is, after all, a fine line between clever and stupid.

Four starsDownload: April 12th
CD Released: April 12th

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(Fraser McAlpine)

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    I REALY like this song. And considering I normally hate rap this song does something unsual, maybe it's that sample...

    4 stars.

  • Comment number 2.

    "I ain't no eeediot, I'm no intermeeeediate"...lowers it to a three star song pour moi.

  • Comment number 3.

    4 stars! he didn't even write most of the damn song!!!!!!!!!
    His lyrics are clichéd and boring and the song screams "MAKE ME A CHART HIT GO ON I'M THE SAME AS EVERYONE ELSE SO MAKE ME NUMBER OOOOOOONNNNNNNEEEEEE!" Yep damn right it's awful, would it really hurt just to write your own backing track for once in your life as well mainstream rappers so we aren't plagued with the sound of you talking over the best part of someone elses song. You also make the original sound bad as well so job done if you were aiming for crapness.

    1/5 (Apologies for the bad writing style of my review as well it's just that this type of artist and this particular type of song does my head in.)

  • Comment number 4.

    Long time reader, first time commenter. I really like this song. I really like how it utilizes "Need You Now" but I'm pretty guilty of liking rap songs that prominately use other songs, like "Opposite of Adults" even if they are cliche like Mr Scrafton has stated. I think this song will chart in the the top 20, somewhere like 14 or 15.

    This is pretty random, but I've always wondered this. I live in America, and I never see actual CD singles in stores. I know there more prominent in the UK, but how important are they for the chart. What percentage of total sales are they? This seems like something Spirit would know, and I was really wondering.

  • Comment number 5.

    Welcome bnew12, I'm pretty sure spirit is the guy you're after for that info, but I'm just here estimate where i think this song will chart, and hopefully this time spirit will BE WRONG. Mwahahaha (:

    I figure #8-#12.

  • Comment number 6.

    Fun song, good music for a club, but it wont be remembered once it drops out of the charts. I enjoy hearing it though and think it'll get top 10.

    I think jokey lyrics are fine sometimes, not every song needs to be making a point, plus with a voice like prof green's, would you take him seriously? He does rely heavily on the sample, which i again think is fine, as long as it works.

    fun, but not amazing - 3 stars

  • Comment number 7.

    JUst heard these too on 'Live from Studio Five', and.... actually, I was surprised to hear that Professor Green sounds just like his records.

    I often find that even some rappers *COUGH COUGH TINCHY STRYDER* edit the way their vocals sound to make them more masculine or more 'typical rapper dialect'.

    And despite great scepticalities, it seems that Ed Drewett is really rather quite amazing at holding a tune. Sehr gut. (YY)

  • Comment number 8.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 9.

    Really awful track btw. Quite uninteresting choice of 80´s song to "cover", and then to put that pointless geezer rap on top of it. There´s so much better stuff out there to listen to. Why didn´t Stornoway chart? Why? Why?

    And Zoe, get a grip will you?

  • Comment number 10.

    Hello bnew12 , it's brilliant that you have been reading so long and now have the urge to comment.

    I am interested in you living in America yet obviously loving our chart.
    Are you an ex resident , or just fascinated by the British chart ?
    And do let us know your musical loves .

    In answer to your question about how many cd singles are sold to contribute to a chart position for an act , in relation to download sales , it's quite a complicated answer ,so please bear with me .

    Previously , all sales were based on physical 7inch singles, 12inch singles and Cd singles , so obviously the number was 100% as there were no downloads . The figures were compiled by recognised "chart return" shops who gave the figures to make up the official chart.

    A few years ago , this law changed , and digital download sales were able to be contribute to the grand total .

    To illustrate the effect this had on the UK chart , in 2006 , Gnarls Barkley became the first act to debut at number 1 on download sales alone . The song went to the top , before a physical cd single was even pressed .

    This astonishing achievement had dramatic effect .

    Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles challenged his listeners to a test .
    In one week he encouraged them to download an old Billie Piper song "Honey to the Bee "
    The result ?
    The next week , said song was , from out of nowhere into the official top 20 !
    The goalposts were moving , and the sales of CD singles began to dwindle.

    Indeed the UK 2009 , Christmas Number 1 , by Rage Against The Machine , did not need a cd single , and sold over 500,000 downloads.

    There are less cd singles in Uk shops than ever before , and depending on the song and the company , it depends how many physical copies are made .
    It was estimated a while back that in the week of a physical cd release ,75% of singles sales are downloads , but it varies from single to single. The more popular singles , obviously have more copies pressed to meet estimates of commercial demand .
    There are many illegal downloading websites in the Uk , so a true figure is hard to determine.

    In the last few years , there are less record shops in the Uk , as we move more to the digital age .

    The Cd album is still quite a success though .

    When JLS DEBUTED AT NUMBER 1 ,with their debut album (beating Robbie Williams dramatically into 2nd place ) , it is estimated that of the approx 200,000 copies sold only about 3-5% were downloads , so nearly all sales were physical.



    Scouting for Girls went number 1 last week with sales of just over 70,000 copies , not sure yet how many were physical .

    In contrast , Cheryl Cole entered in at Number 1 with Fight For This Love on sales of over 280,000 copies ! Estimated that a fifth of these were physical .

    Hope this helps .

  • Comment number 11.

    Good read, Spirit. That's pretty interesting stuff. :)

  • Comment number 12.

    Physical single releases still hold clout. But more with songs such as X Factor ones, where the average age of people buying is a lot older than songs such as this. Sterotyping massively here, but the younger generations see downloading as the main form of buying singles, older see the CD.. or a greater % of older generations will. So songs with huge cross generation appeal such as the X Factor song will benefit a lot more from a single release, than the next massive tune from say Chase and Status or Professor Green.

  • Comment number 13.

    Random, where´s your weekly review?
    Sorry, don´t mean to put any pressure on you, but maybe you´ve already posted it somewhere and I missed it...?

  • Comment number 14.

    Nope, the weekly review is coming a bit late this week. It will be posted on Jedward either later today or tomorrow. The good weather and lots of college work has me snowed down a bit. I am committed to doing it every week though.

  • Comment number 15.

    Professor Green looks set to bein your top ten on Sunday .

  • Comment number 16.

    GOOD! I love the use of INXS's sample within this song.

  • Comment number 17.

    The sample is amazing .. the rest is a bit meh really. Funny in places though.

  • Comment number 18.

    Ok , this leads me to my ten favourite INXS in no particular order .

    1) Need You Tonight . ( The Professor Green track is a shadow , without the INXS sample . )
    2)Mystify.
    3)Suicide Blonde .
    4)Baby Don't Cry.
    5)Taste It .
    6)Listen Like Thieves .
    7)Never Tear Us Apart .
    8)The Gift .
    9)Beautiful Girl .
    10)Heaven Sent .

    Need you Tonight hit number 2 in the UK and was a NUMBER 1 Stateside , and won 5 MTV awards for the video in 1988 .
    This group were a big deal .

  • Comment number 19.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

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