"Monster" is a song by British rapper Professor Green

Professor Green

Professor Green , better known by his stage name Professor Green, is a British rapper. He was signed to The Beats, a record label run by Mike Skinner and Ted Mayhem, until 12 February 2008, as the label went under. He won the inaugural JumpOff MySpace £50,000 battle rap tournament in July 2008...

. This is the third single from his second album, Alive Till I'm Dead

Alive Till I'm Dead

Alive Till I'm Dead has received positive reviews from music critics, with BBC Music stating that the album is "As fizzy, dramatic and inventive as pop should be without losing his initial grime edge". Paul MacInnes of The Guardian gave a similar review, agreeging that it was "Pop music, yes, but...

, featuring uncredited vocals from British singer

Singing

Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...

 and rapper

Rapping

Rapping refers to "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics". The art form can be broken down into different components, as in the book How to Rap where it is separated into “content”, “flow” , and “delivery”...

 Example. It was released on 1 October 2010 by digital download

Music download

A music download is the transferral of music from an Internet-facing computer or website to a user's local computer. This term encompasses both legal downloads and downloads of copyright material without permission or payment...

 and on 4 October 2010 by CD single

Compact Disc

The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...

. The song was added to the BBC Radio 1

BBC Radio 1

BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...

 A-List.

Critical reception

Fraser McAlpine of BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

Chart Blog gave the song a positive review stating:

Oh now this IS interesting. A Professor Green song which is not largely dependent on a sample from an older hit song, a chance for him to stand on his own two feet and put something which is wholly new out there into the world, now that he's got a bit of a platform to stand on and a LOT of people are listening. Here's the song which is designed to firmly cement the Prof in everyone's mind as a force for good in the world of music. Here's the song which says he can do it on his own. Here's the song which...well...does anyone else feel like something is missing?

I can't quite put my finger on what it is, either. I mean the Prof is the Prof innee? You either like that evil pixie voice of his or you don't. And if you're at all offended by his one-liners - the Peter Andre one is a particular favourite of mine - you'll have been just as irked by 'Just Be Good To Green'. But I'm not and I wasn't.

And it's not the lack of Lily Allen which is the root of the problem either. She did bring a fantastic face-slapping counterpoint to his daft bragging, but I think we're all old enough and clever enough to deal with someone showing off, aren't we? .

Music Video

At the beginning of the music video a sample from Professor Greens earlier songs Jungle can be heard on the radio playing in the background.
The video for "Monster" was shot on location at Carnesky's Ghost Train based on Blackpool

Blackpool

Blackpool is a borough, seaside town, and unitary authority area of Lancashire, in North West England. It is situated along England's west coast by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre estuaries, northwest of Preston, north of Liverpool, and northwest of Manchester...

's Promenade, Majority of the scenes are shot on location but some scenes are shot on the Promenade showing the 2010 Illuminations

Blackpool Illuminations

Blackpool Illuminations is an annual Lights Festival, founded in 1879 and first switched on 18 September that year, held each autumn in the English seaside resort of Blackpool on the Fylde Coast in Lancashire....

.

Track listings

Chart performance

"Monster" first debuted on the UK Singles Chart

UK Singles Chart

The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...

 at number 86 following strong downloading from the album, Alive Till I'm Dead, the single also debuted at number 26 on the UK R&B Chart

UK R&B Chart

The Official UK R&B Chart is a forty-position R&B/Hip-Hop chart compiled by The Official UK Charts Company. Although the chart does not receive any airplay, its compilation is viewed on BBC Radio 1's website and publications such as ChartsPlus and Music Week...

. On 3 October 2010, the single re-entered the UK Top 100 at number 51 and climbed to number 13 on the R&B Chart. Upon release, the single climbed to number 29; marking Professor Green's third consecutive Top 40 single and Example's fifth consecutive Top 40 single. > > > >

Chart (2010)	Peak position
European Hot 100 Singles	83

Release history

Region	Date	Format	Label	Catalogue
United Kingdom	3 October 2010	Digital download	Virgin Records Virgin Records Virgin Records is a British record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. The company grew to be a worldwide music phenomenon, with platinum performers such as Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, Janet Jackson, Culture Club, Lenny...	B0041ON35U
	4 October 2010	CD single