Professor Green - Professor Green Loves Jamaica

Professor Green loves the "wicked vibe" of Jamaica.

The 'Read All About It' hitmaker says the Caribbean country has heavily influenced his music and life, even though he hasn't spent much time there, because its culture is heavily prevalent in the part of London where he grew up.

He said: "I think the Jamaicans have a wicked vibe, they always have and they have always influenced even more than the music in England with a huge Jamaican presence, I grew up in Hackney so I've been aware of it since I was born."

Green - real name Paul Manderson - was at the Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange project on Saturday (12.11.11), where London swapped with Jamaica to host an authentic street party with a steel drum band, and sets by Ms Dynamite, Basement Jaxx and traditional musicians from the country, including mento band The Jolly Boys and dancehall artist Assassin.

Simon Ratcliffe of Basement Jaxx recently talked about the influence of Jamaica on the dance duo.

He said: "We had 'Jump N' Shout', that was probably our take on mixing our world with Jamaica, with MC Slarta John on it, but that was 12 years ago!

"So if we were to do something in that vain, we'd have to do it in a very different way, but yeah, it'd definitely be interesting, it would make a lot of sense for us to do something like that again."