Bad Prof

For a "crook" rapper whose best punch lines aren't fit for a family newspaper, Prof can be disarmingly warm-spirited and silly.

The Minneapolis native is the kind of player who fantasizes, "We could put a skyscraper where my garage is, 'vator to the top and give each other massages." He boasts, "I'm so Rick Ross, I'm such a big boss," even if a real gangster, never mind a more earnest play-actor like Ross, would never say that.

Prof is clowning for an audience he imagines is more innocent than he is. You can find YouTube footage of him belly-flopping onto the bananas at a supermarket, a gesture as true to his giddy nihilism as the claim, on his latest album, "King Gampo," that "I ain't hard, but I'm willing to bet I'm harder than you."

His version of being image-conscious is posing on the cover eating spaghetti and chocolate in a filthy bathtub -- a homage to a scene from the cult movie "Gummo." You have to wonder: How much of Jacob Anderson, 27, is in Prof and his music?

"A lot of my fun songs are things that if I had the permission or know-how, I'd definitely do," he says, speaking over the phone from his tour van on the highway recently. "I'd pour Champagne on elderly folks all day long if I could."

Prof is already a legend live, having whipped a crowd into a frenzy during 2010's Soundset festival ("I felt good," he remembers, "like I'm part of this movement now") and toured this year with Atmosphere. "King Gampo," in which he invested thousands of dollars to give away free copies at shows, is getting play on college radio.

Part of Prof's appeal is satire -- he rhymes like Humpty Hump reincarnated as Slim Shady with Nicki Minaj's multiple vocal personalities. But he's clear-eyed about a violent past he doesn't mythologize too much.

The title "Gampo" goes back to a childhood friend in south Minneapolis whose name became legendary and synonymous in his circle with shoplifting and other trouble. "I don't even know if he's alive," Prof said. "It had to do with poverty. There were so many times when we were hungry, and we'd just go steal some [stuff]."

Turned around by Goodie Mob's "Soul Food," Prof eventually went on to form his own hip-hop group with a friend out of Minneapolis South High School, producer-rapper Rahzwell, and attend the Minneapolis College of Art and Design on a scholarship after submitting graffiti-inspired work.

His 2007 album with Rahzwell and DJ Fundo, "Project Gampo," was produced by Atlanta's Beatchefs, and Prof held a CD release party in the Georgia capital, while future Southern rap star Yelawolf appeared on the remix of his song "Rocketman."

Prof's Stophouse Music Group now includes St. Paul Slim, 84 Caprice and Ant from Atmosphere, while beats for the new album (on the Stophouse label) were contributed by the last two along with talents from all over, two of whom Prof has never met.

Yet "King Gampo" coheres on the sheer strength of Prof's endlessly inventive melodic sense, and the guiding concept that feeling like a million dollars means something different to a person who grew up with no dollars.

Prof wants it all -- a Grammy, to be a millionaire -- and he's said he'll buy his mother a nice new car when he gets it. So what does she think of his hip-hop career?