PROF Blows Roof Off Denver’s Mission Ballroom Hours After Dropping “Pain Salesmen”

Minneapolis-bred artist PROF is mid-tour and just made a stop with Yelawolf and new Slumerican signee Cowboy Killer on Friday (July 12) at Denver’s Mission Ballroom, where he put on what he believes was one of his “top five shows of all time.” Mere hours before, he dropped another new single called “Pain Salesmen” featuring rapper/producer Ren.

“I’m just grinding like I’m told,” PROF sings. “I’m just trying to sell my soul/It goes on and on it goes/It goes on and on it goes/We been fighting, running for some time now/Should we kill somebody? It’s time to find out.” From there, he appears to confront his own mental health.

“Yeah, I’ve been a well behaved artist,” he continues. “I’ve been selling my soul/I’ve been prostituting my losses/Been rocking that roll/I’ve been cranking that soldier boy/Boy, I’m hitting that road/It’s been hard to find happy/I’m clinging, I’m hitting that note/I been all out of dreams, you can’t say I didn’t try/Pains guaranteed, do you want to hurt by my side?”

PROF’s versatility as an artist continues to astound both day-one and new fans. His singing prowess combined with his stage presence and innate rhyming skills make him bona fide triple threat. In a recent interview with AllHipHop, he opened up about his split from his former label, Rhymesayers Entertainment, and how he was almost the victim of cancel culture due to a string of old tweets deemed “offensive.”

“My neighborhood had burned down,” he said in May. “We were going through a lot. My house was right next to the precinct that got pulled into all that George Floyd s### in 2020. I lived right there, so my backyard filled with ash. I had to leave my house in the middle of the night because we thought it was going to start on fire. So all these protests I’m involved with people everywhere and there was a Blackhawk helicopter above my house for four months straight and it ain’t no normal helicopter—it shakes everything. 

“Meanwhile, I’m doing work, thinking about what it is to be a white man, born and raised in Minneapolis. What are my Black friends doing? How are they, have I made any mistakes in my life? I’m analyzing my race, accountability for who I am as a white man and where I was born and I’m just going through a lot of s###, not sleeping. And then boom, just weeks later, I’m getting canceled. I had such a hard time getting press, but when I was getting canceled, that s### was all over.”

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Now on the other side, PROF’s career is thriving. His legion of fans still show up in droves to support him and Powderhorn Suites, his first album on his Stophouse Music Group label post-controversy, landed on the Billboard chart. Listen to “Pain Salesmen” above and find his tour itinerary below.

July 14

The Astro
La Vista, NE

July 16

UP District Festival Field
Fargo, ND

July 18

Val Air Ballroom
Des Moines, IA

July 19

Four Winds Festival
Sioux Falls, SD

July 20

The Fillmore
Minneapolis, MN

Sept 27

The Elm
Bozeman, MT

Sept 29

Showbox SoDo
Seattle, WA

Sept 30

Knitting Factory
Spokane, WA

Oct 1

Roseland Theater
Portland, OR

Oct 2

McDonald Theatre
Eugene, OR

Oct 4

Virginia Street Brewhouse
Reno, NV

Oct 5

Knitting Factory
Boise, ID

Oct 7

Ace of Spades
Sacramento, CA

Oct 8

The UC Theatre
Berkley, CA

Oct 9

The Observatory
Santa Ana, CA

Oct 11

Music Box
San Diego, CA

Oct 12

Marquee Theatre
Tempe, AZ

Oct 13

El Rey Theater
Albuquerque, NM

Oct 15

Studio at the Factory
Dallas, TX

Oct 16

Emo’s
Austin, TX

Oct 19

The Sylvee
Madison, WI

Oct 20

Delmar Hall
St. Louis, MO