Plan B
May 16, 2011
Plan B is an award-winning British soul star and rapper. Already a huge success overseas, Ben Drew is making his way over to the US. His blockbuster new album, The Defamation of Strickland Banks, was just released in the states on April 19th, and he's starting a US tour with Bruno Mars and Janelle Monáe on their hugely anticipated "Hooligans In Wondaland Tour" which began on May 4th. He also has plans to tour with Adele, as well.
"The album is about a fictional character called Strickland Banks who is like a really successful soul singer. He's rich, and he's a bit of an asshole. And he ends up meeting some chick and bringing her back to a hotel, and that kind of destroys his whole life because she goes to the police and accuses him of something he ain't done. Then he goes to court and is found guilty and gets sent to jail. In jail, everybody thinks he's guilty, and everyone knows who he is. So you think of any famous guy in the world, and he gets sent to jail. That's the struggle he's got to go to. That's pretty much what the story is. And when he was in the outside world he was such an asshole to everyone, but spending time in jail, he starts getting back in touch with his humanity, and he starts realizing how much of a prick he was to everybody. And that's kind of what appealed to me about telling this story, says Drew".
"And you know, my latest album just blew up in the UK, but I had an album out before that. Commercially it didn't do that well, but it was a good album so I was rubbing shoulders with celebrities, but a lot of them were like, "Plan B, who is that?" And they weren't treating me so nice. So I started looking at these people thinking, "Wow your head is so far stuck up your ass. What would it take to pull it back out of your ass and see what's really going on?" And I thought, some kind of injustice, where you get accused of something you ain't done, and sent to jail because of it, maybe that will do it. And that's what gave me the idea for Strickland Banks. I just wanted to expose the ugly side of fame for what it really is".
"I enjoyed every minute of making this record," declares Drew. "I wanted to stay true to the heart and soul of the music, but give it a little bit of a makeover. In Britain, we do it in our own way. A lot of people still think I'm some ignorant little ASBO kid off a council estate. I think they'll be shocked that I can actually sing. And write pretty cool songs."
Rapping and singing in his own accent, playing his guitar, Ben Drew began to tell stories about the world he'd grown up in. Some songs were written from personal experience ('Mama Loves A Crackhead'), but most involved characters he'd invented (like 'Kidz', inspired by the murder of south London schoolboy Damilola Taylor).
"Kidz was the first song that I wrote that was character-based. It wasn't pre-meditated, I heard the beat and it just started coming out. But it felt right. When I'm trying to make a statement in my rap lyrics, I never really pull it off. I'm able to get a message across better when I tell a story. From then on, I wanted every song to be like a different short film."
His raw, incendiary debut album, 'Who Needs Actions When You Got Words' broke new ground for UK hip hop in 2006, a loud, proud, obscenity-riddled scream of anger and pride from the estates of East London. It also led to acting roles, with Drew playing a bad boy from the estates in Noel Clarke's Adulthood in 2008, then another hoodie thug opposite Michael Caine in last year's British thriller Harry Brown.
"I enjoy playing a horrible nasty character!" says Ben. "It's boring being the good guy, and maybe it's also a kind of release. As I've got older and got involved in the music industry, I can't be fighting any more. I had to try and keep things under control. Now the film roles are the only place where I can let go of that anger."
"I'm in a film with Ray Winstone in November. It's going to be a very challenging role for me because I have to play a copper (policeman). And I don't like policemen. I've also got my movie that I wrote and directed called Ill Manners. It's a music-based film, and that will be coming out at the end of this year".
The Defamation of Strickland Banks Track Listing:
- Love Goes Down
- Writing's On The Wall
- Stay Too Long (Explicit)
- She Said
- Welcome To Hell
- Hard Times
- The Recluse (Explicit)
- Traded In My Cigarettes
- Prayin' 10. Darkest Place (Explicit)
- Free
- I Know A Song
- What You Gonna Do (Explicit)
- Spend My Money (Bonus Track on Digital Deluxe)
- Versus (Bonus Track on Digital Deluxe)
- Stay Too Long (Bonus Video on Digital Deluxe)
- She Said (Bonus Video on Digital Deluxe)
- Prayin' (Bonus Video on Digital Deluxe)
Upcoming Tour Dates:
May
- 17 - Grand Prairie, TX - Verizon Theatre at Grand Prairie
- 18 - Houston, TX - Reliant Arena
- 20 - Montgomery, AL - Jubilee CityFest
- 22 - Windsor, ON - Caesars Windsor
- 24 - Milwaukee, WI - Eagles Ballroom
- 25 - St. Paul, MN - Roy Wilkins Auditorium
- 27 - Chicago, IL - Aragon Ballroom
