With his unique blend of soul, rap and funk, British artist Plan B has captured the attention of audiences worldwide and now, he’s bringing his talents stateside. Plan B, aka Ben Drew, is already a favorite of UK music fans and celebs, has been nominated for multiple BRIT awards, appeared in multiple films and snagged a number one album with his soulful concept record, “The Defamation Of Strickland Banks.”
Plan B is currently at work on a follow-up which will find the musician largely returning to his hip-hop/rap roots. He will also appear on the Bruno Mars/Janelle Monae Hooligans in Wondaland North American tour which kicks off today in New York City.
GlobalGrind had the opportunity to chat with Plan B about everything from other white rappers like Eminem, to crazy fans and kangaroos. Read on for more!
GlobalGrind: Congratulations on all the success you’ve had with your music. How did this idea, the concept of your alter ego Strickland Banks, come about?
Plan B: My strength is in telling stories. Some artists’ strengths are conveying their messages through metaphors, some just straight up preach. I feel that stories have always been my strength. My CDs are not just a collection of songs, but a film. Each song was a scene in that film. I just didn’t know how else to write. When I was calling myself Plan B I was about 20 years old, I didn’t know how to write, I’d never done it before. I was a soul singer before I started rapping, but I never stopped songwriting behind the scenes. I’d written “Love Goes Down” and so that’s why it’s the first song on the record. I decided it would be a good idea to tell a story about a famous soul singer because that’s what I’d experienced when the first album came out, a lot of fame. Being backstage at festivals and I had never experienced anything like that before. Suddenly I was rubbing shoulders with Black famous people. It was supposed to be a hip- hop album and ended up being a soul record.
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We read about your upcoming album and how you’re going in a different musical direction. Are you trying to scale back on the soul and steer more towards the hip-hop?
The next album is “The Ballad Of Belmarsh” and I wrote that at the same time as “The Defamation Of Strickland Banks.” When I said the second record was supposed to be a hip-hop record – I was making a hip hop record that was supposed to have two soul songs on it. It was going to be just a straight forward hip-hop album that was going to have four or five songs that were soul. When you heard those songs they were supposed to be Strickland telling his story through his language.
The problem was on the album the hardcore British hip-hop music next to the old Motown soul just didn’t work. They grated against each other and didn’t feel like it was the same album. And then on the hip-hop records I was rapping about what happened to Strickland but on the soul songs I was Strickland, I was playing a character. Because there are no images and it’s all audio you’re hearing my voice everytime and it was really hard to distinguish when I was being the writer and when I was being the character. It was very confusing.
Only when I split the two styles of music in separate albums it started to work. Then what I had was 8 hip-hop songs and 8 soul songs and I brought those to the label and delivered them as the 2 albums I was working on, my ambition that I would release both albums at the same time as a double disc record like Outkast’s “Speakerboxxx/ Love Below.” The label just wanted to go with the soul stuff and didn’t see how I could market the hip-hop. We came to an agreement that I would earn the hip-hop record and I thought it was a fair deal. We went to work to finish the soul record and this is where we’re at now. We made great videos and we sold all these records in the UK, but now it’s time to focus back on the hip-hop record which is just an extension of the soul record. It’s the story in greater detail but it is straightforward hip-hop. Rather than a new direction I’m going in it’s just something I’ve been doing this whole time and it’s existed for a long time. So in the course of the soul record, it’s not like fresh in terms of me wanting to go down a new musical road.
“The Defamation Of Strickland Banks” is very much a concept album. Are you a fan of other classic concept albums?
I’m a fan of “The Diary of Kirk Jones” by Sticky Fingaz and I only found out about that because I told someone a “film for the blind” idea and they said “Oh, have you heard of Sticky Fingaz?” Somebody got me the album and I listened to it and realized it was quite similar to the idea I had. But I knew that my idea had come from a pure place. Most concept albums, I think, fail because they compromise too much with the record label. It’s very important that the story was told with this record. It was very clear in the music videos and that was just from me being very stubborn making sure that the videos told the story.
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You’ve blended film with your music. Who are some of your inspirations and what are your favorite films?
[Director] Larry Clark’s “Kids” (1995) was a film I would talk about because my first record was directed at kids like [how that film was] to try and get through to those kids. I always thought that was a film that they should have played in school as, like, sex education. I think that we patronize our kids too much. We just need to tell them the truth about things. If we told them the truth they’d actually be more educated about sex and drugs and stuff like that.
Do you see a big difference between the girls in London and girls in America or in New York, specifically?
Well you know you’ve got Jersey. Our equivalent of Jersey is Essex. We got a program here called “The Only Way Is Essex.” It’s like “Jersey Shore,” so you get chicks like that who you call “Jersey Girls” we call “Essex Girls.” Then you got the city girls who are more sophisticated slightly. I think girls are pretty much the same all around, but I think me having the British accent definitely helps with American girls. I’ve been in situations where I literally haven’t had to use any game at all. I just had to open my mouth. That’s all good for getting a girl’s number or pulling a chick just because you ask them, but you still have to have some substance to your personality to keep something going. I don’t think any girl is that dumb, that’s she’s just gonna fall for a nice accent or a pretty face or whatever for too long. You need to have a brain and a personality, you know?
You cite Eminem as one of your inspirations, but who are the greatest MCs in your mind and who are you listening to right now?
I think Drake just came out of nowhere. I think he’s the best right now. I’m really, really into what he’s doing. Wiz Khalifa has come out recently. I’m into what he’s doing. Yelawolf – it’s interesting what he’s doing. I think the Rick Ross album is sick. He’s kind of cemented himself up there as one of the best. There’s UK rappers you guys wouldn’t have heard of: The Skinny Man, Klashnekoff. These are guys who it breaks my heart that they never made it. They influenced me so much. There was a point in America, maybe you’re only just getting over it now, where it was really hard to find any hip-hop or any hip-hop artists who were really saying anything. It seemed everything motherf*ckers were talking about was rims and money and hoes. No one was saying anything conscious. That was where UK hip-hop was great because UK hip hop was always kind of conscious and spoke about real things and that’s the school I came from.
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You have a ton of fans overseas. What’s the craziest thing a fan has ever done?
Yeah, this happened in the UK… This guy came up to me and he was on a pill, ecstacy. And he said he loved my music and he listens to it every day and that it would be an honor if I f*cked his girlfriend. I laughed and I said, “Where’s your girlfriend?” and he said, “Here!” and I couldn’t believe he had actually brought his girlfriend with him. She wasn’t on drugs, she seemed quite sober.
Was she into it?
Oh she was into it. She came straight up to me and planted a kiss on my cheek. He was like “please just take her and f*ck her.” And I said “boss, in the morning you’re gonna really regret saying that. He was like “please you’ve got to fuck her, it’d be such an honor.” I just couldn’t believe how up for it she was. She had her hands all over me and she was quite good-looking as well. I was tempted, but I just felt “yo, f*ck that sh*t.” That’s the craziest thing.
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You’re in Australia right now… What’s the coolest place that you’ve traveled to?
Gulf Coast because the hotel was sick. The hotel was just surrounded by lagoons and you had to walk along these wooden planks to get to your hotel room and sh*t. It was sick. I’d never been to a hotel like that before. That was the most interesting place apart from the zoo. We got this chick to take us down to the zoo and I saw a kangaroo for the first time. I’d been there three times and I ain’t never seen a kangaroo, koala bear, or f*cking snake or even a f*cking aboriginal person. So I was like “oh you gotta take me to the zoo.” It was good.
Do you think British food is as bad as people say it is?
I think British food is great! I think in the ‘80s our food was terrible. It was so uncultured. All you could get was fish ‘n’ chips and pie and mash. I think that attitude toward British food in the rest of the world – that’s how they still think. But our food is really, really good now. I think we’ve taken influences from all over the world. Now obviously if you go to some sh*tty little café or fast food restaurant it’s not gonna be that great.
