Plan B (rapper)

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Plan B
A picture of Drew aka Plan B from his MySpace account.
Background information
Birth name	Ben Drew
Born	1984
Origin	Forest Gate, London, England
Genre(s)	Hip Hop, A cappella, Acoustic
Years active	2005 – present
Label(s)	Pet Cemetery Recordings (2005) 679 Recordings (2005-present)
Website	Plan B Official Site

Plan B (real name Ben Drew, b. 1984) is an English rapper from Forest Gate, London.

1 Biography
- 1.1 Who Needs Actions When You Got Words Era
- 1.2 The Next Album
2 Discography
3 References

[edit] Biography

From the age of 11 Plan B attended Anglo European School in Ingatestone Essex, before transfering to Tom Hood, an inner-city comprehensive. He is signed to 679 Recordings, home to fellow UK rappers The Streets. His unique sound is characterised by his use of acoustic beats and lyrics involving drugs, rape, murder and underage sex. He was placed fourth in the BBC's "Sound of 2006" competition.

His controversial lyrical content delivered against melodic guitar strumming has seen him dubbed "The British Eminem", or "Eminem meets Damien Rice", but he says he is "just telling a story" and that he is "just trying to portray something that's real that happens in everyday life". These stories are largely semi-fictional but include personal content as well. Inspired by the murder of 10-year-old Damilola Taylor, Plan B tells the story of a 14-year-old who kills, rapes and orders people to "hand over your money, your phone and your Pokémon cards". Drew points out, in a possibly subtle jibe at American rappers, that his life growing up is not interesting enough to write songs about, so he takes on characters in his songs to make interesting and, hopefully, thought-provoking music.

[edit] Who Needs Actions When You Got Words Era

Plan B released his debut single in 2005 and was a limited edition 7" vinyl double A-side of "Kidz" and "Dead And Buried". The single was his first and only single released by Pet Cemetery Recordings and was limited to 500 copies. Neither "Kidz" or "Dead And Buried" had a music video and the single is now deleted. On December 19, 2005, he released his second vinyl single, his first for 679 Recordings and a second double A-side. The first track, "No Good" contained an interpolation of the chorus from The Prodigy's "No Good (Start The Dance)", and the second A-side, "Sick 2 Def", was an acoustic track. The music video, for "No Good", was his first music video and employed the techniques of stop-motion animation. An acoustic version of the single "Kidz" appeared as a bonus track on the soundtrack to the UK box office film Kidulthood.

In April 2006, he released a video only download single, Missing Links. The song had to be re-recorded because the original version sampled Pyramid Song by Radiohead and two days before the NME Awards, he still had not gained permission to use the instrumental and thus had to write a new backing track in two days. The new version goes in the opposite direction of the previous electric sound, now using simply an acoustic guitar, a cello and drums.

His debut album Who Needs Actions When You Got Words was released on 26 June 2006. The title was taken from the lyrics to a Meat Puppets song, covered by Nirvana for their MTV Unplugged In New York album. Drew cites Kurt Cobain as one of his heroes and also states that the phrase should help make people realise that his songs are meant to be taken as words and not meant to incite action.

Plan B appeared on Later with Jools Holland on June 23, 2006, where he performed his first full single release "Mama (Loves A Crackhead)", which was released on July 10, 2006, peaking at #41 in the UK singles chart.

The instrumental version to "Mama (Loves A Crackhead)" is used on promotional clips on BBC Radio 1 to advertise the BBC's coverage of live cricket

[edit] The Next Album

Although details are sketchy, Plan B highlighted the matter in the October the 14th 2006 issue of NME. From the interview, Plan B Said "I've started this project about a drug addict called David Frost - no relation to the guy on TV - and basically it's the story of this guy and the levels of addiction, rehab, rehab not working, robbing...The trails and tribulations of a fucking smackhead. It's a big story. I might release a first edition, then a second edition..."

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

Year	Album	Chart Positions
Year	Album	UK Albums Chart
2006	Who Needs Actions When You Got Words	#30

[edit] EPs

Year	Title	Album
2006	"No More Eatin'"	Who Needs Actions When You Got Words

[edit] Singles

[edit] Physical Singles

Year	Title	Chart Positions	Album
Year	Title	UK Singles Chart	Album
2005	"Kidz" / "Dead And Buried" (Limited edition 7" Vinyl single only)	-	Who Needs Actions When You Got Words
2005	"No Good" / "Sick 2 Def" (7" Vinyl single only)	-	Who Needs Actions When You Got Words
2006	"Mama (Loves A Crackhead)"	#41	Who Needs Actions When You Got Words