REVIEW: Plan B - Prayin'

Plan B (aka Ben Drew) first came to our attention with Who Needs Actions When You Got Words?, a darkly disturbing rap debut miles off his story of a soul singer falling from grace in his latest album The Defamation of Strickland Banks. The re-invention of Plan B as Strickland has seen hoodies changed for suits, dark beats swapped out for horns and full on rap replaced with a mix of storytelling rhymes and sweet soulful singing. Now Plan B returns with the third single from the album, Prayin’. What Gnarls Barkley managed with one hit, Plan B has managed with three singles, serving up yet another slice of catchy, pop driven modern soul. For those not following his escapades...

Here’s the story so far...

Stay Too Long
The first single from Plan B’s The Defmation of Strickland Banks saw Strickland Stay Too Long after his show. Ignoring calls from his girlfriend, he carried on drinking before spinning home with the fur coat wearing stranger who had spent the night watching him perform...

She Said
Come round two and our handsome hero has wound up in court. It appears his one night stand wasn’t meant to be just one night as his midnight fling is unveiled as a crazy fan of the singer, unable to deal with Strickland’s return to his girlfriend. She Said enough to the police to get our man arrested, and with his girlfriend crying in the galleries and a distracted jury, it seems there’s little hope for the wrongly accused Mr.Banks.

Prayin’
Time for installment three. Locked up, Strickland turns to the only trick left in his book... Prayin’. No more sharp suits and shots, just broken glass, riots and gym bound in-mates. Here’s hoping his prayers get answered.

At the start of the year I Like Music huddled over an electric fire with Plan B for a big ol’ chat about the album. From conception to recording, inspiration to commercial awareness, musical memories to his advice for young musicians, we chatted about almost everything. We also found out how Plan B began to make a move from songs on his debut like Mama (Loves A Crack Head) to the soulful vibes of Prayin’:

Plan B: I love telling stories and I love making music. Plan B represents a story-telling aspect of hip-hop music. When me and the band started making this soul music, I didn't want it to sit on a shelf and for no-one to ever to hear it. So I asked myself How can I make this work in the Plan B world? I thought the best way to do that was to create a character that could represent the songs. Strickland Banks is singing them, not me. Strickland Banks is a successful soul singer who gets wrongly convicted of a crime and gets sent to jail. When I made this record I didn't base it on a Marvin Gaye record, or a Smokey Robinson record, I based it on myself. It was only when we came to the production of it, the sound and the sonics, that we started listening to old music. She Said, for example, was just guitar chords and a beat and I said this sounds like it needs brass and strings. We went and listened to Minnie Ripperton for the strings, and Ray Charles for the brass. Then we started looking at other old artists. But where the songs come from in the first place? That's just from in here *taps chest* and then written on the guitar.