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GenreHip-Hop, Soul, Dance, Electronic, R&B
Rank6,036 (+2,554)
Albums5
Songs118
AboutNobody who heard the era-defining London MC compilation 'Run The Road Volume 2' will forget the first time they heard Plan B's 'Sick 2 Def'. It's one of those 'what the fuck?' moments that leaves listeners slackjawed in amazement; a shocking, thrilling, extraordinary sound, one that's unlike anything you've ever heard before.
It sees a young east London MC rapping brutal, X-rated reportage over a spartan, minimal, almost baroque acoustic guitar accompaniment. It's a sound that leaves music fans grasping at references. Nick Cave's murder ballads? Johnny Cash's 'Folsom Prison Blues'? Shut Up And Dance's 'Autobiography Of A Crackhead'? Eminem's sordid white-trash doggerel? Quentin Tarantino? There's even a sequence which recounts a murder in reverse that recalls not so much Nas's 'Rewind' but Martin Amis's 'Time's Arrow'.
Plan B is, as they say, no ordinary MC. He's as likely to be playing indie venues or folk clubs as he is hip hop jams or raves or R&B gigs. He can spit rhymes and hold his own against any MC or rapper, but can then suddenly switch into a delicate, sweet white soul croon that would shame any boyband member. He accompanies himself on an acoustic guitar, playing in a curiously folksy, fingerpicking style. But the killer punch is the lyrics - bleak, cinematic, X-rated urban poetry laced with a mordant wit and a strong dose of pathos.
Ben Drew was born in 1983 in Forest Gate, east London, where he still lives. His mother works for the local council while his father, who he hasn't seen since he was a small child, was in an experimental post-punk band called The Pope. His mother bought Ben his first guitar when he was 14 and he started writing songs.
'I taught myself a few chords and tried to write rock songs. I grew up listening to stuff like Radiohead and Prodigy and Nirvana and drum and bass, and I tried to do stuff like that on the guitar. Most of it sounded a bit stupid. But one day I wrote some R&B-style love songs on the guitar and played them to some guys at school. They were impressed.
It sees a young east London MC rapping brutal, X-rated reportage over a spartan, minimal, almost baroque acoustic guitar accompaniment. It's a sound that leaves music fans grasping at references. Nick Cave's murder ballads? Johnny Cash's 'Folsom Prison Blues'? Shut Up And Dance's 'Autobiography Of A Crackhead'? Eminem's sordid white-trash doggerel? Quentin Tarantino? There's even a sequence which recounts a murder in reverse that recalls not so much Nas's 'Rewind' but Martin Amis's 'Time's Arrow'.
Plan B is, as they say, no ordinary MC. He's as likely to be playing indie venues or folk clubs as he is hip hop jams or raves or R&B gigs. He can spit rhymes and hold his own against any MC or rapper, but can then suddenly switch into a delicate, sweet white soul croon that would shame any boyband member. He accompanies himself on an acoustic guitar, playing in a curiously folksy, fingerpicking style. But the killer punch is the lyrics - bleak, cinematic, X-rated urban poetry laced with a mordant wit and a strong dose of pathos.
Ben Drew was born in 1983 in Forest Gate, east London, where he still lives. His mother works for the local council while his father, who he hasn't seen since he was a small child, was in an experimental post-punk band called The Pope. His mother bought Ben his first guitar when he was 14 and he started writing songs.
'I taught myself a few chords and tried to write rock songs. I grew up listening to stuff like Radiohead and Prodigy and Nirvana and drum and bass, and I tried to do stuff like that on the guitar. Most of it sounded a bit stupid. But one day I wrote some R&B-style love songs on the guitar and played them to some guys at school. They were impressed.
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