Star Image

Plan B

Plan B, real name Benjamin Paul Ballance-Drew, started out as an underground grime artist, well known for his explicit, hard-hitting lyrics with disturbing and emotional concepts. “Who Needs Actions When You Got Words”, released in 2006, charted at number 30 and gained five star reviews despite his controversial lyrics. The album gained Plan B a ‘hard man’ status due to the anger expressed in his music concerning personal experiences expressing his troubled life as a child. He witnessed many criminal activities growing up in East London and this was reflected in his music. It acted as escapism to steer him clear of the trouble he could easily be caught up in.

His recent concept album “The Defamation Of Strickland Banks” has seen him mature, and experiment with acoustic and soul genres. This narrative album stormed into the charts straight at the number 1 spot. Along with the change in genre, he also changed his image. Plan B became a well-groomed male, well known for wearing a grey suit and black shirt. His smoother image saw a drastic change from the scruffy tracksuit-wearing boy he had once been.

Well rounded and exceptionally talented, Plan B is a rapper, singer, songwriter, actor and film director. His recent image transformation made him a prominent force in the industry and ensured he was taken seriously. This saw him land roles in popular films such as ‘Adulthood’ ‘Harry Brown’ and “4.3.2.1”. He was heavily involved and took an interest in the directing role, which helped him to feature some of his music on the official soundtrack such as ‘End in the Streets’, ‘On It 08’ and ‘I Need Love’.

Ben Drew has recently expanded on his first full length film 'Ill Manors'. The narrative is narrated by the soundtrack; 'The Defamation Of Strickland Banks'. The film explores six short stories that are all interconnected. Its a hip-hop music based feature film that further confirms Plan B's talent and star quality.

Proof of Plan B’s world-class recognition was his duet of ‘I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues’ with Elton John at the BBC Electric Proms in London October 2010.  Elton John introduced him with ‘the best of the year’ in reference to his album.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTHv4F0XcuA&feature=related. In 2011 he won Best British Male at the Brit Awards, further confirmation of his talent.

Plan B's success has been aided by his music and appearances in advertising. He has featured as part of Packards laptop campaign which featured a UK cinema shown film of him recording his album.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jun/09/hewlett-packard-signs-plan-b-for-ad

Ben Drew also appeared in Bulmers cider advertisement that featured a live performance by Plan B.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUes4f6aeQI

Jordan Griffin