Plan B interview
HUCK talks to the unapologetic East London musician about his new soul sound.
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Having first made a name for himself rapping, raw, emotionally-charged lyrics over an acoustic guitar with such songs as No More Eatin', Plan B is one artist who has never fitted comfortably into any particular genre.
Now having released his second album, The Defamation of Strickland Banks, he has taken this further with a new approach influenced by the sounds of Smokey Robinson and Marvin Gaye.
HUCK caught up with the outspoken musician to talk about this new direction and his ascent into the mainstream.
HUCK: The Defamation of Strickland Banks marks a departure from your previous album. What was the motivation for this?
Plan B: It was a departure from the music I had released to the public but in terms of me making that kind of music, I have done that from the start. As Plan B, I had kind of hid the fact that I had done that shit. As I got older, I got a lot more comfortable with my voice and found my key. The music started maturing in terms of the songs I was writing. Instead of it being all that poppy RnB stuff, it turned into that more classic, old school soul sound. Me and the band would jam these songs in sound checks before gigs. We’d look at each other and be like, ‘wow, this stuff’s great, shame it will never work in a Plan B album’. But then I thought why can’t it work? I’m a storyteller and if I do an album story about a soul singer, it will give me a reason to do that style to show that style to the public. So that’s what I done. I created this fictional character and made the album about fame. I’ve had about 20 years life experience of fame crammed into the last couple of years - going to festivals, VIP parties and going through the mill of the music industry. I wanted to write about the negative side of fame. About a talented guy who’s let it all go a bit to his head and is a little bit up his own arse and takes advantage of his situation and it comes back to bite him when a girl starts making accusations against him. It was important for me to make this record like a story.
Is the more mature sound a reflection of your own personality?
Well, yeah but only in terms of the soul. When I used to write soul back when I was 15, it was quite poppy, like Craig David. But as I got older, I found that I wanted to write soul songs that were more like Smokey Robinson and Marvin Gaye. I knew for a Plan B album, it had to be incredible soul, not throwaway pop soul.
What are you hoping to achieve be telling the stories you do?
It’s not like I’m trying to change anything. I’m trying to promote some understanding of fame. Unless you’ve experienced fame, how the fuck can you really relate to it unless someone provides an example of it for you to watch or listen to? There are so many people in the tabloid papers who do behave like arseholes and the public decide that they are not going to like them anymore. I’m trying to say that just because someone is famous and it goes to their heads, it doesn’t mean that deep down they are a horrible person. It must be really hard to keep your feet on the ground if you haven’t got the right people around you. If someone has always said they are going to make it, and they do, and they start acting like a prick. It doesn’t mean they are a horrible cunt who deserves to go to jail for something they didn’t do. The problem with tabloid newspapers is that they tend to demonise people. I wanted to raise the issue of a celebrity whose accused of something they hadn’t done, but because of their past behaviour, everybody thinks they are guilty.
With you having a number one album and appearing on Jonathan Ross, has there been any hostility towards you?
Well, I didn’t know I was going to appear on Jonathan Ross or have a number one album. I made a record I wanted to make and put everything into it. I work hard. I made an uncompromising soul record. I’m on a major label and so there’s no point me making an underground hip hop album. I’m not going to change the way I make hip hop. Instead of changing the hip hop, I just won’t make it. The fact that I’m talking about a guy who’s been convicted of a crime involving a woman, that’s pretty edgy and dark. If there are motherfuckers out there who are going to be hostile towards me because I’m not making hip hop, then ‘fuck you, I don’t want you listening to my hip hop.’ If you are that small minded that you can’t listen to Marvin Gaye or James Brown and think it’s good music, then I don’t want you listening to me. My new record is just as good as that shit. My new record holds its own against that. It isn’t arrogance that’s coming out of my mouth but I wanted to make an album that would be stand up against the modern soul artists, and the old. I’ve got fans who like the old shit and the new, and they are going to be into the next shit that I do. Fans aren’t meant to just be fans of your music, they are meant to be fans of you. There’s a lot more layers to me than just fucking rapping.
You’re now performing with a large band. Has that change been difficult?
Yeah, it's super hard work but none of that stuff is impossible. You think if some people have 20 people in a band, it must be hard to organise and it is. But you get good people, the right people, you pay them properly and they do their job. If they don’t do their job, then they go. I’ve tried to assemble people who I’ve met who have impressed me. They are still session musicians but I like it to be a bit more personal than that.
Your sound has always been a bit apart from traditional genres. Does that naturally make you an outsider?
Yeah, I’ve felt like an outsider my whole life. I’m used to it and it actually provides me quite a lot of comfort because it means that I haven’t got a scene and that pressure. When you are involved in a scene, you have pressure from that scene to be what they want you to be. UK hip hop disowned me as soon as they heard me playing on my guitar. I wasn’t grime: I wasn’t anything. I cornered my own market. But fuck ‘em, you know what I mean? The next record I do after this will be completely different as well. I sung a song about my mum once so why do it again. I’ve done the raw, personal album. What the fuck? Do you want me to keep talking about my mum? Write a song about my mum being in love with a fucking pillhead? I’ve spoke about it. Now I’m doing this.
Plan B is appearing at Relentless NASS on July 10 and Relentless Boardmasters on August 6.
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It's always funny to see all the haters having a go at the likes of Plan B and Pro Green when they start making it big and making more commercially acceptable music for the masses... what do they expect?? If you were given the opportunity to make a living out of something you love, get your music heard by hundreds of thousands more people, and get the opportunity to work with other hugely talented artists, would you really pass that up just so you can keeping rapping about 'merkin' man dem'??
At the end of the day, if you're only interested in listening to underground hip-hop that's too gritty for radio then do it.. no one's stopping you. To me, if it's hip hop you're after, as long as the beats are good and the rhyming's tight does it really matter whether you're rapping about killing or drugs? I guess for some people it does matter as it's all part of the life they live.... have to say though, as a resident of one of London's roughest boroughs, I really wish that wasn't the case.
Anyway, rant over... good interview, more where that came from please!