Plan B may never record another soul album. After crooning through The Defamation of Strickland Banks, one of the biggest albums of 2010, the 27-year-old Londoner is turning his attention to other genres. Rather than trying to "top" his soul debut as Strickland Banks, Plan B wants to try his hand at punk rock – or even dubstep.
Before last year's reinvention, Plan B – real name Ben Drew – was best-known as a rapper. But as he told BBC Newsbeat, he is already being drawn to new genres. "As an artist, someone with many different tastes, I want to go and venture into a different style – maybe reggae, maybe punk, dubstep," he said. "Who knows. There's stuff that I'm experimenting with at the moment that I really want to get stuck into."
Although The Defamation of Strickland Banks hit No 1 on the album charts, spawning two top 10 singles, Plan B said he doesn't want to repeat himself. "Why try and make another soul record when I made the best soul record I could?" he asked. "It was the best I could do. If it could have been any better then I wouldn't have let the label release it when they did."
For now, Plan B is busy preparing The Ballad of Belmarsh, a hip-hop retelling of Defamation ..., released independently after allegedly being rejected by his label. He also wants to shoot a Strickland Banks film, tying together the soul album's several music videos.
Finally – at least until he sets sail on another major tour – the multitasker is reshooting scenes from Ill Manors, a "music-based [feature] film" that marks his directorial debut. "There's some stuff I'm missing that I need to shoot," he explained. "And I need to do the soundtrack to it." In October, he told Newsbeat the film was a "complicated" story and like a "musical version of Crash". At least he knows what he's in for. The rapper says: "I've got a lot of work on my hands."
