Plan B - The Defamation of Strickland Banks

A concept soul album made by a white English working class rapper from Forest Gate in London about the life of an imaginary American ( presumably black) soul singer called Strickland Banks who is wrongly imprisoned for a crime he didnt commit, doesnt sound like the sort of album that WOULD ever be made, let alone exist.

But Plan B does just that on the album The Defamation of Strickland Banks - and it works.

The singer also played the evil hoodie chav working class scumbag 'gangsta' in the film Harry Brown that Michael Caine blew away at the end.

Just as the white rapper Eminem now defines the rap genre, it now appears that this album and the singer Plan B may well define The New Soul Movement, that will undoubtedly arise as a result of this album.

It reminds me of albums like Tricky's Maxinquaye or Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars by David Bowie, in that it is an album that literally no one else could make.

It reminds me of a male version of Back in Black by Amy Winehouse - a sound journey into the sordid underworld of London with a soundtrack of saxophones, sawn off shotguns, teen stabbings, strip clubs and betting shops.

The album sounds like a Marvin Gaye album from the late Sixties, mixed with a little Rage Against The Machine and British Urban Rap - it is very well produced, with slick superb songs and will be the soundtrack to much of the coming summer on the radio I am sure.

I bet that as soon as America gets to hear some of the tracks on this album, such as The Writings On The Wall, Traded In My Cigarettes, Stay Too Long and Love Goes Down - then we may see a white English Soul album conquer the United States charts.

Listen to the track Free on the album and its like are you hearing a Marvin Gaye track from the sixties being sung through a white English rapper.