Good Weather For Airstrikes

The first time we mentioned Plan B in this space was in reference to Paul Epworth’s (aka Phones) foray in to hip-hop under the moniker Epic Man. Epic Man’s first release was as, er, epic as expected, a blistering track called “More Is Enough” that featured Plan B on vocals and cracked the top half of our Top Tracks of 2006 list. The track was more a showcase for Epworth’s production than it was a fair introduction to Plan B, so despite his performance on such a phenomenal single and a critically acclaimed debut album that was released in June of last year, he remains criminally underrated.

Plan B has, however, created his fair share of controversy in the UK, seeing one of his songs (”Kidz”) banned from the radio for violent lyrics that dealt with real-life issues that the radio-listening public was unprepared to face, such as abortion and the unchecked behavior of the youth in Plan B’s native London. Plan B, née Ben Drew, addresses the reaction to the ban through a skit on his new tour-only bootleg album, Paint It Blacker. The skit, entitled “Dave From Leicester”, features a female DJ asking for people to call in with responses to the lyrics in “Kidz”. Dave from Leicester calls in and rants about the poor, unoriginal light Plan B puts young African-Americans in London. The track features no mention of race whatsoever, and Plan B, who is white, gives a one-line response that completely turns the tables, asking Dave, “what color do you think I am?”

The aforementioned mixtape has many similar moments, with Plan B struggling with his identity and ranting against people who, like Dave from Leicester, dismiss him out of hand. The CD features Plan B rapping over tracks from the likes of The Rolling Stones, Radiohead, Jose Gonzalez, Coldplay, and many more, bringing Plan B’s memorable lyrics to the forefront. More than half of the tracks on Paint It Blacker are new, with a handful of them are reworks of tracks from his 2006 album Who Needs Action When You Got Words.

Of the new tracks, the two featuring the Rolling Stones are definite highlights. The first track on the CD, “Paint It Blacker”, shows Plan B first telling the story of a man who is sickened by the colors he sees around him, so he goes around either burning things to a blackened crisp or painting them. Plan B does not avoid poignancy on the track, however, finding time to humanize his villain, who first cries over the sight of a dead bird and then ceases his actions when confronted with a particular tombstone in a cemetery. The whole story is told over the memorable guitar lick and chorus from the Rolling Stones “Paint It Black”. The other Rolling Stones song, “Wild Horses”, features Plan B’s ruminations about someone he used to see as a father figure over the Rolling Stones song of the same name. Perhaps the most emotionally affecting track on the CD, “Wild Horses” is a compelling narrative that tells a tale of alcoholism and womanizing for the poor man as Plan B tries to set his life on the right track. Plan B urges him to track down his children and quit drinking, until the last verse when even Plan B can’t stand by him any longer. Disappointed that the man is unable to change and that his “true colors are shown”, Plan B drops the last line before “Wild Horses” chorus comes in, “Keep your fucking drink, you’ll need it now, you’re all on your own.”

Of the tracks that have simply been reworked from Plan B’s album, “Missing Links” is the standout. Outfitted with a looping sample of Radiohead’s “Pyramid Song”, the song takes on a whole new heaviness that serves the hard-hitting lyrics about the drug scene Plan B has witnessed growing up. Plan B takes a strong anti-drug stance that seems far more real than most due to his honesty. He says “I ain’t no stranger to drugs, I’ve had my fair share,” but addresses the problems that come with drugs with lines like “I’ve seen my best friends die” and his rhetorical question posed to a hypothetical drug user: “What happened to your dreams and aspirations, blood, now the highlight of your day is masturbation, blood.” “Missing Links” highlights an important aspect of Plan B; he is not afraid to take a strong stand for what he believes and doesn’t try to water down his feelings to be more consumer-friendly. One of the most honest rappers out there, Plan B deserves all the attention he’s gotten and far, far more.

MP3s:
“Paint It Blacker” (with The Rolling Stones) - Plan B
“Wild Horses” (with The Rolling Stones) - Plan B
“Missing Links” (with Radiohead) - Plan B

BUT EVERETT, WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE WORLD OF MAINSTREAM R&B/HIP-HOP?
Well, I’m glad you asked that, because what’s going on in the world of mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop is that Timbaland decided why the hell shouldn’t he take that over too? If he can give street cred to a former Mickey Mouse Club member and Ms. “I’m Like A Bird”, why can’t he resuscitate the floundering career of You Got Served star Omarion? Well, he can, and he does it via a beat that’s “My Love”-lite for the chorus and “Say It Right”-atmospheric for the verses. Yeah, the combination works even better in music than it sounds on paper and like, somehow Omarion is catchy too. I blame Timbaland, whose official motto should read something like “Timabland: Making You Love Songs By Artists You Hate Since ‘96″. Seriously, everything dude touches turns to gold.

MP3: “Ice Box” - Omarion

Also, everybody’s favorite Akon knockoff, T-Pain, is no longer smitten with a stripper and has moved on to an easier target: every other girl! With the help of Yung Joc (of “It’s Goin’ Down” fame something), T-Pain will approach girls, try to get them drunk, and then persuade them to come home with him. In this sense he’s pretty much the same as every other guy, except every other guy doesn’t sound like Akon got the computer from “Fitter Happier” stuck in his voicebox. Yung Joc’s guest spot showcases lyrics as meaningless as sex with an ex-girlfriend (as in, you tell all your friends it’s totally meaningless but deep down you still like her so you try, in vain, to find some sort of meaning) and the chorus doesn’t exactly reach new lyrical stratospheres (”Lemme buy you a drink, ooh-ooh-ooh”), and I’ve certainly painted a pretty negative picture of the track, but the catch is that the whole is about seventy billion times greater than the sum of it’s parts. So, y’know, it’s a good song.

MP3: “Buy You A Drink” (ft. Yung Joc) - T-Pain

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 3rd, 2007 at 9:02 pm and is filed under Album Spotlight. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.