Album Review: Plan B - Ill Manors

Posted by Anthony - 14th August 2012

In 2010 Plan B enjoyed huge success with his soul album The Defamation Of Strickland Banks, a UK number one and a multi Platinum winner. He has now followed it up with Ill Manors which is based on the soundtrack of his recent feature film of the same name.

Firstly a word of warning. If you enjoyed The Defamation Of Strickland Banks then you should know that Ill Manors is not from the same musical mould. It is a hardcore rapping album with bleak lyrics and extremely strong language: most definitely not for the easily offended.

The film Ill Manors is Plan B's directorial debut. It concerns the lives of people living in the shadow of the Olympic Park in London following last years riots; people in the darkest strata of society. There is much depiction of poverty, drug dealing, gangs, guns, death and sex. The album contains snatches of the film dialogue around which the songs have been built. There are 11 songs on the basic album with a deluxe edition available which has the complete film score as an extra.

The songs are as bleak as the film and were all co-written by Plan B, otherwise known as 28 year old Benjamin Paul Ballance-Drew. These lyrics from the title track give a flavour of where the album is heading:

"Get away with murder in the schools
use four letter swear words coz we're cool
We're all drinkers, drug takers
every single one of us buns the herb
Keep on believing what you read in the papers
council estate kids, scum of the earth."

The basic message through often graphic and violent language is the corrupting effect of grinding poverty and poor environment on young people seemingly left without hope. Thus the film and the album are Plan B's attempt to record this narrow world and to protest about it. Clearly lyrics with political intent.

Musically we are in typical rap territory but with some excellent flourishes to add interest. There are samples of classical music, a gospel choir and drum'n'bass to name but a few. So if you find the songs lyrically hard to take there are musical touches on which you can focus.

This is a difficult album to review because it is not so much about the music as about the hard hitting lyrics. We at BigLiveActs.co.uk are music lovers and not politicians. What I would say is that we have plenty of reportage in the media and the squalid lives rapped about by Plan B should by now be familiar to us all. Rather than simply protest it would be clever of Ben Drew to provide some realistic and achievable solutions to help the people he depicts. If he can do that I will give him a title for his next album free of charge – Plan B's Plan A.