IPOD
RADIO
Plan B
By Daniel Robert Epstein
May 24, 2007
Make Plan B the first thing you do because his new EP Time 4 Plan B is amazing. Plan B is part of a new generation of hip-hop artists from the UK that are taking hip-hip and adding some English to it. Plan B is a much smarter guy than some people might think. He loves hip-hop and is so damn excited that he can throw his hat into the ring.
Check out the website for Plan B
Daniel Robert Epstein: Are you having a good time in New York?
Plan B: Yeah I’m enjoying myself, definitely. I went down to Katz’s yesterday. I got myself a Reuben in there. It’s nice.
DRE:
They don’t make those over in the UK.
PB:
They don’t bro, not at all.
DRE:
I had a Reuben the other day myself.
What inspired the new album?
PB:
Each song was inspired by different things, almost like real life things and some are just fiction. When I started rapping, I realized I’m an ambitious guy and I didn’t want to just be a rapper talking about his ends. I knew that people in America were making a shit about where I was from so I had to have something else, something to just interest them. For me that was storytelling. I came up with a concept which was Film for the Blind, which was me making this big film. I started trying to write this film but didn’t have a clue what the fuck to write about. So I started writing these short stories in preparation to teach me to write this fucking Film for the Blind. All those short stories became my first album. I still haven’t done the Film for the Blind so maybe that will be my second record.
DRE:
So you feel a little bit like a frustrated filmmaker?
PB:
Yeah, a filmmaker without a camera. I don’t have the money or the means to make films, so I try and do it through music. I try to describe exactly what’s going on so I can paint a picture in your mind. I feel like I got to a point where I can take the big project on board now but at the same time I don’t want to ruin the whole concept of it. It’s still got to work musically.
DRE:
Were you looking to try and make it in America with this album?
PB:
I just wanted to make music that was universal. I didn’t want to make music in a way that only the people who live near me can relate and understand it. That’s why I chose storytelling because anyone can go watch a film. American people go to watch British films, because a good film is a good film. I wanted to write about things that weren’t exclusive to me or my friends or where I was from.
DRE:
Do you feel like people do that too much?
PB:
Yeah, I think if you come from somewhere like Brooklyn or Compton, someplace that’s famous for hip-hop then it’s cool because people around the world know about Compton and Brooklyn. But I can’t really do that where I’m from, because there’s no way I’m going to put my area on the map like that. It’s just not as important as all those other places. If I wanted to be a hip-hop artist, I had to have a different angle and something fresh, something that wasn’t talking about me being a gangster or whatever the fuck because I ain’t a gangster. That would just been fake. But at the same time, I wanted to talk about violent shit. I wanted to talk about shit that disgusted me and some shit that excited me.
As men, I think we all have urges to watch violent films. We like gangster films or action films or whatever the fuck. It doesn’t mean we want to do that shit in real life but we like to watch films with swearing and all the rest of it. I suppose half of what I do is me satisfying that need to be aggressive and be angry, but the other half is me trying to put my morality through my music and trying to put a message out as well.
DRE:
Certainly one of the messages you’re talking about is that you think kids take what artists say too seriously.
PB:
I’m not going to be dissing any artist because at the end of the day, I fucking grew up listening to all these artists. But certain kids out there that are ignorant and they can’t listen to gangster rap without taking it literally. I can listen to 50 Cent as somebody else’s story. But there are kids in the UK that will listen to that and then they want to be like 50 Cent. They want to go and hustle. They want to fucking carry guns and possibly get shot so they can rap about it. The whole point of what I’m doing is that I can’t pick up a mic and rap about being a gangster and glamorize that shit because I ain’t. But what I can rap about is the reality of it and I can try and teach these kids that when you’re listening to gangster rap, you’ve got to treat it exactly the same as if you’re watching a movie. The first time you handle a gun and you point it at someone, you’re more likely to get shot by some other motherfucker or you’re going to go to prison.
DRE:
I’m sure you’ve been on plenty of tours with other rappers. Do you feel like you get along with them?
PB:
Oh yeah, like I said, I enjoy listening to that shit. I enjoy it because I’m sophisticated enough to know that I don’t have to let it influence me. I love fucking gangster rap. I love gangster films. I love all that shit, but it’s entertainment to me and I would never criticize anyone for rapping in that way.
DRE:
What producers worked on this album with you?
PB:
I worked a lot with the top producers man. I worked with Fraser T. Smith who’s like Craig David’s guitarist. Then Paul Epworth did No Good and done a little bit of work on Where Ya From? But apart from that most of the album was me. I produced it myself. I got to a point where the label spent a lot of money on it and I worked with a lot of different producers and we weren’t getting nowhere. So I just booked some studio time and got a bunch of musicians and just finished it myself. I didn’t know how to use a lot of the equipment and shit so I thought “Fuck this, let me just record it live" so from then on songs like Tough Love, I Don’t Hate You and Everyday was all live instruments. I sat the musicians down and sang them what I wanted them to play. Like if it was a cello I hummed them the lines. Then I got my boy Jimmy Robinson to mix it for me.
DRE:
Have you started to produce for other people?
PB:
I would love to be involved in producing other bands that I think are cool or have potential but I don’t have the ability that Epworth has. I don’t know how to use the equipment to do that. What I am good at is creating music, writing hooks and shit like that. So I’m calling myself a producer in that respect. I’ve been able to sit with a band to get a good sound out of them and get songs finished. The problem is I’m always going to need a Paul Epworth to come and mix tracks for me because I don’t know how to work them things and shit like that. That’s how I got my album man, me just ordering people about, telling them what to do and then getting my boy to mix it. That’s why for me I feel like the record could have been better in terms of sound. But it was the tools I had to work with.
DRE:
The first half of the album is much different from the second half. Were you looking to almost have a double feeling to it?
PB:
At the start, I wanted to get the more lighthearted shit out the way so I could get more serious for the end half of the album. I wanted to take it from light to dark. I saw that as a progression.
DRE:
Was the stop-motion video [for Monkeysaurus] your idea?
PB:
Yeah, the director Daniel Levy, South African dude. He came to me with the idea but I’ve seen it done before really cheaply and I really didn’t like it. But then I’ve seen Daniel Levy’s other videos he’s done and I was blown away by them. I thought they were amazing so I just chanced it man. We filmed it all in this one guy’s flat.
DRE:
It took forever right?
PB:
Yeah, it took like five days man. I was basically Wallace & Gromit for five days. I was like one them fucking plasticine fucking models man. I had this lady with pictures of the faces I had to do. She’d put a mirror in front of my face and I had to try and copy what they wanted me to do. It was hard work but it was also enjoyable because I’d come up with ideas on set. I came up with the idea of playing Tetris in the background and other shit like that. There are not a lot of people to get their first video to be as exciting as that one.
DRE:
What do you think of the rise in grime rap?
PB:
If American people are taking to it, then it’s a great thing for British music because the British industry is starting to turn its back on it now, which is really fucking fickle and sad. I feel like they jumped on before it had time to grow into anything anywhere. They wanted a UK version of hip-hop that was different and fresh and as soon as they found a bunch of kids that were doing it, they jumped on it and started the whole carrot on the stick thing. A&R started showing interest in these kids that were doing something original so these kids got it twisted and got lost along the way. They were trying to make music that they thought the A&R wanted to hear instead of making the music they wanted to. There were many artists that released albums and then got dropped. I think the shame is that there was too much focus put on it and they should have been left to do what they wanted to do, so now the industry is starting to turn their back on it. It would be great for Americans to get into it and show some appreciation because this means that we can keep it going and hopefully keep it growing into something bigger and better. I can do grime easy. All I’d have to do is half time my flow. But the stuff I choose to do, I would call more hip-hop. But I dabble in the grime scene and I’m very willing to participate and back it as much as I can.
DRE:
I read you already started the work on the next album and it is going to be another movie idea but this time about a junkie.
PB:
That’s just one idea I’ve got and I’ve actually written a couple of songs. It’s about my friend who’s a heroin addict. I started writing some songs about him and what he’s been through and then just came up with this concept for an album based on him and all the levels of addiction. That’s in the pipeline. Besides being into hip-hop, I write R&B, I write fucking folk and I’ve got some songs that aren’t hip-hop. I might release the folk next. I might do it under a different name. I don’t think the next thing I’m going to release is going to be straight hip-hop. Right now I’m in a place where I’m just fucking battling with people in the UK and battling with radio stations and people that have a preconception of me just being this angry fucking white kid who just says the word cunt. Although I am that, I’m not just that. There’s a lot more to my talent. I think since they think I’m so fucking one dimensional, that is the reason why I’m finding it hard to play at certain festivals and finding it hard to fucking get my songs A-listed and shit. Maybe I need to show the fucking cunts in the UK that I can do certain kinds of songs well.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
Make Plan B the first thing you do because his new EP Time 4 Plan B is amazing. Plan B is part of a new generation of hip-hop artists from the UK that are taking hip-hip and adding some English to it. Plan B is a much smarter guy than some people might think. He loves hip-hop and is so damn excited that he can throw his hat into the ring.
Check out the website for Plan B
Daniel Robert Epstein: Are you having a good time in New York?
Plan B: Yeah I’m enjoying myself, definitely. I went down to Katz’s yesterday. I got myself a Reuben in there. It’s nice.
DRE:
They don’t make those over in the UK.
PB:
They don’t bro, not at all.
DRE:
I had a Reuben the other day myself.
What inspired the new album?
What inspired the new album?
PB:
Each song was inspired by different things, almost like real life things and some are just fiction. When I started rapping, I realized I’m an ambitious guy and I didn’t want to just be a rapper talking about his ends. I knew that people in America were making a shit about where I was from so I had to have something else, something to just interest them. For me that was storytelling. I came up with a concept which was Film for the Blind, which was me making this big film. I started trying to write this film but didn’t have a clue what the fuck to write about. So I started writing these short stories in preparation to teach me to write this fucking Film for the Blind. All those short stories became my first album. I still haven’t done the Film for the Blind so maybe that will be my second record.
DRE:
So you feel a little bit like a frustrated filmmaker?
PB:
Yeah, a filmmaker without a camera. I don’t have the money or the means to make films, so I try and do it through music. I try to describe exactly what’s going on so I can paint a picture in your mind. I feel like I got to a point where I can take the big project on board now but at the same time I don’t want to ruin the whole concept of it. It’s still got to work musically.
DRE:
Were you looking to try and make it in America with this album?
PB:
I just wanted to make music that was universal. I didn’t want to make music in a way that only the people who live near me can relate and understand it. That’s why I chose storytelling because anyone can go watch a film. American people go to watch British films, because a good film is a good film. I wanted to write about things that weren’t exclusive to me or my friends or where I was from.
DRE:
Do you feel like people do that too much?
PB:
Yeah, I think if you come from somewhere like Brooklyn or Compton, someplace that’s famous for hip-hop then it’s cool because people around the world know about Compton and Brooklyn. But I can’t really do that where I’m from, because there’s no way I’m going to put my area on the map like that. It’s just not as important as all those other places. If I wanted to be a hip-hop artist, I had to have a different angle and something fresh, something that wasn’t talking about me being a gangster or whatever the fuck because I ain’t a gangster. That would just been fake. But at the same time, I wanted to talk about violent shit. I wanted to talk about shit that disgusted me and some shit that excited me.
As men, I think we all have urges to watch violent films. We like gangster films or action films or whatever the fuck. It doesn’t mean we want to do that shit in real life but we like to watch films with swearing and all the rest of it. I suppose half of what I do is me satisfying that need to be aggressive and be angry, but the other half is me trying to put my morality through my music and trying to put a message out as well.
As men, I think we all have urges to watch violent films. We like gangster films or action films or whatever the fuck. It doesn’t mean we want to do that shit in real life but we like to watch films with swearing and all the rest of it. I suppose half of what I do is me satisfying that need to be aggressive and be angry, but the other half is me trying to put my morality through my music and trying to put a message out as well.
DRE:
Certainly one of the messages you’re talking about is that you think kids take what artists say too seriously.
PB:
I’m not going to be dissing any artist because at the end of the day, I fucking grew up listening to all these artists. But certain kids out there that are ignorant and they can’t listen to gangster rap without taking it literally. I can listen to 50 Cent as somebody else’s story. But there are kids in the UK that will listen to that and then they want to be like 50 Cent. They want to go and hustle. They want to fucking carry guns and possibly get shot so they can rap about it. The whole point of what I’m doing is that I can’t pick up a mic and rap about being a gangster and glamorize that shit because I ain’t. But what I can rap about is the reality of it and I can try and teach these kids that when you’re listening to gangster rap, you’ve got to treat it exactly the same as if you’re watching a movie. The first time you handle a gun and you point it at someone, you’re more likely to get shot by some other motherfucker or you’re going to go to prison.
DRE:
I’m sure you’ve been on plenty of tours with other rappers. Do you feel like you get along with them?
PB:
Oh yeah, like I said, I enjoy listening to that shit. I enjoy it because I’m sophisticated enough to know that I don’t have to let it influence me. I love fucking gangster rap. I love gangster films. I love all that shit, but it’s entertainment to me and I would never criticize anyone for rapping in that way.
DRE:
What producers worked on this album with you?
PB:
I worked a lot with the top producers man. I worked with Fraser T. Smith who’s like Craig David’s guitarist. Then Paul Epworth did No Good and done a little bit of work on Where Ya From? But apart from that most of the album was me. I produced it myself. I got to a point where the label spent a lot of money on it and I worked with a lot of different producers and we weren’t getting nowhere. So I just booked some studio time and got a bunch of musicians and just finished it myself. I didn’t know how to use a lot of the equipment and shit so I thought “Fuck this, let me just record it live" so from then on songs like Tough Love, I Don’t Hate You and Everyday was all live instruments. I sat the musicians down and sang them what I wanted them to play. Like if it was a cello I hummed them the lines. Then I got my boy Jimmy Robinson to mix it for me.
DRE:
Have you started to produce for other people?
PB:
I would love to be involved in producing other bands that I think are cool or have potential but I don’t have the ability that Epworth has. I don’t know how to use the equipment to do that. What I am good at is creating music, writing hooks and shit like that. So I’m calling myself a producer in that respect. I’ve been able to sit with a band to get a good sound out of them and get songs finished. The problem is I’m always going to need a Paul Epworth to come and mix tracks for me because I don’t know how to work them things and shit like that. That’s how I got my album man, me just ordering people about, telling them what to do and then getting my boy to mix it. That’s why for me I feel like the record could have been better in terms of sound. But it was the tools I had to work with.
DRE:
The first half of the album is much different from the second half. Were you looking to almost have a double feeling to it?
PB:
At the start, I wanted to get the more lighthearted shit out the way so I could get more serious for the end half of the album. I wanted to take it from light to dark. I saw that as a progression.
DRE:
Was the stop-motion video [for Monkeysaurus] your idea?
PB:
Yeah, the director Daniel Levy, South African dude. He came to me with the idea but I’ve seen it done before really cheaply and I really didn’t like it. But then I’ve seen Daniel Levy’s other videos he’s done and I was blown away by them. I thought they were amazing so I just chanced it man. We filmed it all in this one guy’s flat.
DRE:
It took forever right?
PB:
Yeah, it took like five days man. I was basically Wallace & Gromit for five days. I was like one them fucking plasticine fucking models man. I had this lady with pictures of the faces I had to do. She’d put a mirror in front of my face and I had to try and copy what they wanted me to do. It was hard work but it was also enjoyable because I’d come up with ideas on set. I came up with the idea of playing Tetris in the background and other shit like that. There are not a lot of people to get their first video to be as exciting as that one.
DRE:
What do you think of the rise in grime rap?
PB:
If American people are taking to it, then it’s a great thing for British music because the British industry is starting to turn its back on it now, which is really fucking fickle and sad. I feel like they jumped on before it had time to grow into anything anywhere. They wanted a UK version of hip-hop that was different and fresh and as soon as they found a bunch of kids that were doing it, they jumped on it and started the whole carrot on the stick thing. A&R started showing interest in these kids that were doing something original so these kids got it twisted and got lost along the way. They were trying to make music that they thought the A&R wanted to hear instead of making the music they wanted to. There were many artists that released albums and then got dropped. I think the shame is that there was too much focus put on it and they should have been left to do what they wanted to do, so now the industry is starting to turn their back on it. It would be great for Americans to get into it and show some appreciation because this means that we can keep it going and hopefully keep it growing into something bigger and better. I can do grime easy. All I’d have to do is half time my flow. But the stuff I choose to do, I would call more hip-hop. But I dabble in the grime scene and I’m very willing to participate and back it as much as I can.
DRE:
I read you already started the work on the next album and it is going to be another movie idea but this time about a junkie.
PB:
That’s just one idea I’ve got and I’ve actually written a couple of songs. It’s about my friend who’s a heroin addict. I started writing some songs about him and what he’s been through and then just came up with this concept for an album based on him and all the levels of addiction. That’s in the pipeline. Besides being into hip-hop, I write R&B, I write fucking folk and I’ve got some songs that aren’t hip-hop. I might release the folk next. I might do it under a different name. I don’t think the next thing I’m going to release is going to be straight hip-hop. Right now I’m in a place where I’m just fucking battling with people in the UK and battling with radio stations and people that have a preconception of me just being this angry fucking white kid who just says the word cunt. Although I am that, I’m not just that. There’s a lot more to my talent. I think since they think I’m so fucking one dimensional, that is the reason why I’m finding it hard to play at certain festivals and finding it hard to fucking get my songs A-listed and shit. Maybe I need to show the fucking cunts in the UK that I can do certain kinds of songs well.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
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