Originally written by Mike Diver · 12 December 2005
Plan B
Sick 2 Def / No Good
Label: 679 Recordings Release Date: 12/12/2005
Rapper-with-guitar Plan B has issues: people aren't rough enough to step to him, television is evil, censors block the wrong material. The themes of 'Sick 2 Def', delivered acoustically, are familiar enough, but Plan B's delivery - his unmistakable London accent both endearing and irritating - is so impassioned that not one lyric passes unabsorbed. (Alleged) paedophiles on Top Of The Pops, Little Mo getting raped, boys-only biscuit games, referencing Nas' rap style and Daily Mail _'video nasties', racial stereotypes (he calls himself a wigga and curses his pink penis): modern culture clashes with forever-relevant concerns in vivid stereo. _"That's some nasty shit but you don't ban it." Almost five minutes later, your mouth is on the deck.
'No Good' cleverly steals the "...I don't need nobody..." hook from the Prodigy's song of the same name, but its beats aren't as attention-grabbing as the preceding song's arresting nakedness. A flow of expletives - "I'd change my name to Kunt with a capital K" - and graphical violence ensure neither track will bother daytime radio in the manner of Mike Skinner, but Plan B is clearly capable of following in the man's crossover footsteps, such is the man's obvious thirst for progress and change. "My name's Plan B and I rap and sing," he states for the record; one feels he's capable of even more _off _it.
• 8 Mike Diver's Score