Plan B at The Basement, Sydney

Last night I went to see Plan B play a showcase at The Basement. I have been raving about this man for a long time, so I was excited to finally get to see him perform live.Plan B is Ben Drew, a London-based performer who raps over acoustic guitar. Arriving onstage at 11.30pm, he started his set by treating the anticipatory crowd to a handful of acoustic numbers from his outstanding album Who Needs Actions When You Got Words, including Kidz, Mama (Loves a Crackhead) and Charmaine. In amongst the bile-fuelled, witty, confrontational and controversial rapping, there were delicate choruses which showed this guy really can sing beautifully.

He ditched his guitar and was instead joined by a DJ for the second half of the set, where he busted out tracks like No Good and a disturbing adaptation of Leonard Cohen's Suzanne. The excited crowd were going nuts, and after two encores were still hollaring for more.

It was an incredible and dexterous gig, and proved that Plan B has talent in abundance which transcends the initial quirkiness of seeing a rapper strumming an acoustic guitar. This guy is a serious, intelligent and important figure in modern music. I hate to say I told you so (alright), but I told you so.

Here is a short clip from Mama (Loves a Crackhead) which illustrates how he juxtaposes angry verse with a beautiful singing voice (please excuse the sound quality):