Skip to main content

The Defamation of Strickland Banks

The Defamation of Strickland Banks is an album by British rapper/singer Plan B (real name Ben Drew). Released in 2010, The Defamation (that's what I'm calling it for short, lol) is a concept album which tells the story of fictional soul singer Strickland Banks (played by Plan B), who becomes famous but loses it all when he is falsely convicted of rape and sent to prison. It was Plan B's second studio album and debuted at No 1 on the UK Album Charts.

Strickland finds success with his singles Love Goes Down and Writing's On The Wall. After performing at a concert, he goes out to celebrate and has a one night stand with an obsessed fan (played by actress Kaya Scoledario). When Strickland rejects her the next morning, she accuses him of raping her. He's convicted of rape and sent to prison.

Strickland becomes a recluse and is later abused by other inmates. He trades in his cigarettes for a shiv (prison knife type weapon) to protect himself. It comes in handy when he's attacked by another inmate but he ends up killing him in self defence. Another prisoner who helped Strickland takes the blame, which leads to Strickland feeling extremely guilty. Eventually he comes to accept his imprisonment but then there is a glimmer of hope for him with the chance of a re-trial due to new evidence. The album ends on a cliff hanger and you don't know if Strickland was released or not.

The songs that were singles weren't all released in the order they appeared on the album. I wanted to post them on here in chronological order, but although the first song on the album is Love Goes Down, the video ends with Strickland getting arrested, so it's behind the others. It was the 5th single from the album (released in December 2010). So I'm going to post the song Love Goes Down now but post the video later. Here's Love Goes Down:




And here's Writing's On The Wall. It was the 6th single and came out in March 2011. In this video Strickland performs at the concert and then goes out to celebrate afterwards while his girlfriend (Vicky McClure) waits at home for him. He and his girlfriend appear to be having problems and this is the night Strickland meets the fan (the girl he has a one night stand with) and goes home with her. According to Wikipedia there are two versions of the music video but I can't find another one.






Stay Too Long was the first single but it's the 3rd song and the videos are pretty similar (both relating to Strickland at the concert and then going out partying, except Writing's On The Wall is from the angle of his relationship breaking down), so I'll post it next time. :)

Plan B wanted to make a musical film based on The Defamation but I'm not sure if  he has yet. Watch the trailer for the album/videos here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Po_ArckLTXg

You can visit Plan B's site at: www.time4planb.co.uk
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

New Unexpected

We're finally getting the new season of the reality TV series Unexpected in the UK! Season 3 was shown in the US last summer , and I wondered when we'd get it here. I don't have any online streaming services so thought I'd just watch clips on YouTube, lol. However it's now starting here in early March. Similar to the popular MTV franchise Teen Mom , Unexpected focuses on teen parents. The first series featured 3 couples expecting babies- Lily Bennett and her boyfriend James Kennedy who have daughter Aaliyah, now 2;  Mckayla Adkins and partner Caelan Morrison who have son Timothy, also known as Timmy (and now daughter Gracelynn , born in January 2019), and  Lexus Scheller and boyfriend Shayden Massey who have daughter Scarlett. Season 2 saw the departure of Lilly and the addition of 3 new pregnant girls and their partners- Laura Barron and her boyfriend (now husband) Tylor Stawmyor who have son Lucas (and have since had another baby , a 2nd son, who is named Leo), ...
Post a Comment
Read more

South Indian Videos

I've written several Bollywood posts this year but I don't feature South Indian music/films as much. So today I'm sharing some music and dance videos from Tollywood ( the Telugu language film industry) and Kollywood (the Tamil language film industry). :) Oo Antava Mawa- Pushpa- Dance Cover by Sonali First up is a dance cover of the song Oo Antava Mawa..Oo Oo Antava from the 2021 Tollywood film Pushpa: The Rise- Part 1 . I previously featured a dance cover of Oo Antava Mawa in a Dance Videos post in August last year. That one is by Rang De and you can see it here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2023/08/dance-videos.html This cover is by Indian choreographer Sonali Bhaduria, from LiveToDance with Sonali and was uploaded in January 2022. It's a shorter video.   For more on Pushpa and to watch the official Oo Antava Mawa video, check out my Tollywood Videos Round-up 2 post from September 2023: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2023/09/tollywood-videos-round-up-2.html ...
Post a Comment
Read more

20th Anniversary of Mariah's The Emancipation of Mimi Album- Part 1

My favourite singer Mariah Carey is celebrating the 20th Anniversary of her 10th studio album The Emancipation of Mimi. It was released back in April 2005. I'd planned to write just one post about the album but it was turning into a really long one, so I've decided to divide it into two parts! Here is Part 1. :) The Emancipation of Mimi (or TEOM for short!) was considered Mariah's "comeback album" at the time, following on from her previous two albums, Glitter (2001) which was accompanied by the film of the same name and Charmbracelet (2002). Neither the Glitter movie or album were very well received and after going through a difficult time in general, Mariah had an emotional and physical breakdown and checked into hospital that summer. She was diagnosed with bipolar II disorder , although didn't feel ready to speak about it pubicly until several years later .  Although Charmbracelet (MC's first release after leaving Virgin Records America and singing w...
Post a Comment
Read more