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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

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