Plan B retires Strickland Banks

Plan B is retiring his soul alter ego Strickland Banks.

The rapper turned faux soul star scored huge commercial and critical success with his last album 'The Defamation Of Strickland Banks' - a concept driven record written in the first person, which saw the titular hero deal with life in the underworld and sent to prison- but has said he won't be following it up with a similar sounding record.

He said: "Why try and make another soul record when I made the best soul record I could? It was the best I could do.

"As an artist, someone with many different tastes, I want to go and venture into a different style, maybe reggae, maybe punk, dubstep.

"Who knows. There's stuff that I'm experimenting with at the moment that I really want to get stuck into."

The 27-year-old artist - real name Ben Drew- released a debut album of rap songs, 'Who Needs Actions When You Got Words' in 2006, and will return to the hip hop genre with his next release, 'The Ballad of Belmarsh' which gives an alternative version of the events in 'The Defamation Of Strickland Banks'.

The album will come out on an independent label after his record company, Atlantic, opted not to release it.

'The Defamation Of Strickland Banks' was the fifth biggest selling record of 2010 in the UK.