My culture picks: Plan B

8 May 2018

Plan B, aka Ben Drew, is an English hip hop artist, actor and director. As his new album Heaven Before All Hell Breaks Loose is released and he begins a UK tour, he tells Front Row about his favourite artist, film and musician.

John Harris is known for his science fiction paintings and illustrations, many of which have been used on the cover of books by authors such as Isaac Asimov.

Drew says: "I just love his work, I completely gravitated towards it. It’s otherworldly. It feels like a glimpse of the future - it feels alien yet familiar. I'm just in love with it. I watched this documentary about his work and I was hooked. I couldn’t get this image of the moon out of my head."

Drew went on to use this image, entitled Inside the Roche Limit, for the cover of his new album Heaven Before All Hell Breaks Loose. More of Harris’s work can be seen on his website.

Interstellar was released in 2014 and directed by Christopher Nolan. It tells the story of a team of explorers who travel through a wormhole to find a new home for mankind.

Drew says: "Interstellar got the balance right for me and it was so spiritual because I had already started discussing with friends the concept of dimensions - the idea that our existence right now could also be inhabited by multiple other existences.

"The theory of the multiverse really intrigued me. When I watched it, I was like, 'Wow, they're talking about the multiverse in a way that people can understand it'. They smashed it.

"I was so enthused that other people were enthused and wanted to talk about it. I think it’s so culturally significant right now for us as human beings to be thinking openly about the possibilities of that kind of thing."

Interstellar won both the Bafta and the Oscar for Best Visual Effects in 2015 and is available to buy on DVD. Image © AF Archive/Alamy Images.

Slowthai is an up-and-coming hip hop artist from Northampton.

Drew says: "I loved how he was completely being himself. I saw his video North Nights and his performance in the video is sublime.

"He proper gives himself to the camera, to the narrative. You can tell that the video probably hasn’t cost that much and I love it when those videos are better than everybody else who has spent tens of thousands on theirs.

"Everybody needs to check him out. I personally love his energy - I think everybody else is going to as well."