Who Needs Actions When You Got Words : Plan B: : Review : Rolling Stone

Last year, English rapper Ben "Plan B" Drew blew up a little in the U.K. with a debut that highlighted dark, visceral beats and quick-tongued, angry rhymes about crack addiction and busted love. Now released stateside, Who Needs Actions is a record you won't quickly forget, thanks especially to Drew's over-the-top lyrics. But that's no reason to like him. At its best, as on the kind-of-sweet "Mama (Loves a Crackhead)," Who Needs Actions translates its vibrant, in-ya-face beats and lyrics into big, ballsy entertainment almost on par with Eminem's debut. But much of the CD is pretty unpleasant, with bleak music that sounds less than innovative and a load of self-important shock rhymes that try too damn hard, as on the murder ballad "Sick 2 Def," which rhymes "cum in a biscuit" with "sadistic" and "raping a corpse" with "genital warts."