Plan B (musician) - Early Life

Early Life

Drew was born and brought up in London. His mother worked for a local authority and his father, Paul Ballance, played in a punk band, the Warm Jets, in the 1970s. Drew was five months old when his father walked out and six years old when he "disappeared completely". Growing up, he felt outcast from much of society:

We weren't working class but we weren't middle class, we were in the void in-between. I've always felt like a social outcast. —Plan B, The Telegraph (15 June 2006)

From 11, Drew attended Anglo European School in Ingatestone, Essex, was later transferred to Tom Hood Schoolwhich is now Buxton all through learning community, a specialist Science College in Leytonstone, before being expelled and sent to Tunmarsh Pupil Referral Unit in Newham, for children unable to attend mainstream school. He finally left school with three GCSEs. He taught himself how to play guitar at 14, first playing Blur and Oasis with friends, then going on to write his own R&B love songs. At 18, feeling uncomfortable with R&B, he turned towards rap and hip hop music and wrote "Kidz", inspired by the murder of Damilola Taylor

The whole reason for calling myself Plan B was that I was doing this sweet-boy Justin Timberlake shit, but I never felt comfortable… When I started rapping, it was easier for me to feel comfortable. —Plan B, USA Today (15 March 2007)