He’s back: Plan B’s stayed away too long and now he's in Birmingham

The star will headline Birmingham’s O2 tonight for a sell-out show to premiere his new material live and feature other fan favourites.

Heaven Before Hell Breaks Loose is the rapper’s first new album in eight years. His last record, The Defamation of Strickland Banks, hit number one and sold more than a million copies. His Ill Manors project followed, having been motivated by the London riots of 2011.

Plan B has famously reinvented himself through his career and has done so again for his new record.

He’s kicked his nightly habit of Jack Daniels and Coke and is in better shape that he’s been for years. “You see pictures of me at the Ivor Novello awards, I mean, I looked ill.

“I was so overweight, and to deal with the workload, I was getting through a bottle of JD a night. Then you fancy a bag of crisps, or a bit of ice cream – and it wasn’t a problem before, but it is now, because of all the calories you’re putting in yourself with the drink.”

Plan B avoids the notion of celebrity. He has no truck with fame. He wants to enter the nation’s consciousness and make a statement.

“I am the Coke bottle. I am the product. And I have a choice: either my album will be a poster for the product, or I can try and make an art statement. I don’t want to be a celebrity. I want everything I do to feel like a . . . like an art installation.”

He’s had to regroup since Ill Manors.

“I felt spiritually lost at the end of Ill Manors. I hadn’t seen my family, really, since 2009. Certain friendships were just completely dissolving. I’d always felt like I was fighting to be taken seriously, fighting for recognition, and suddenly I had it all, and I thought, ‘Damn, I’ve got nothing to fight for’.”