Labrinth: "I Hope The Olympics Will Help Us Forget The London Riots"
21 January 2012, 14:22 | Updated: 21 January 2012, 14:34
The 'Earthquake' star admits the summer games should change the energy of local communities.
Labrinth has confessed that he hopes this year's London Olympic Games will help people forget about last summer's riots in the capital and UK.
The 'Let The Sunshine' star is a local to London Borough of Hackney and admitted that it was a "tough" to watch and is looking forward to a change of fortunes for the area.
Speaking to The Sun, he said: "Last year was tough for Hackney. We hit a real low with the riots. I am really hoping that the Games will change the energy of that area and lighten things up.
"It will allow us to forget our troubles, which is quite nice — though it shouldn't make people forget the issues."
The star also went on to add that he felt the riots quickly turned "ugly" and he didn't "respect" the violence he saw.
"Some people felt the need to make a political statement, which I understand — but it turned into something ugly and mindless. It became like a violent 'snow day', where everyone just looked at it as an opportunity to go crazy and steal stuff.
"I didn't respect that at all. There's more sophisticated ways of making political statements," he added.
The singer was also one of the names who took part in last year's Children In Need song and confessed that he thought the track spoke out to those involved in the riots.
Meanwhile, Labrinth is currently getting ready to release his debut album 'Electronic Earth' and recently admitted that he ran into Leonardo DiCaprio and Jamie Foxx while filming a new music video in Los Angeles.