Tour with hip-hop album: Will Smith on protests in LA: would like to be part of the solution

Hollywood star Will Smith (56) wants to assert his influence positively with regard to the clashes between demonstrators and security forces in Los Angeles. “I live in Los Angeles and that’s an incredibly difficult time,” said Smith in an interview with the German Press Agency in London. But he had the feeling that he was “in a unique position to help”.

Thought about career in politics

Referred to the events in LA: “I always hate it when the solution is worse than the problem”. He made a positive effect on the tense situation and be part of a better solution, he made it clear.

However, he did not want to get involved politically, he made it clear. “I thought about a career in politics, but I have the feeling that the artistic form of expression in this phase of my life is my contribution as a person,” said the Oscar winner (“King Richard”). “I will say the things I want to say and research the things I want to research.”

He wanted to influence his music primarily to “bring in an element of hope and optimism,” said Smith, who had repeatedly critically commented on US President Donald Trump in the 2016 election campaign.

Creative source discovered

The multi-award-winning actor and musician recently published a hip-hop album entitled “Based on a True Story”, in which he sometimes opposes the adversity in his life. Among other things, he also processes the Oscar night in 2022 when he fell in front of all eyes because of a joke about the illness-related hair loss of his wife Jada Pinkett Smith (53).

Smith did not want to reveal whether he has now spoken to Chris Rock about the incident. However, he reported a “creative source” in the past three years as a result of the difficulties, he reported. “The music just started to get out of me,” said the star, who shortly starts a European tour with songs from the new record, but also classics from his career for more than three decades.

Prince of Bel Air will also play a role

Smith, who received a Grammy in 1989 in the duo with DJ Jazzy Jeff, published a total of five studio albums and stormed the charts with songs like “Men in Black”, “Gettin ‘Jiggy Wit”, “Miami” and “Wild Wild West”.

The “Fresh Prince”, as it has been called in Philadelphia since his school days, appears in mid -July in Hamburg, Hanover, Frankfurt, Wolfsburg, Bern and Sankt Pölten. In the dpa interview, he indicated that elements from the successful series “The Prince of Bel Air” will also play a role.