Beating the rap

London-based hip-hop star Maverick Sabre has shown sceptics an Irish boy can do urban music, says Ed Power

MICHAEL Stafford, aka Wexford R’n’B performer Maverick Sabre, says of the violence at Swedish House Mafia’s Phoenix Park concert: “After the London riots, everyone was saying ‘let’s blame it on the music, let’s blame it on the kids’. Maybe the people taking that view should step back and try to look at the bigger picture. They might be surprised at what they see.”

Stafford says he’s tired of young people being blamed for society’s ills. Maybe the rest of us have responsibility.