Akon may be a successful record executive but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t made mistakes. It turns out he passed on a certain Canadian rapper.
During an interview with VladTV, Akon admitted he passed on Drake before his career exploded. The Toronto rapper was brought to his attention by Toronto rapper Kardinal Offishal who gave him the artist’s demos. Akon surprisingly wasn’t impressed, not believing that Drake had his own style.
“At the time, believe it or not, Drake sounded more like Eminem,” Akon told DJ Vlad. “That’s every artists’ development. You can see the difference between that demo and ‘Best I Ever Had.’”
“That’s when Kardi was like ‘N***a, I told you this n***a was going to be the shit,’” he continued. “I said, ‘Well, reach out.’ He said, ‘You can but the lowest bid right not is a million.’”
Akon isn’t bitter though and admitted his admiration for the superstar’s achievements. “Out of all the artists today, to me, [Drake] is worth every single fucking penny,” Akon said to DJ Vlad. “Every single penny. That motherfucker’s a genius, bro. It’s revolutionary what he’s done.”
It’s been a while since Akon’s music heyday, when he scored he topped the Billboard Hot 100 twice thirteen years ago with ‘I Wanna Love You’ and ‘Don’t Matter’. He has devoted his time to nobler pursuits, using his millions to help the people of Africa.
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He is in the process of building a futuristic, technologically advanced city, Akon City, in Senegal, which he has already gotten the land and license for. He has also brought electricity to people in Africa via his for-profit initiative Akon Lighting Africa which promotes sustainability rather than charity.
“We feel like charity just doesn’t work with Africa and I don’t think it works anywhere in the world,” he went on. “If you’re not empowering people or giving them jobs…you’re wasting your time, you’re wasting people’s valuable money.
They’re going to spend it and put their hand right back out and be in the same position in the following week or month or year.”
Relive the iconic ‘Lonely’ by Akon:
