Akon Talks about Declining Drake to Label as ‘He Sounded Like Eminem’. Watch Now
Last month, Legendary Artist Akon drops off his latest project “Ain’t No Peace“, and keeps his music and interviews floating around the internet. Akon sat down with VLAD tv for an exclusive interview session where he talks about his music, plans, and how he collaborated with Eminem. Akon also talks about why he passed on signing Drake as his Demo tapes more sound like Eminem.
Akon has donned various achievements in his illustrious career. He’s been a musician, a producer, a label head, and most recently, the mayor of his own Senegalese city. The musician has collaborated with a number of well-known artists, but he’s also passed up on a few opportunities. Drake is one of the most well-known performers he missed out on, for reasons he recently attempted to explain.
He said, “Kardinal Offishall brought (Drake) to me in 2005,” Akon continues by saying, “I think it was, It was right before ‘Best I Ever Had’ blew up because, at the time, it was more mixtape-ish, you know. At the time, believe it or not, Drake sounded more like Eminem.”
Akon has donned numerous hats during his career. He’s been a performer, a producer, a label owner, and he even signed off on his own Senegalese city. The musician has collaborated with many well-known artists, but he has also passed on a few opportunities. Drake is one of the biggest musicians he missed out on, for reasons he recently attempted to explain.
“With that demo that I heard, he sounded more like Em. That’s every artist developing. You can see the difference in that demo and the ‘Best I Ever Had.’ It was completely different. ‘Best I Ever Had’ was when everybody was after him. At that time, he hadn’t quite signed, he was negotiating with everybody. It was this huge bidding war. And that’s when Kardi was like n****, I told you this n**** was going to be the sh*t. I said, ‘Why don’t you reach out?’ He said, ‘I can, but the lowest bid right now is a million.’ I said, ‘Sh*t, I ain’t got a million dollars.’”
Continuing his words, Akon said “Out of all the artists today, to me, [Drake] is worth every single f*cking penny. Every single penny. That motherf*cker’s a genius, bro. It’s revolutionary what he’s done.” Akon also revealed nobody had signed Drake by that point and that the lowest offer was $1 million.
A few years later when “Best I Ever Had” started hitting, there was a huge label war surrounding Drizzy and Akon knew his window had closed. “That’s when Kardi said, ‘Ni**a, I told you this ni**a was gon’ be the sh*t,’” he recounted. “I responded, ‘Well crap, reach out!’ He replied you may, but the slowest bid at the now is a million.’ “I said, ‘Sh*t, I don’t have a million bucks.‘”
Despite disregarding Drizzy, Akon had a successful corporate career. He was the one who signed T-Pain and launched Lady Gaga’s career. Nothing, however, compares to having The Boy on your side.
The rapper’s failure to trademark ‘Certified Lover Boy’ before of the album’s release was recently uncovered. According to a recent report, Drake’s lawyer tried to get the copyright for the term as early as February, aiming to seize ownership of the phrase for music recordings, television, film, and live events, as well as clothes.
Check out the interview session below.
