Multi-platinum
selling singer/songwriter/producer Akon, whose recent single “Smack
That" featuring Eminem, stormed into the UK chart at no. 1 , has his brand
new single “I Wanna Love You" released on February 12th through Universal
Records. The single, also taken from the Senegal-born, US-based superstar’s new
multi-platinum album "Konvicted", features the one and only Snoop Dogg
and looks set to give Akon another huge chart smash. Up until a couple of weeks
ago Akon occupied the numbers 1 and 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Smack That"
and “I Wanna Love You." Not one to put all of his eggs in the music basket, the Senegalese-born star, has also established a diamond supply and mining company called Aliaune that supplies diamonds to dealers across the world. He is also working on his clothing line as well as a movie project based on his own inspirational story.
How did you end up with Eminem on Smack That?
That’s funny how you phrased that! You mean how he ended up on there with me. It was put together from a collaboration with Obie Trice, he offered that opportunity to me. We had a great time in the studio doing that record.
Tell me about I Wanna Love You.
We’ve got the clean mix and the main mix, we normally perform the main version live. I never get confused between them though! Naturally they have to play the clean one on the radio but we go all out in performances of the main one.
I heard you’re working on a film, how’s that going?
It’s called Illegal Alien and is a fictional story but based around my life. I’m not acting in this movie but I’m doing the score, producing it, directing it…pretty much everything but acting! I want to get behind the scenes and learn more about the movie business before I get into the acting side of it. Maybe when I get tired of the music thing I’ll move on to acting.
If you could play any character in any film, which would it be?
I would probably like to be Denzel’s [Washington] character in Training Day.
Who’s playing the lead role in your film?
Mekhi Pfeiffer. It’s going good so far, he’s going to play my character.
You’re featured on Gwen Stefani’s new album, what was it like to work with her?
She’s definitely a hard working lady, that’s what I love about her because she works like me. We were constantly throwing ideas around. I’m also putting together Chilli’s [TLC] album at the moment, it’s going crazy. Her album should be out in the second quarter of this year. We’ve also got T-Pain and Brick & Lace albums coming up.
You’ve recorded with so many people, is there anyone left you would still like to collaborate with?
I think the one left to do this year is with Michael Jackson. I hope that will happen but we’ll see. I have no idea what kind of track we’ll record, I guess you’ll just have to wait and listen to it! Anything could happen in the studio.
Everyone wants to work with you now; do you have to turn down a lot of projects?
Yeah I do, mainly because there just isn’t time. You also have to watch yourself so you don’t become too saturated to the point where your own records aren’t being played. I hope to release more solo material in the future.
We know you from Locked Up, was there anything underground you recorded before that?
There was a record called Operation Davinche that came out way back in 1998. It was a long time ago, so don’t even try looking for it!
I also heard that you bought a diamond mine, what’s that all about?
I have a diamond mine in Africa. It just happened through a series of opportunities that came my way. It’s nothing that I can explain within a few words; it’s a whole day conversation. I know it’s kind of baffling to a lot of people and they all want to know the details of how I got into it. I’ll have to let you know off record.
Did you ever think you would become this successful?
I always knew I’d be successful, I just didn’t know it would be something to do with music. If I wasn’t doing music now I’d be hustling somewhere, not illegal stuff though. I would have found a way to make money somehow.
www.akononline.com
By Rashmi Shastri - Feb 2007