Akon Says He Passed On Signing Drake, Says Rapper ‘Sounded Like Eminem’
NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 25: Recording artist Akon speaks on stage at the 3rd Annual Global Goals World Cup at the SAP Leonardo Centre on September 25, 2018 in New York City.
Akon is responsible for helping to discover stars, including Lady Gaga and T-Pain. However, there’s one megastar that he missed out on signing.
During a recent interview with Vlad TV, Akon mentioned that he passed on signing Drake because on the demo that he heard, the Toronto rapper “sounded like Eminem.”
The opportunity that Akon had to sign Drake took place around 2004-2005 when Canadian artist Kardinal Offishall introduced the two.
“Kardinal Offishall brought him to me in 2005, I think it was or was it ’04?” Akon said. “It was right before ‘Best I Ever Had’ blew up, because at the time, it was more mixtape-ish. At the time, believe it or not, Drake sounded more like Eminem. With that demo that I heard, he sounded more like Em.”
According to Akon, the demo was a stark contrast from Drake’s breakout record, “Best I Ever Had.” He said, “You can see the difference between that demo and ‘Best I Ever Had.’ It was completely different.”
Akon also said there was a “huge bidding war” and Kardinal encouraged Akon to sign Drake. However, Akon couldn’t match the lowest bid.
“That’s when Kardi was like, ‘N—-, I told you this n—- was gonna be the s—-,’” Akon recalled. “I said, ‘Well, s—, reach out.’ He said, ‘You can, but the lowest bid right now is a million.’ I said, ‘S—, I ain’t got a million dollars.’”
Music executive Sylvia Rhone had the “biggest chance to sign” Drizzy, but she was focused on Trey Songz, according to Akon. “At the time she had Trey Songz and she felt like Trey was just gon’ be the biggest thing ever.”
“Out of all the artists today, Drake to me, he is worth every single f—in’ penny, every single penny–that motherf—er’s genius. He’s revolutionary,” Akon said of Drake.
Glennisha Morgan is a Detroit-bred multimedia journalist and writer. She writes about intersectionality, hip-hop, pop culture, queer issues, race, feminism, and her truth. Follow her on Twitter @GlennishaMorgan.
