The Charlatan: So right off the bat, you’ve got a new album on the way, Stadium? Your first one since Freedom in 2008?
AKON: Exactly.
TC: And it’s five discs?
A: Yeah.
TC: What can your fans of your previous records expect from the five discs?
A: Well it isn’t actually discs—it’s an app you can get on your phone and you can stream the albums from your app absolutely free. I want to be able reward my fans for doing what they do best. That’s just supporting me, you know what I mean? . . . I figured everybody was streaming anyway, so if people have to spend money, I say honestly it’s stupid, you know what I mean?
TC: There’s definitely been a recent trend in streaming music, particularly with surprise releases for albums.
A: That’s what we want to do with Stadium—a surprise release as a way to reward the fans who have been following me all this time.
TC: It sounds like you’re really supportive of the surprise, free-of-charge releases that a lot of artists are doing, like the one Miley Cyrus just did, or U2 last year and Beyonce in 2013.
A: I think that’s what makes sense, man, especially for the fans because the fans are what matter in the end—they give the artist their support. It’s not about the money anymore. If everyone is downloading and streaming their music, we artists need to create an environment where we can survive. If the artist releases their music through a record company who’s just trying to suck money from these guys, then who does that benefit at the end of the day? The artist don’t benefit, the fans don’t benefit. The only people that benefit is the record company, you know what I’m saying? So how do we create a way to get the music to the fans where the fans are gonna benefit and the artist is gonna benefit? That’s the best way to do it, you know what I mean?
TC: Does that mean you’re completely ruling out a physical release for it?
A: Physical releases will be obsolete in two years. That’s my prediction.
TC: What about the recent spike in vinyl sales?
A: Well, that’s for the collectors. There’s not enough people out there buying vinyl players. There’s not enough artists out there releasing new music on vinyl. A vinyl in five years is gonna be hard to find.
TC: For Stadium, you’ve released on song from each of the five discs already?
A: Yeah we’ve put out one song from each disc. We’ll put out more with the app and after you download it you’ll get all 50 songs.
TC: So having listened to the five songs, it sounds like you’re going for a distinct sound with each of the five discs?
A: Yeah, each disc has its own genre. Like Island is gonna be like reggae and beach music, then there’s House, which is like house music you’d hear at a club—like dance music, EDM. Then I have Urban, which is like hip-hop and R&B, then we have World which is African music. Each disc has its own musical style, you know what I mean?
TC: Last year you released a mixtape called Konkrete Jungle. I thought initially that Stadium was gonna be your first album in a while but it looks like you’ve been doing mixtapes for a while now.
A: That’s a part of being a hip-hop artist—you gotta release mixtapes. That’s how you stay relevant in the game, that’s how you keep your brand flow going, with mixtapes. You have to do it. I’m a part of the hip-hop industry so I make mixtapes. Pop artists don’t do it, like you’re not gonna get a pop mixtape, but with hip-hop it’s crucial. They help keep the beats poppin’, the lyrics poppin’; it gives you an opportunity to keep yourself relevant, you know?
TC: So you’re really big on collaborations?
A: A collaboration is how you keep your brand going—I think a partnership is very important. I use collaborations as a way to expand my brand. I like to collaborate to bring more energy—like if I like their music or I like the person or they’re cool I’ll make the effort to collaborate with them. It can help expand my territory.
TC: Would you say you prefer collaborations to working solo, or just a mix of the two?
A: Definitely a mix of the two. I can do a song on my own or do a song with somebody but in the end I’m just out to make a hot record . . . And if two artists get working together and everything is flowing it can be fucking ridiculous. People love seeing different minds come together. You can see how much power can come from different parties when you just come together.
TC: Would you say you have a favorite artist you collaborated with?
A: That would definitely be Michael [Jackson]. That’s the man right there. That man, I’m telling you, is amazing.
TC: Since then, do you have a new dream collaboration you’d like to do?
A: I wouldn’t say so because I’ve worked with everybody I can imagine collaborating with at this point. If anything I’d say I’d like to work with new artists—up and coming to the industry and show off some new talent. I can be involved with bringing in the next superstar.
TC: Would you say that you’re looking to introduce new artists to the world, like what you did with Lady Gaga?
A: At the end of the day it’s about the music. I want to introduce new artists to the world, focus on the music, and to contribute to bringing people new music and new artists.
TC: You performed in 2008 in Ottawa at Bluesfest. What did you think of the city?
A: Oh it was crazy, man. That crowd was nuts . . . From what I’ve heard, it’s grown a lot since then.
TC: Last year, you started the Akon Lighting Africa project?
A: We started that as an idea about three years ago. We started with the initial idea to electrify a million homes, and we succeeded at that before the year was out. We moved so fast because it was so necessary. Now we’re in 14 countries and we’re trying to expand it to 48 by the year 2020.
TC: You funded that all yourself, right?
A: The first million homes [were] all self-funded and now we have partners that came in, and we have investors that also came in, so now we’re actually working with a billion-dollar credit line to be able to expand the project . . . In the next year and a half we’re gonna expand that into a five billion-dollar credit line. It’s moving faster than we expected because of the necessity there and there was nobody out there doing it, you know, so it gave us a huge advantage to be able to be the champions of getting that solar system going on in Africa.
TC: Between the Akon Lighting Africa project and recording, like, 50 songs this year, how are you managing to find the time to do all this and go on tour?
A: It’s actually pretty easy. Everything I’m doing now is about music. If it’s music-related I try not to touch it because it’d be too much work. A lot of the time if you’re going town-to-town I can be doing recording through my day-to-day life. Because Akon Lighting Africa is related in a way—as I market my album I can market the Lighting project so it all goes hand-in-hand, you know what I mean? It’s not that hard. As far as recording, that’s something I can do in my sleep. I travel with a recording studio. If I’m not with my studio van I’m in a hotel with my engineer or in, like, a local studio.
TC: You don’t restrict yourself to a specific recording area? You just do it wherever you get the opportunity?
A: I mean that’s the motivation. Everywhere I go there’s always gonna be new ideas. I get my motivation differently. If the environment always changes, the music will as well. I record in my downtime as well. I’d rather be in the recording studio recording than sitting there watching TV.
TC: Are you planning on doing any recording in Ottawa?
A: I’m out right now with my studio truck and wherever I go we record. We try to do two songs a day.
TC: So, how did you come up with the song “Smack That?”
A: For that one I was out in Detroit and I wanted to do a song with Eminem. I just popped up at his studio like, “I gotta get with Em.” He was in Detroit but like, you know, Em don’t have a phone. If you contact him by email he might call you back or reply back like two or three days later, and it’ll probably be like a one-word answer. We got to the airport, I did my research, found out how to get a hold of him in Detroit, and I rolled up to him by his studio late at night because I thought he was probably one of those guys that like to record later, but I found out that he’s the kind of guy to record like a nine to five. He’s literally in the studio from nine to five, know what I’m saying? Like he treats it like, I don’t know, a job. So we met up and we clicked instantly. We kinda got together and produced the beat and from the moment I heard the track, I kinda already knew the words because I went to a strip club the night before, you know what I mean? Like it just came instantly—by the time the first verse was complete, I was like that shit is a fucking smash, let’s make the second verse, let’s go! The rest is just history, man.
TC: So what was it like working with Eminem and Eric Roberts on the music video?
A: It was crazy. We had a great time.
TC: Was the Lamborghini Gallardo in the video your car?
A: I always put my own cars in my videos. I don’t want to rent or go out and spend money getting cars if I already got one, you know?
TC: Do you still have that Lamborghini?
A: Yeah I do, but I painted it white now. It was grey when I first got it.
TC: From my understanding you’re just a really big car collector in general, right?
A: Yeah I definitely was, but I’ve been kinda downsizing on my cars because I’m a lot more mature now. All that money I spent on cars, I look back on it now, was so stupid. Now I’ve kinda just been liquidating all my cars and putting the money in places where it actually makes sense now.
TC: Do you have one dream car that got away?
A: Well my Lambo, but I still got that. I got rid of everything else except my Range Rover. But I got this Tesla. Man that Tesla’s a fucking amazing car . . . There’s enough torque on that thing, like that thing is so fast because there’s no engine in it—it’s run by a computer, so it’s extremely light. Like this thing is almost faster than my Lamborghini. It goes from 0 to 50 in five seconds like no problem . . . I want all my cars to be electric cars.
TC: So you’re just eventually gonna have a garage full of Teslas?
A: Man, I’m gonna try and design my own Tesla.
TC: Oh really?
A: Absolutely. That’s my next goal.
TC: You once said one of your goals was to buy Universal Music?
A: Yeah, that’s definitely one of my goals. I’m getting very close to it too . . . Universal’s rival company is actually just a little bit cheaper so I was thinking about buying them and just blowing them out the water. [Laughs] So I think I might just go that route.
TC: Who is the rival company?
A: I can’t mention it yet because we’re still talking in discussion and we’re negotiating. Don’t worry—you’ll know soon.
TC: So would you combine the label you already have with the one you’d be buying?
A: I’d probably merge the current label I already have with the new one—kinda put them all together. The idea is to make it younger, you know, transform it to be completely digital. You know, bring some young guys, young girls in there, like that’s the crowd who understand the new generation. And also great guys who understand music, you know what I mean? Accountants have come in and turned the labels around to try and make a profit. If you create great music and great content, you’re gonna generate money naturally, you know. But when money becomes the sole purpose of the company, it’s a line of danger and once you cross it it’s hard to come back from it, and I think the record companies have crossed that line and that’s why it’s slowly just created a huge problem.
TC: Keeping in mind that you want to do your own thing and you’re releasing Stadium as an app, does that mean you’re supporting or competing with other streaming services like Jay-Z’s Tidal, or Spotify, or Apple Music?
A: I think the competition is always gonna be there, but I can say that the advantages of the other streaming companies is the experience, you know? I think a lot of the guys that started streaming companies are more of the tech guys and we’re music guys—so we understand the aspects of the relationship between the fans and artists plus the actual content that we can distribute. I think the combination between the two of us learning together, at the end of the day, they can grow faster. Now clearly there’s gonna be a lot of competition in between, but I mean there’s a million stock brokers in New York City and they can work peacefully together while they’re out making money, making profit. I don’t see why there can’t be more streaming companies out there, you know, that service the different audiences.
TC: Would you say you’re looking to make one with a subscription fee or keep it entirely free?
A: I think a subscription fee is actually gonna be discarded. It actually doesn’t make sense. The most profitable company in the world is Facebook and it’s completely free to use, so why would you want to make people pay for something they can get for free, and you can make triple the money that you would normally make anyway? It just doesn’t make sense to me. People go on Facebook just to meet people, so imagine if you could do that with music. Plus with music it’s like a song is five minutes where it only takes 10 seconds to go on Facebook. Honestly, I don’t see how they don’t see it.
TC: Would you keep ads out of it as well?
A: I think ads are a part of the revenue stream. Ads subsidize what the fans have to pay. But even then, there’s a way which you can expose ads without it interrupting the service itself. That’s where you have to get creative. How do you create ad dollars without it getting to the point where it’s annoying for the fans to the point where they don’t even want to deal with it? So we have to find a really creative way to expose the ads where the people exposing the ads are happy but the engagers are also happy that the ads aren’t always in the way. That’s the part we gotta put our brains together to figure out.
TC: Would you say Instagram’s model for ads is a creative way?
A: I think that Instagram’s model is as good as any, because like you often don’t even notice the ads but you do notice that they’re there, you know what I’m saying? They display a few ads without it getting in the way and that’s what I want to do.
