RnB star Akon has been in the music business for almost 20 years. And the Senagalese-American singer says he’s finally able to start making music for himself. Born in the USA, Akon spent his childhood moving between New Jersey and the African country.
He learned to play several western and African instruments, but when he started to pursue a musical career in the early 2000s, he says producers were only interested in one side of his heritage.
“One of the biggest things that I had to actually distance myself from at the time when I did come out, was the fact that I was African,” he tells BBC Newsbeat. “That wasn’t really something that they could market or promote in that kind of arena that I was actually playing in.”
Commercially, Akon was a massive success, finding huge popularity with pop and RnB songs such as Lonely and Locked Up. But he says the financial demands of the music business, and the need to make money, had an effect on his output.
“Everything had to be so calculated,” he says. “It becomes stressful and starts to feel like work.” Since those early successes the Smack That star has developed his own record label, and launched business ventures such as the Konvict Clothing line.
Some of his projects – like building a “real-life Wakanda” in Senegal with its own cryptocurrency – haven’t panned out as planned.
