Born in the U.S. and raised in Senegal, Akon said
he’s a businessman first and a musician second. He has taken his brand beyond
his art and he’s taken it to Africa, according to an AlJazeera interview.
The “Smack That” singer owns a clothing line in
New York City, a diamond mine in South Africa, and an African solar lighting
company.
He was listed as the No. 1-selling artist in the
world for ringtones by the Guinness Book of World Records. He is the first solo
artist to hold both the No. 1 and No. 2 spots simultaneously on Billboard Hot
100 charts — twice.
The American rhythm and blues and hip hop
recording artist, songwriter, and record producer was born in 1973 in St.
Louis, Missouri, to Senegalese parents. He spent much of his childhood in
Senegal without electricity, according to PSFK. His mother was a dancer, his
father, a percussionist.
On the Ellen Degeneres Show and other interviews,
he said that as a Muslim, he has never drunk alcohol or smoked. He spent three
years in U.S. jails, he told AlJazeera, for “stealing cars and hustling.”
In 2011, Forbes ranked him fifth out of 40 Most
Powerful Celebrities in Africa.
Artists often exclude the business side of their
art, and they have other people run it for them, Akon said. Not him. “When I
create musically, I figure out, ‘How can that music be maximized?'”
How does Akon answer people who ask if it’s all
about making money?
“The stage that I’m at now I only want to get into
business that’s going to help people,” he told AlJazeera. “I’m in a position
where I’m gifted. I’m in a place where I’ve been offered opportunities where I
can make a difference and change lives. So why not change lives and make money
at the same time?
One of Akon’s Africa-focused ventures where he’s
trying to change lives is Akon Lighting Africa. He claims the company has
brought solar lighting to more than 1 million households in 14 African
countries.
“We started with just creating solar energy for
rural areas and homes, and now we’re doing solar streetlamps,” he said. “We’re
putting solar in all the villages. And we’re actually creating a system where
we are employing all the locals to be able to maintain it.”
When Akon first brought lighting to Africa, some
people were suspicious, he told AlJazeera.
“Because they are like, ‘He is a music guy. What
is he doing in energy?’ … But we came fully prepared with answers to every
question, and we also came prepared to execute,” he said. “So we didn’t come
into these countries with an idea. We put together a full team, full
infrastructure. So from the moment we came in, we came in creating pilots. We
didn’t even ask the country for any money. (We used) our own money in the
beginning.”
Akon estimates that installing a pilot solar
lighting program in each village cost $100,000 to $200,000.
Diamond
mine
In a 2007 interview with TheIndependent, Akon said
he got a chance to buy a diamond mine in 2006 and did so. “Diamonds are always
going to be selling, people are always going to get married, black people will
always want to shine and bling-bling,” he said in the interview. “I always felt
like if you get to a point where you’ve got enough money to invest in something
real, you gotta invest in anything that’s related to a natural resource because
that’s gonna be here forever — so you might as well invest in something that’s
gonna be here, rather than invest in something that’s gonna wear out. I know
for a fact that these are going to be selling forever.”
American,
African identity
Akon speaks with an American accent and identifies
as an African raised in America, “but my mind is not American,” he told
AlJazeera, “It’s clearly African. I went to school in America. All my early
childhood, I was raised in Africa. Then I came to America, and we would go back
to Africa every summer for vacation. And then when I graduated high school,
there was the choice of going back to Africa or stay in the U.S. And the
opportunities in the U.S. were so much greater.”
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