,Hitmaker Akon has been dominating the Billboard charts and tearing up the airwaves for two decades. He just celebrated the 20th anniversary of his debut album, Trouble , which launched him to global fame. Now, he is taking over TikTok with a new hit, 'Akon's Beautiful Day." The uplifting anthem soared to #1 on TikTok's Top 50 with more than half a billion views and counting and debuted at #38 on Billboard's Pop Airplay--his 26th career entry and first in over a decade. The star sat down with us in the LifeMinute Studios to talk all about the new track, his Akon The Superfan Tour - Asia, co-producing the documentary Headliners Only with Kevin Hart, looking back on working with Michael Jackson, helping launch Lady Gaga's career, and much more. This is a LifeMinute with the one and only Akon.
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00:00Yeah, check it out, this is your boy Akon and right now you gotta lock to Life Minute TV.
00:04Don't change that dial.
00:06Hitmaker Akon has been dominating the Billboard charts and tearing up airways for two decades.
00:12Just celebrating the 20th anniversary of his debut album Trouble,
00:16which launched him to global fame.
00:18Now he's taking over TikTok with his latest smash, Akon's Beautiful Day.
00:23The uplifting anthem soared to number one on TikTok's Top 50,
00:27also debuting at number 38 on Billboard's Pop Airplay,
00:31his 26th career entry, and first in over a decade.
00:35The star sat down with us in the Life Minute studios to talk all about the new track,
00:40his Akon super fan tour, co-producing documentary Headliners Only with Kevin Hart,
00:46and more. This is a Life Minute with the one and only Akon.
00:52The world needed something that can uplift them,
00:54something that they can hear that'll get them into a very warm,
00:57happy space, and Akon's Beautiful Day hopefully will become that for them.
01:06Yeah, so I wanted to capture the most positive energy that we can in this time, this day and age.
01:11So this song was pretty much created to be the anthem of positivity.
01:14As you know, the world is all over the place right now.
01:17We cannot say that we're comfortable right now.
01:20It's just so negative in so many different ways, man.
01:23When you look at the context of the song, it says just be thankful for everything.
01:27You know what I'm saying? The good, the bad, the rain, the shine,
01:30the snow, whatever the case may be.
01:32When you look at life in general, oftentimes when you think that something as bad is happening,
01:37it's often happening for a good purpose.
01:39And you never really know what's happening until the end,
01:41because even when you're going through challenges in your life,
01:43you're not realizing you're being prepared for something bigger.
01:45But mainly the whole idea of this song is to understand that no matter how bad you think
01:48things are, there's someone out there that got it worse.
01:51So we need to take the time to really appreciate the things in front of us
01:54and really pay attention to how blessed we really are.
01:57What surprised me the most was how quick the younger generation caught on.
02:00See all these shares on TikTok and being number one on TikTok and the most created
02:05and shared content on there is like, wow.
02:07That shows that the world really was yearning for something nice like this.
02:11The new album is called Not Guilty. It'll be dropping in February.
02:14Within the whole album, there'll be little nuggets where I'm actually
02:16referencing myself from a different song.
02:19Kind of like how rappers, when we do these metaphors,
02:21no one never really referenced their own records.
02:24I wanted to be the first to kind of play with that.
02:25It was done and fun, and it actually became one of the biggest hits.
02:29Definitely a very high energy, positive album.
02:33It definitely also touches into a lot of spirituality that I think is also missing,
02:38not just in music, but just in life.
02:39The album is really much based on bringing people back spiritually,
02:43but still having the most amazing time listening to it.
02:46And it actually feels good passing the message in without being corny.
02:50Oftentimes when you hear albums that actually have messages to them,
02:54it either sounds preachy, or it sounds gospel, or it sounds just corny.
02:58But I found, I think, the perfect medium to be able to make sure that the message is in every song
03:04without sounding preachy, but at the same time having just an amazing time with it.
03:09What really inspires me is oftentimes my experiences.
03:12Me going through certain things, experiencing certain things,
03:14is always make for better content.
03:15Because I realized that earlier in my career, everything that I'm going through,
03:18there's millions of other people going through it too.
03:20So you always have an audience when you're talking about things
03:22that you're actually physically living.
03:24I always go back to it, but it was me getting locked up.
03:27At that time I thought, oh my life is horrible, it couldn't get no worse.
03:32You know what I mean?
03:32I'm stuck in this cell.
03:34But not knowing that it actually sat me down to really evaluate life in general,
03:38because it was all those moments in there that strengthened me,
03:42gave me patience that I didn't have.
03:44It gave me knowledge of just people that I didn't have.
03:47I stopped judging.
03:49You know what I mean?
03:50And most of all, I realized that the mistakes
03:52and the decisions that I made is what got me here.
03:54I realized, okay, if I continue to live the life that I'm living,
03:57this is going to be the rest of my life.
03:59And this is just what I really want.
04:00But oftentimes you really catch your bearings and realize, okay,
04:04I got to make better decisions.
04:06I got to move in a more positive direction.
04:08And also know that whatever decision I do make,
04:10eventually I will be answering for them.
04:12That's pretty much the majority of my inspirations.
04:14The question is, when will I be inspired?
04:17And what is it that's going to naturally connect?
04:19And when?
04:20So when I get opportunities like this,
04:22where a song like Akon's Beautiful Day becomes something that
04:25can literally hug the world, you got to take advantage.
04:37I think that's what really music does.
04:39It actually opens your eyes.
04:40It makes you feel amazing.
04:41It brings you back to memories of times that you was enjoying life
04:45or even going through something depressing
04:48or celebrating something magnificent.
04:50And I think music actually touches on those areas.
04:52But for the most part,
04:54I always so believed that music's purpose was to unite people.
04:56This is why I collaborate so much in my career.
04:58I always collaborated with different parts of the world,
05:01in different languages.
05:02I have albums out in different languages right now,
05:04from Hindi all the way down to Spanish, you name it.
05:07And ultimately when I realized that music actually united
05:11people is when music was also used to actually bring world leaders together.
05:15They may not agree on a lot of things policy-wise,
05:18but there will be an artist they may collaborate mentally
05:22and be like, man, this is my favorite artist
05:23or a song that they both can relate to and actually agree
05:26to actually saying that this is something that brings me down,
05:29gives me calm or even puts them in a better mood to make a decision.
05:32So I always felt like music has a spiritual edge to it
05:35that actually brings people together.
05:37Man, everyone that I've collaborated with,
05:39I was all fans of myself too, as well.
05:43But I can definitely say the most magnificent collaboration
05:46was the one with Michael Jackson.
05:57That's the one that was at the end of my to-do list
06:00and accomplishments on that 10-year plan that I made when I was locked up.
06:04I said, yo, once I make it to the point where I can collaborate
06:07or if ever I collaborate with Michael Jackson,
06:09then I've made it to the top and my dreams have come true.
06:12Man, it was unbelievable.
06:13It was actually more than I expected, but then less than I expected as well
06:17because I honestly felt like I was going to get starstruck
06:19because I had never been starstruck before with no one, right?
06:22And I said, the day I meet Mike, I'm definitely going to be starstruck.
06:24And lo and behold, when I met him, it felt like we'd known each other for years.
06:28It was like a long lost brother.
06:29You know what I mean?
06:30Like we connected instantly.
06:31He knew everything about me, which I was super surprised.
06:35But then, of course, I knew everything about him
06:37because I looked up to him all my life.
06:38It was just wild to find out how much we had in common.
06:41It was amazing.
06:48Man, I've kind of worked with everyone that I've dreamed to work with at this point.
06:52Now it's really about fulfilling others' dreams,
06:54like newer artists that's up and coming that have this fire in their eyes
06:58that also wanted to one day work with someone like me.
07:00I always kind of built my career off helping others build their careers.
07:04I'm going to definitely do more collaboration with up and coming artists
07:07and give them the exposure that they need to become the next biggest things.
07:14I got a few artists that I just recently signed.
07:16One is Amira.
07:17She's straight from Virginia, but she's an Afropop.
07:20She's currently in Nigeria right now promoting her single called Run It.
07:23She's about to kill the game.
07:24Then I got three sisters out of the Sinian Indian tribes.
07:27The name of the group is actually called Sinian,
07:29which is their family name.
07:30They're just trio, most beautiful, talented group of girls I've ever met in my life.
07:35I just believe that they're going to be stupid, stupid big, right?
07:38And then I got a Georgia Rain, who's actually an R&B artist,
07:41who's also going to be most likely to cross over into the pop eventually
07:44because she has this real R&B ethnic side of her
07:47that kind of can transfer all the way into the pop side like how SZA did.
07:50And I think she's going to be probably a force to be reckoned with.
07:53And last but not least, I have two hip-hop artists.
07:55One is called Sheesh, two brothers straight out of Elkhart.
07:58And those guys are unbelievable as well.
08:00And then we have Flotchy, who's out of Clayton County, Atlanta,
08:04who's looking forward to becoming one of the biggest rappers in the South.
08:06So I'm really excited about all these guys.
08:14The biggest advice I would give to any artist is just respect the process.
08:18Don't think that there's any shortcuts.
08:20You have to do certain things that you can't escape,
08:22like promote, you got to meet the DJs, you got to go to radio stations,
08:25you got to do these drops.
08:26Of course, now because social media is so heavy,
08:28you got to be heavily involved in social media
08:31because that's where your fans are actually based now.
08:33It's direct to consumer versus back in the day
08:35where the labels would just put it on the radio and it'd find its own audience.
08:38Now you actually have to physically go find your audience yourself
08:41on social media, communicate, comment, reply and things of these natures.
08:45But for the most part, you got to be a hard worker.
08:47Now without the hard work to put in, it's not going to go anywhere.
08:49You can't just sit around and wait for things to happen.
08:51You got to know what your vision is, have a plan,
08:54and find a group or a team that's super smart,
08:56that's super hype and energetic and believe in you,
08:59and you guys got to go out and get it.
09:07Oh man, my fans know what time it is.
09:10When we go out there, boy, we go tear roofs off.
09:13There's no roof left in the venue by the time we leave out of there.
09:16So just come with something that you're willing to sweat in.
09:19Come prepared to have your bonnet
09:20because your hair is going to be completely wet and torn
09:23by the time you leave the arena.
09:25We come to have an amazing time, man.
09:27So just expect the most amazing, hyper, nostalgic performance you've ever seen.
09:34Oh my goodness, there's so many.
09:36I don't even know where to start.
09:37The catalog starts from top to bottom.
09:39We start from the street side of it, more urban, starting with Locked Up,
09:42and then by the time we end up to all the records ending up with Sexy Chick.
09:47It's like, whoa, just know it's going to be crazy.
09:51Well, one song that did surprise me because when we first put it out, it didn't blow up.
09:56And then 20 years later, thanks to TikTok,
09:58it became one of the biggest songs on TikTok last year, which was Bellydancer,
10:01which was crazy because Bellydancer was my first release before even Locked Up.
10:05But that record didn't work.
10:06And then next thing you know, 20 years later, it became huge to the point
10:09where it became the single to our re-release of the 20th anniversary of Trouble.
10:14I got into music by accident.
10:16I can't say that music was something that I wanted to do.
10:19I can't say that music was something that I wanted to do as a child,
10:22or this is something I was always inspired to be, because clearly it wasn't.
10:25It was a hobby.
10:26And it was also a way of me venting at the same time,
10:29because the occupation that I was in before wasn't quite legal.
10:32So I didn't really have too many people to talk about or share these experiences with.
10:36So I just really invested that money into recording studios,
10:38and I would make songs about my experiences.
10:40And man, fortunately enough for me, because I had that habit when I got locked up.
10:44That habit followed me in jail, and I ended up writing about being locked up.
10:47And that became the song that changed my life.
10:57No rituals necessarily on the road.
10:59I pretty much eat whatever I want, whenever I want.
11:02I just try to stay as active as possible,
11:04because I tell everybody you really can eat whatever you want as long as you stay active.
11:07Now if you're eating all kinds of hours of the night,
11:10and eating all kinds of food you can imagine,
11:13but then you're just sitting on a couch,
11:14you're just chilling in the studio doing nothing,
11:16you're going to gain weight,
11:18then you're going to start accumulating all kinds of things that you need to cure, right?
11:21But if you're constantly staying active,
11:23your body's all the way in motion,
11:24it's going to always break down everything that you're eating.
11:26And you can stay healthy and stay young forever,
11:28but you've got to stay active, athletic,
11:30either working out or you're doing some kind of yoga.
11:32If you don't want anything too strenuous,
11:33but you have to be physically somehow effective
11:36to where your organs are constantly moving around.
11:39Me, I'm performing literally every other day.
11:41So I already know that I can eat a honey bun at noon
11:43when I'm about to be performing at 7 p.m.
11:45I got my basic regimen in the gym when I'm in it.
11:48Ultimately, it's all calisthenics, no heavy weighting or anything like that.
11:51Just stuff that kind of burn out.
11:53Try to do non-weight exercises like pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups, dips.
11:58Mostly all prisoner exercises.
12:00But one thing I can tell you, it's stuck with me.
12:02It's still with me no matter what.
12:04One of my favorite career highlights,
12:06I would probably say would be breaking Lady Gaga.
12:10I think that was probably the most challenging part of my career
12:14as an entrepreneur, a label owner, and as an artist.
12:16Because I had to daggle between the two of obviously being an artist
12:20and actually promoting another, right?
12:21At the same exact time.
12:23And then I was coming from more of an urban space.
12:26So to break an artist from a pop space was also a big learning curve for me.
12:30But I realized it was mainly about just believing in that more than anything.
12:34To the point where I had to feel like,
12:36no matter what, we could not fail at this.
12:38Because if we fail at this, it's going to be hard for any other artist
12:40that I want to actually sign or put on on that level.
12:43Going through that process and seeing the success of it
12:46changed everything for me, mentally, as far as what can be possible in this business.
12:49I believed she was going to be a big star.
12:51Now that I know it, no.
12:53But I believed it.
12:54So we just felt like, man, just fight for what you believe in
12:57and just hope what you know will come true.
13:00Well, next, I want to get into more film and television.
13:03I think that's going to be the next step for me, for sure.
13:04I can order a lot of things in that space.
13:06I just partnered up with Kevin Hart.
13:07We got a production company called Headliners Only,
13:10which is going to be one of the IPs that I put a lot of energy into.
13:13The first one was picked up by Netflix, which is more comedy driven,
13:16which was with him and Chris Rock.
13:18And pretty much the idea is that you have a legendary artist
13:21or entertainer or comedian at this point
13:23with a more younger, vibrant and legend at his or her time at this moment.
13:29And they kind of interview each other,
13:30you know, kind of discuss their challenges, the good, the bad, the uglies.
13:33And then they kind of understand where the op is within the two of them
13:37and all the similarities to get into the heights of where they are.
13:40And then afterward, they kind of close it out with a huge performance.
13:43And the first one was done with Chris Rock and Kevin Hart,
13:46which is now on Netflix.
13:47So you can get an idea, you can check it out.
13:49And then the second one that we're doing is me and Burna Boy.
13:51We're going to go with a theatrical release in March first
13:54and then push it out to all the DSPs in March.
13:56Best piece of life advice?
13:58Honestly, put God 100 percent.
14:00Like, I think the trust and the faith of just knowing that God exists
14:05and that everything that you do, you have to put God first.
14:07I think a lot of the fears will kind of leave.
14:10I think people move with life just not really knowing.
14:13They say they believe, but they really don't.
14:16Because if you really believe, you wouldn't fear death
14:18because you would know that, okay, the next step is either to meet your maker
14:22or whatever that next step is, you're being guided there through your maker.
14:25So that idea of just knowing that anything that you actually do,
14:28you give that trust 100 percent in God to know that it's taken care of.
14:31You will kind of move a lot quicker in life.
14:33You'll be more successful.
14:34And then that fear won't slow you down from moving towards
14:37accomplishing all the dreams that you want to accomplish.
14:39That's how I strengthen it.
14:40Whatever I'm afraid of, I walk in it knowing that I'm going to be protected.
14:44Regardless of how crazy or scary it may seem,
14:47I just know that I'm protected, so I just go and deal with it.
14:49These days, I kind of like Kid LAROI.
14:53I think Kid LAROI is really dope.
14:55He kind of reminds me of a younger version of myself.
14:57That's why I think I'm so attached to him.
14:59Before my new product, it was my portable projector.
15:03I had a portable projector that I had to have everywhere
15:05because, man, I need to get online, I need to watch my Netflix,
15:08but I need to watch it in a movie style.
15:10But now I got the new Apple Vision Pro, which is like...
15:14I just left the projector home.
15:16And that Apple Vision Pro, I go everywhere with it.
15:18On a plane, I'm like this.
15:19Just everybody's looking like,
15:20who's those alien eyes that he's wearing?
15:22But it's like the best thing ever invented.
15:24I love it.
15:25Well, right now, I'm watching Your Honor.
15:26It's a series that's pretty dope.
15:28What exactly are you asking me to do?
15:32When I'm not working, I'm asleep.
15:33I try to get a nap in every chance I can get.
15:35When I am not sleeping, I got time.
15:37I'm bowling.
15:37I like to go bowling.
15:38Just recently, I caught a new love for golf.
15:40So I'm at golf, Topgolf every once in a while,
15:43trying to get my drive going.
15:44I suck at pucking, but it's gonna come.
15:53Just know that me coming back is more so,
15:56I'm wanting to change the energy of where music is.
16:00I think music, in the last few years,
16:02the vibrations have been really, really low.
16:04And there's been a lot more negative influence
16:08coming from music versus positive.
16:10And I want to be able to present the world
16:11a body of work that kind of combats that
16:13and kind of restructure and reshape the mindset
16:16of what music is supposed to be for actual human beings.
16:20And I think things can be a lot better on this earth.
16:22And I just think that everybody feels like,
16:24well, is things gonna be the way it is no matter what?
16:27So why even try?
16:28But the point is, if everybody tried, things would change.
16:31But if everybody says, okay,
16:32and we all have the same concept that,
16:34oh, nothing's gonna happen, it is what it is,
16:36then it will be what it is, right?
16:38So we gotta just change our mindsets
16:40to know that my little difference
16:42can make a big difference in the overall perspective things
16:44if everybody had that one thing
16:46that they felt like they can do
16:47to contribute to the world's peace.
16:52To hear more of this interview,
16:53visit our podcast, Life Minute TV on iTunes
16:56and all streaming podcast platforms.