Senegalese-American music star, Aliaune Thiam, simply known as Akon, has opened up about how he became involved in Wizkid’s early career, revealing that he signed the Nigerian singer through Olubankole Wellington, aka Banky W, after recognising his potential during a visit to Nigeria.
Speaking in a now-trending interview with The Shade Room on Tuesday, Akon dismissed suggestions that he personally discovered Wizkid, insisting that the credit belongs to Banky W, who had already identified and developed the young artiste before introducing him.
“Banky W discovered Wizkid. That’s how that collaboration went. I went to Nigeria, and Banky brought me Wiz, and I’m like: ‘Bro! This kid is a star.’ They had limited resources, so when I signed Wiz, that was what broke him into the United States.”
Akon explained that his involvement helped expose Wizkid to the American market at a time when the Nigerian music industry had limited international reach.
The Grammy-nominated singer also reflected on a separate opportunity involving Canadian rap superstar Drake, revealing that he declined to sign him around 2008 because of the financial demands.
According to Akon, Drake was still an emerging artiste at the time and had not yet developed the sound that would later make him one of the world’s biggest music stars.
“Drake was the only one I had a shoutout at, and I wanted it to become official. It wasn’t that I didn’t see the vision that he was going to be big; he just wasn’t big then and was requesting a whooping $1 million to sign for me,” Akon said. Punch
