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- Akon enlisted his brothers Bu and Omar Thiam to pose as him at shows, collecting fees to manage his hectic schedule.
- Omar began booking gigs without telling Akon, sometimes pocketing money; one performance flyer even fooled rapper Foxy Brown.
- Thanks to the ringtone boom, Akon topped Guinness World Records for master ringtone sales, earning $11 million by December 2007.
- Other millions came from royalties, Konvict Music, real estate, tech projects like the planned Akon City, plus diamond mines and an energy drink brand.
Singer Akon may be a multi-millionaire now, but he has his brothers to thank for helping him get there. And now we know the slick way they did it!
As you well know by now, music artist Akon popped on the music scene in the late 90s. But it wouldn’t be until 2004 that he’d find mainstream success thanks to his song, “Locked Up,” one of the hit tracks from his debut album. He’d soon follow that up with “Lonely,” which helped launch him into international stardom.
Given his increase in popularity at the time, Akon began having a hard time balancing his in-demand schedule with shows and performances being booked left and right. So what did he do to fix it, you might ask? Well, he enlisted his brothers Bu and Omar Thiam to help, but you’ll never believe how.
Sitting down on the “Artist 2 Artist” podcast with Jim Jones, the “Smack That” artist explained that he’d have his brothers pose as him at different concerts and venues in an attempt to keep up with the robust schedule and still collect on all the money that was getting thrown his way for the different gigs.
“I was leaving so much money on the table. So Bu would take certain gigs, and Omar would take certain gigs,” Akon explained.
However, what once started as a simple ruse between brothers soon turned into a slightly deceptive practice as Omar began saying yes to gigs without Akon’s knowledge and pocketing some of the money for himself.
“Omar would get booked without even telling me he booked,” Akon explained before detailing how one of his performance flyers once fooled rapper Foxy Brown years ago.
Yet and still, despite his brother’s selfish behavior, it didn’t stop Akon from building a money empire of his own. In fact, a large part of his wealth didn’t even derive from his performances as much as it did from his ringtone sales.
According to the Guinness World Records, thanks to the “ringtone boom” in the early 2000s, Akon became the number one top-selling artist for master ringtones. He achieved this feat in December 2007 and brought in $11 million in sales alone, making him one of the rare artists to ever do so. (He’s since been surpassed by T-Pain.)
Akon’s other millions came from royalties and revenue from his label, Konvict Music, as well as his real estate and tech initiatives like his planned, $6 billion “Akon City” project he’s building in Senegal. He also reportedly owns two diamond mines in South Africa and an energy drink brand.
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