Mastering both hip-hop and R&B, Akon’s musical convictions keep him out of trouble and on the charts.

story KETHER GALLU-BADAT | illustrations LOVE BILLY

African-bred is a good way to describe Akon’s musical magic. The producer/singer/songwriter scored a Platinum plaque for his self-produced debut album Trouble and just dropped his sophomore album, Konvicted (again, self-produced). He’s already blowing up the charts with his hit single “Smack That, “ and has a laundry list of upcoming productions ready to drop, including tracks for Styles P, Young Jeezy, Daddy Yankee, Gwen Stefani, and even Elton John. “The Elton John track is a straight grand piano balled with traditional African drums, it’s crazy.” Scratch recently sat down with Akon to learn a little more about his production process, his views on hip-hop and R&B, and his favorite new computer program. Read on.

Beginning Doing music professionally was a fluke, it really never [was] meant to happen. My pops [legendary jazz percussionist Mor Thiam] brought us up playing the drums, so I’m a percussionist. That led me to have a fascination with drum machines, so I started learning how to use them. I wanted to be involved with anything that had to do with drums. I started doing it as a hobby. To have a beat in your head and then be able to create it was fun. I would remake old hip-hop tracks—like beats from Rakim or The Fat Boys—[and] just re-do it to see if I could. My first track that I remade and thought was successful was “Eric B For President.” That’s when I thought I could really produce [laughs].

When I Get Down When it comes to doing a song, I normally do the tracks first. I’ll lay the drumbeat down, then the bassline, and then come up with a chorus. I’ll build the music around that. I usually have a concept in mind and then just lay out all the different parts that I have in my head. In the beginning, I used to do everything myself except for the guitar parts. I have a guitar player named Tony Love who’s been working with me for 10 years. Recently, I’ve also incorporated a keyboard player, Giorgio [Tuinfort], into my production. He’s actually co-producing with me now. I also just signed my DJ, Benny D, as part of the production crew, so now I’m not always producing by myself like I used to. Now I have a team and we all have our own specific parts that we specialize in.

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