Preparing a legacy for his kids

“Have you ever been to an Akon concert?” asked R&B singer Akon. “The rules are: every fan is equal – no VIPs, no festival. I’d like to ask the permission of my friends in the VIP section to allow the ones at the back to come forward. Security, open the gates!”

For those in the festival class, this was probably the most hardboiled statement they have ever heard from a performer in a concert in Jakarta. Akon’s rock bottom start made him understand how it feels to be penniless.

Dressed in a three-layer white undershirt with a suit, he notes: “I used to watch concerts and I know how it feels to be unable to afford the VIP tickets.”

The cool weather brought on a welcoming mood at the Kemayoran Fairground in Central Jakarta on Nov. 13. The cloudy sky did not deter music enthusiasts from coming to watch the Senegalese-American singer. The audience rocked and swayed to his songs like “Out Here Grindin”, “Locked up”, “Soul Survivor”, “Lonely” and “Sorry and Blame it On Me”.

As an excuse to get into something, Akon told the audience that they were not partying enough. So he went back stage and asked a performer to ‘deal’ with the audience.

Akon appeared after five minutes inside a bubble, singing and then rolling himself into the audience, who fought their way to touch the bubble. Akon rolled himself from one corner to another and finally went back to the stage.

He then sang “Mr. Lonely”, an old hit which he revived, which also became the longest running single in the charts lasting 15 weeks.

He continued his concert singing his more popular tunes like “Right Now” (na na na), “Don’t Matter”, then “Smack” and also his Indian hit “Chammak Challo”.

His final song “Freedom” was performed juxtaposed with a shower of fireworks as a backdrop.

A Grammy nominee, Akon is not only a singer but a producer as well. He composed Lady Gaga’s first song “Just Dance”.

“I don’t usually gamble in business, but with Lady Gaga, I took a gamble, I just knew she could do it”. He also adds, “A lot of people have talent, but that’s not enough, you gotta work on it to become successful.”

It wasn’t so easy for Akon to enter the music industry. “In 1993 I moved to Jersey and I was working at that time with the Fugees as a songwriter and a producer. Of course you think things are going to work right away and they never do.”

“Ultimately I was kinda sidetracked, because there was better money from illegal activities. My mind wasn’t really fully on the music aspects and right then I was going to give up on music.

“That’s when the Fugees blew up and that was my wake up call. Wow, if I had stuck with it I would be on tour with them. Unfortunately when they were on tour I was in jail. That’s when I realized that I’d got two options, I can do music and stick with my friends on TV or I continue to do what I am doing and one day end up, you know. Changed forever.

“That’s when the whole concept of me, creating Konvict music and writing songs locked up, and all about that stuff came out and when I worked in jail. When I came out, it wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be because I didn’t know so many people except for my friends and the Fugees.”

When asked what the lesson he learned from life was, he replied, “My grandfather used to tell me life is like a hotel room. You will only be passing through. If you have a chance to speak to billions of people what would you say? This in fact tells me that there is another life outside this one.

So now it’s more like, I am trying to create not only a legacy for myself but also a legacy for my kids”.