You probably haven’t heard much about Akon lately. He was busy with preparing a new album for this year, but this is not what kept him out of sight. The reason of his ‘retirement’ is the pop superstar Lady Gaga who signed to Akon’s KonLive imprint. The Senegalese singer told The Associated Press that “She’s pretty much retired me.” “She was definitely a blessing. I’m glad I believed in her, boy. That goes to show you, if you believe in something strong enough, it will pay off.”

He believed in her, all right, and he became a mogul overnight, thanks to her huge success. After all, this year she has taken home three Brit Awards in London (where she performed a tribute to recently deceased designer Alexander McQueen) and two Grammys (Best Dance Recording for “Poker Face” and Best Electronic/Dance Album for The Fame). “She came at the right moment”, he said. Lady Gaga was initially signed to Def Jam Records, where she was dropped several months later. Then Akon signed her as a free agent as he was finalizing his Kon Live deal with Interscope Records and label head Jimmy Iovine. “And I was like ‘Yo, I want to sign that right there. She needs to be under my umbrella,’” Akon said. “Jimmy was like ‘Yeah, whatever you want. Take her. Let’s get it done.’ And she just blossomed into a super megastar, man.”
Gaga is also one of several artists to be featured on Akon’s next album. Others include Dutch dance DJ-producer Chuckie and David Guetta, the exuberant French producer behind The Black Eyed Peas’ smash “I Gotta Feeling” who recently collaborated with Akon on “Sexy …”
“Actually that’s what excited me more about her [Gaga] because you’ve got some straight hardcore hip-hop guys actually moving into the dance realm,” Akon said. “And that’s shocking. When you’ve got someone like Dr. Dre about to do a dance record … that’s crazy.” The singer refused to say anything else about his collaboration with Dr. Dre, but he revealed that “it actually sounds great. He played it for me. I was shocked. So I was like ‘Wow, that’s dope. When the world hears this, they might go crazy.’ … When you’ve got the two worlds mixed together, clashing, it’s going to be a monster.”
However, if you got excited, you’ll have to wait a little longer, as his album is supposed to hit music stores sometime later this year, according to The Daily Herald.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 at 3:57 pm and is filed under News.