Akon reveals he passed on an opportunity to sign Drake because he thought be sounded like Eminem.
Imagine passing on an opportunity to sign the 6ix god, and seeing him now. Yo, you’d definitely beat yourself up about it. “Ghetto” hit maker, Akon has revealed that he passed on an opportunity to signed the rapper because he reminded him of eminem.
In an interview with VladTV, he revealed that in either ’04 or ’05, Drizzy was brought to meet him, after which he played his mixtape and felt he sounded like Slim Shady. He also stated that there was a huge contrast between the mixtape and Drake’s hit “Best I Ever Had”.
“Kardinal Offishall brought him to me in 2005, I think it was, or was it ’04? It was right before ‘Best I Ever Had’ blew up, because at the time, it was more mixtape-ish. At the time, believe it or not, Drake sounded more like Eminem. With that demo that I heard, he sounded more like Em.”
According to him, there was a huge bidding war for October’s very Own but he couldn’t match the lowest bid. Akon also revealed that music executive, Sylvia Rhone passed on Drizzy for Trey Songz who she believed would be the next big thing.
“That’s when Kardi was like, ‘Ni**a, I told you this ni**a was gonna be the shit. I said, ‘Well, shit, reach out.’ He said, ‘You can, but the lowest bid right now is a million.’ I said, ‘Shit, I ain’t got a million dollars.’”
He also praised the rapper,
“Out of all the artists today, Drake to me, he is worth every single fu**in’ penny, every single penny–that motherfu**er’s genius. He’s revolutionary.”
