Senegalese-born international music star Akon has disclosed that his record label, Konvict Music signed Ghanaian rapper Sarkodie known in real life as Michael Owusu Addo.
But, according to him, the partnership was unsuccessful since things were different in African music at the time and the artiste (Sarkodie) wanted to go in another direction.
“Sarkodie was the first artist that we signed out of Ghana,” Akon said on #PulsexKalyJaySpace, a Twitter Space by Ghanaian influencer Kaly Jay and Pulse Ghana.
“My brother, Babs actually was dealing with him on a day to day basis, but at the time it was one of those situations where when you signed African artists, you really didn’t have full control over them.”
Akon noted that because they didn’t have full control of Sarkodie’s activities, they couldn’t connect with him very well.
“It was a piece of paper so it would be up to the artist to say okay, we have a contract. Let’s honour it,” he added.
The ‘Lonely’ hitmaker disclosed that his team had plans to make Sarkie bigger and he could have been a global artiste then had he followed the plan – admiting this is an arguable statement.
“We had plans to make him so much bigger but I think at the time his agenda was more focusing on Ghana, which worked for him. And I think that it was a plan that worked,” Akon continued his narration on #PulsexKalyJaySpace.
“I mean, it’s arguably or arguably not – but I know for sure if had he followed our plan, he would have been a global artist without a doubt.”
Akon added that when they realised they couldn’t work with Sarkodie, it didn’t stop them from linking him to the right people so that he could still become the star they wanted him (Sarkodie) to be.
“We realised that we really couldn’t work with him yet because he just wasn’t mentally ready to go on that level. We just allowed him to continue moving the way he was moving”.
“Unfortunately when you have an artiste and you can’t control the artists or you can’t control the asset to them, it’s hard for you to do what you need to do with them if you don’t have control over him”.
“I don’t know if it was him specifically or the team that he had around him at that time, but it was just very difficult to get certain things done with the communication that we were getting with his team at that time. I always say he is the artist that got away”.
Sarkodie is on of the big music talents on the African continent with his projects going beyong Africa. His works include his latest ‘No Pressure’ album, ‘Black Love’ album, ‘Highest’ album, ‘Mary’ album, ‘Sarkology’ and ‘Pride’ albums. He has featured a host of musicians accross the globe.
Send your news stories to dannyboy744@gmail.com and via WhatsApp on +233 266777777
