When an early-career Akon didn’t have time to perform at live concerts, his younger brothers Bu and Omar Thiam used to come to his rescue as impersonators.
The pop singer was a guest on the Sunday (June 14) episode of Jim Jones’ podcast Artist 2 Artist and recalled instances where his brothers would fill in for him at concerts.
Around the 30-minute mark of the interview, Akon said it was “overwhelming” how much he was being booked for shows in his early career. The vocalist is currently on the road with Ne-Yo on the Nights Like This Tour.
“I was leaving so much money on the table. So Bu would take certain gigs and Omar would take certain gigs,” Akon told Jones, adding that Omar “took it to a whole other level.”
“Omar would get booked without even telling me he booked,” Akon laughed. He then recalled a time that he went to a restaurant with rapper Foxy Brown in New York and she mentioned that she was attending his show in South Carolina the following day.
“I'm like, ‘I don't have no concert in no South Carolina,’” Akon said. “She showed me the flyer and I was like, ‘N***a, this is Omar!’”
Akon went on to call his younger brother a “rebel” who “picked up so many bags” that the singer found out about later, although Bu was “real honest” about the gigs he booked.
While on The Bootleg Kev Podcast last year, Akon called Omar “straight gangsta” when it came to nabbing live concerts as an impersonator without permission.
"[The audience] would not know the difference. And when you see me and my brother separately, if you didn’t see me in person, you would definitely say ‘OK, 1000%.’ Omar was running it up,” Akon said on the show.
