Akon has revealed that during the early stages of his career, his younger brothers, Bu and Omar Thiam, occasionally stepped in and impersonated him at live performances when his schedule became too packed.
The singer shared the story while appearing on the Sunday (June 14) episode of Jim Jones’ Artist 2 Artist podcast, where he reflected on how overwhelming the demand for appearances became after he first broke onto the scene.
Speaking around the 30-minute mark of the conversation, Akon explained that he was receiving more booking requests than he could handle. The hitmaker is currently touring alongside 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, before noting that Omar “took it to a whole other level.”
“Omar would get booked without even telling me he booked the show,” Akon said with a laugh. He then shared a story about dining with rapper Foxy Brown in New York when she casually mentioned she was planning to attend one of his concerts in South Carolina the next day.
“I’m like, ‘I don’t have no concert in no South Carolina,’” Akon recalled. “She showed me the flyer and I was like, ‘N***a, this is Omar!’”
The singer went on to describe his younger brother as a “rebel,” revealing that Omar secured numerous performance checks that Akon only learned about afterward. In contrast, he said Bu was much more upfront about the gigs he accepted on his behalf.
During an appearance on The Bootleg Kev Podcast last year, Akon also praised Omar’s boldness when it came to booking shows as his stand-in 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.
