Akon Explains Why He Didn’t Sign Moneybagg Yo

Akon has explained why he passed on an opportunity to sign trending rap star Moneybagg Yo.

In his recent interview with VladTV published on Saturday (November 5), the music and business mogul discussed his relationships with previous signees including Rock City, social media sensation Jeffree Star, and Memphis rapper OG Boo Dirty — who Akon revealed introduced him to Moneybagg Yo before he joined Yo Gotti’s Collective Music Group roster.

“And mind you OG Boo Dirty was the one that introduced me to Moneybagg [Moneybagg Yo] you know he’s signed to Yo Gotti but we had him first okay but we never signed him,” Akon said in part. “Ain’t that crazy, OG came to me and said, ‘Yo Kon he’s the next n-gga,’ like, but at the time I wasn’t focused.”

According to Akon, everything changed when the pair of rappers paid a visit to his home years ago to play him unreleased music, which the “Locked Up” vocalist says convinced him the “Wockesha” rapper was next in line to blow up.

“OG came to the house, I mean um he brought Moneybagg with him and Moneybagg had a record bro, till this day if he release it I always said that was gonna be his biggest record, it’s called ‘I Need A Plug’ okay I heard that record I went fuckin’ crazy,” Akon said. “I was like, ‘Oh this record is out of here this kid is gone,’ that’s what convinced me to what it was.”

However, before he could lock in anything formal with Moneybagg Yo, Akon, who is in the midst of managing the construction of a multi-billion dollar city in the African country of Senegal, says he had to fly overseas for business. He says by the time he came back, Moneybagg had already created a buzz of his own with various mixtape releases, but Akon says he was still reluctant to move forward with a record deal offer — despite OG Boo Dirty’s advice.

“Then I flew off the overseas and come back for like six months later,” Akon said in part. He continued, “By the time I came back he was already moving on mixtape circuits, but then again I didn’t want to be dealing with rappers so. OG kept saying ‘Yo man I’m telling this n-gga going, he going. Get him Kon, get him.’ I said ,’I know man but I don’t know if I want to be dealing with no rappers man,’ OG was like ‘All right bro I’m telling you gonna regret it’. Not saying I regret it, but, OG called it yeah OG Boo dirty caught all that.”

Moneybagg Yo reached superstar status in 2021 after earning his first No. 1 debut on the Billboard 200 Album Chart in April with the release of his album A Gangsta’s Pain, which sold roughly 110,000 total first-week album-equivalent album units.

Watch the full interview below.