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Akon is a strong believer in the future of Africa. Back in 2020, the musician and businessman first announced that he was spearheading a $6 billion project — Akon City — as previously shared by AFROTECH. Akon City was incepted to be a safe space for Black Americans and others facing racial injustices. The futuristic pan-African city is reportedly being built in Senegal, where Akon was raised.
If there’s one thing that we love about the Internet, it is its ability to share information that would otherwise have never seen the light! This time, Akon let the world in on a big secret — he and the King of Pop were planning to open music-focused schools in Africa ahead of his untimely death in 2009. That’s right, the Senegal native and Michael Jackson had big dreams of collaborating in a huge way to bless students on the continent.
Throughout his musical career, Aliaune Thiam — known as Akon to the world at large — has been dedicated to making life better on the African continent. Back in 2015, he told The Guardian that the reason for his dedication to African causes was because the charities that are currently on the continent don’t always help the people they claim to help. “One thing I’ve realized about Africa is that only the organizations that involve Africans themselves are successful,” he said to the outlet. “A lot of corporations that come with their own policies and try and implement them in Africa fail horribly. The advantage we had is that all three founders are African, so we were able to navigate through each country a lot faster.” Regardless of the truth of the matter, Akon has used his success as a musician to lobby for positive change throughout Africa. His futuristic vision has helped provide new opportunities for Africans from all walks of life, and this has only added to his massive $80...
Talk about a way to watch the plot thicken in a business relationship gone awry. As previously reported by AfroTech, the ex-business partner of Akon claims that the singer still owes him four million dollars. In a new allegation, he now says that the Senegal native’s plans to build his own city could be a Ponzi scheme. AfroTech also shared the news of Akon’s plans to begin building a futuristic city in Africa. Per reports from Complex, Devyne Stephens has now asked a judge to freeze Akon’s New York assets in an effort to get his money more quickly. Those reports also reveal that the court documents say Akon is “flagrantly breaching two separate contractual promises.”
Akon and his former business partner are making headlines, but not for good reason. According to PageSix, the R&B singer is being accused of refusing to pay his end of a contract agreement with Devyne Stephens, the music executive who helped to launch his career and has worked with the likes of Destiny’s Child, Jay-Z, Pink, TLC, and Usher. He claims that he is owed $750,000 and nearly $3 million in royalties. The original 2018 agreement confirms that Akon agreed to pay Stephens $3.25 million over the span of four years. However, the updated suit alleges that he hasn’t paid the final $750,000 installment.
Akon is merging the world of crypto with the music scene, announcing that his next album will be sold as a non-fungible token (NFT) , Esquire reports. “Throughout my career, I have always believed that artists never really got their fair share of the profits for the work they produced and people listen to,” Akon told Esquire. “So with the idea of owning a piece of digital art, via an NFT, it allows the creator to benefit more and actually get more of the pie.” While his plans further affirm cryptocurrency’s ability to allow artists to maximize earnings from their content, it appears profit is not the only interest to Akon as he cites the NFT drop will allow for transparency and access to information from album buyers. “ My next album is going to be an NFT album. With that, I’ll be able to monetize it from the day it drops on every platform that exists. What that means is that it opens the door to full transparency where your music is being played, who’s playing it, where they’re...
Akon is staying busy with his blockchain-powered cryptocurrency Akoin. As AfroTech previously told you, the currency was created to encourage learning, earning, spending and savings opportunities throughout Africa that is said to expand into other economies. The platform provides a solution to the current challenges faced by entrepreneurs such as inflation, limited access to business tools and services, and restricted government regulation, among others. Now Akon is finding new ways to leverage the continent’s economy through a newly launched cryptocurrency card that can reportedly be used anywhere where MasterCard is accepted. “It’s Done. The official AKOIN Card!!! Which allows you to now spend your AKOIN (AKN) were ever master card is excepted. I’m sure you can’t freely spend your crypto in any of your favorite stores right? Well you can with AKOIN (AKN) so grab yours now on BitMart.com before we expand to the major exchanges,” Akon said in an announcement made via Instagram....
Set to make a huge splash in the music metaverse, Stage11 is creating an innovative platform to mold a unique experience for artists and fans. The company was founded by Jonathan Belolo — co-owner of Scorpio Music — to develop a new landscape for artists to have a creative outlet to engage with their fans through interactive performances and music worlds. Now the Paris-based startup is one step closer to bringing the metaverse experience to fans due to an impressive seed round led by European venture capital fund, Otium Capital totaling $5.77 million, according to PR Newswire. “As a gamer and sci-fi nerd, It feels like I’ve been dreaming about the metaverse my entire life,” said Belolo in a press release. “Now that as a society we’re on the cusp of making it real, I find myself blessed to be part of an incredible team setting out to explore the new frontier. Building immersive music events and experiences is just the first step. We are on a journey together to reimagine the way...
Akon is steadily building up his African crypto-city empire, and now he’s got his sights set on another city outside of Senegal. According to reports from the Ugandan government, they share that they’ve allocated one square mile of land to the rapper and business mogul to allow construction to begin on his cryptocurrency-based city, REVOLT reports. Following the announcement of his plans to transform Senegal into a futuristic city, Akon is now preparing to build his second AKoin-operated city in Uganda which is set to be completed by the year 2036. Though he has not yet released details on how much the new construction project will cost, we know that its sister city was a $6 billion costly operation. Additionally, amenities have not been announced either but Complex predicts that it will likely follow the same model as Senegal’s blueprint — which includes a Hamptons Hospital campus, Hamptons Mall, a school, police department, and waste management service as well as parks, stadiums,...
Award-winning Senegalese-American recording artist and entrepreneur Akon has been known to dabble in Africa’s business dealings for years, and now his wife is gearing up to do the same. Rozina Negusei — President and CEO of Zanar Entertainment, Entreeg Records, and Entreeg Entertainment Group — recently announced that she plans to invest a total of $12 million in the Ugandan entertainment industry to explore a plethora of available business opportunities worth backing, according to local outlet Sqoop. “We are here to explore new opportunities in Uganda, we are focused on investing in Agriculture, solar, and real estate,” she said. “Our main focus is to see how we can bridge the gap between East Africa and West Africa in terms of business and trade.” Negusei was reportedly invited to Uganda by East African Partners (EAP) managing director, Isaac Kigozi. Along with her came a group of Turkish investors, who are set to visit a few government departments, agencies, and private sector...
It’s official, “Akon City” is still on its way! R&B sensation, Akon announced that construction for his futuristic pan-African city will begin next year, AP News reports. The $6 billion project will still proceed despite global tourism’s uncertain future due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Inspired by the hit film, “Black Panther,” Akon first set his sights on creating a utopian city back in 2018 and has described it as a “real-life Wakanda,” much like the technologically advanced fictional African place portrayed in the film. Akon hopes his city will serve as a “home back home” for Black Americans and others facing racial injustices. His aim is also to provide much-needed jobs for Senegalese. “The system back home treats them unfairly in so many different ways that you can never imagine. And they only go through it because they feel there is no other way,” Akon said, according to AP News. Born in the United States — to Senegalese parents — the “Lonely” singer spent the majority of his...