Akon reminisces about his successful former partnership with rapper Eminem.
Akon discussed his work with Eminem and Dr. Dre on an episode of The Bootleg Kev Podcast.
With the exception of “Smack That,” I produced every album I’ve ever released. In other words, Eminem was responsible for making the album. That’s insane, right? He constantly made those little noises; it wasn’t much, but it was unmistakably Eminem.
Akon recalls how Eminem ended up producing ‘Smack That’
He said that he was surprised by Eminem’s producing skills. While in Detroit, Akon contacted Eminem about a possible collaboration. The Lonely rapper expressed interest in joining Slim Shady’s crew.
He handed me a folder containing perhaps 30 songs. So I narrowed it down to five alternatives after considering a total of thirty. And I captured all five, but Smack That really popped out. “Bro, this is it,” he revealed.
After he heard my idea for it, he was like, “Yo, I’m getting in on this.” And I thought, “You know what, if he jumps on this one, this will be a single.” Despite all the others we did together, that one was unique. In any case, I still have them. I still have the albums in my possession. All the upcoming album releases are right here.
In 2006, Akon released the single “Smack” from the album Konvicted. More than 570 million people have listened to it on Spotify, and it’s been seen more than 950 million times on YouTube. It’s Akon’s most streamed song ever and the fifteenth most streamed single in Marshall’s discography.