Akon has finally confirmed the claim about him using his brother Abou Thiam as his body double to perform at shows in the past. When making the honest confession, the “Lonely” singer said he did that for his fans.
“That was around the time when you [just didn’t] want to disappoint the fans,” the 49-year-old musician, whose full name is Aliaune Damala Badara Akon Thiam, said in an interview with TMZ. “And you couldn’t be at three, four or five places at the same time.”
Akon added that he had never gotten caught using his sibling who didn’t know to sing as a body double. However, he’s now exposed “thanks to [T-Pain],” who spilled the beans in July of this year.
The “Bananza” crooner said he ended the body doubling “14 years ago, around 2004-2005.” He further elaborated, “I was too new for people to know who the face was.”
Asked why he decided to stop, Akon divulged that it was because of “social media.” He went on to share, “Everybody knows. And my brother Bou famous now so they definitely know the difference.”
T-Pain revealed Akon’s secret when speaking to DJ Akademiks on his Twitch channel. “I came up with Bou was doing shows for Akon, n***a,” the emcee, born Faheem Rashad Najm, told Akademiks. The latter didn’t buy his claim though, saying, “No, stop it, that never happened.”
In response, T-Pain stressed, “Are you that naive my na? He then emphasized, “These nas was getting double the shows every motherf**kin’ month because Bou would go and slip freaking … shows for Akon.”
“You a trash fan if you ain’t already know that. This was happening in 2000,” T-Pain continued. “Who would get on that stage and say he was Akon and lipsynced the motherfkin’ lyrics as much as he could, and they would pay for that st every time.”
