Tuesday, August 4, 2026

Wizkid Afrobeats’ poster boy, says Akon 

“We picked up Wizkid in 2010…. at the time he was a real kid. He was 14, like super young,” said Akon.

• September 30, 2022
Wizkid and Akon
Wizkid and Akon

Senegalese-American songster Akon has called Wizkid the poster boy of Afrobeats. 

The Konvict Muzik founder in a recent interview with Sway Universe’s Sway Calloway and friends declared that in 2010, EME founder Banky W, brought the Nigerian superstar to Konvict because he felt “Wiz could be bigger and Nigeria was not big enough for him.”

“Wizkid is probably the poster child for Afrobeats Music. We knew he was going to be that way when we discovered him. We picked up Wizkid in 2010…. at the time he was a real kid. He was 14, like super young,” said Akon.

The music producer, who went on to sign some of America’s biggest artistes, including Lady Gaga and T-Pain, celebrated 15 years since he released his ‘Konvict’ music album on the show and further detailed his song with Michael Jackson.

“I was trying to get him (T-Pain) to do Afrobeat back before we even started the movement in Nigeria,” said Akon. “This was something that Konvict was supposed to start in the United States, believe it or not. This was in 2008.”

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