Akon and his brother Abou ‘Bu’ Thiam took keeping the money in the family to new levels after the singer confirmed he used his sibling as a body double.
T-Pain first revealed the scheme this past July. During a Twitch conversation with DJ Akademiks, the “I’m Sprung” singer said, “These n—gas was getting double the shows every month ‘cause Bu would go and lip-sync songs for Akon…Bu would get on that stage and say he was Akon and lip-sync them motherf—king lyrics as much as he could.” T-Pain was signed to Akon’s label, Konvict Muzik, in the early 2000s, when he launched his career as a songwriter and singer.
Now, in a recent interview with “The Morning Hustle” radio show, the “Locked Up” singer has made the admission on his own. “Bu was my double. He was my double. This was before internet. If you saw Abou in one place and you saw me, you couldn’t tell the difference,” he said.
He further added that the only reason he employed Bu as his double was because he did not want to miss out on making money from performances. “I was like, ‘Man, all this money I’m leaving on the table. We cannot leave all this money on the table,’” he explained. Akon also said his brother Omar hit the stage in his place, but unlike Bu, he was not given permission to do so. “That was probably the funnest part of our lives,” said Akon.
Social media was floored by the admission, with many clowning Akon and his brother for their get-money scheme. “African brothers with the double finesse,” wrote one person.
“So I guess he really is A Con,” wrote another.
“Imagine being in the front row at an akon concert watching him perform Smack That and realizing there’s an off brand akon on stage,” tweeted a third.
And two other Twitter users wrote, “Imagine going to see Akon and end up with either Bkon or Ckon,” and “Meet AKon, BCon and CKon, I’m an Econ- omist.”
