When I first heard hip-hop I thought it was rubbish because I didn't understand the concept of people talking over music.

Any album that you pick up of mine, you know it's an Akon album. The guests are very limited and you get to really feel the experience. You get the Akon experience when you get the albums. I always want to make sure that stays the way it is. I don't want to flood the album to where you lose focus on why you bought it.

It's always the music first for me. But if the music isn't selling, there isn't gonna be no business. So you gotta make sure music is always the first priority.

When I first heard hip-hop I thought it was rubbish because I didn't understand the concept of people talking over music.

Who is the best rapper ever? I'll probably have to say Eminem. I would definitely say Eminem. He came from a whole another culture, literally. Mastered it, outsold everybody and he did every kind of record imaginable. He could take any topic and make a song out of it. I haven't seen any artist do that yet.

My ideas come when I least expect it, so I've always got to have a studio nearby or close by somewhere.

The moment artists can just do what they love to do then music will go right back to where it used to be. I mean back in the '60s and '70s and '80s, that's what it was.