Akon has left many of us wishing for a sibling who looks like us enough to play a double when it comes to making extra coins. The artist recently admitted that he used to employ his brother Abou ‘Bu’ Thiam as his double when he couldn’t make it to a show.
In an interview on The Morning Hustle, the singer and entrepreneur discussed claims made by T-pain earlier this year that he used his brother as a double. “Let me clear some things up so we all know,” he started. “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.”
Akon then added that Bu started out as his hype man when he first went on tour, but he had to start turning down shows because he didn’t have the time. “I was like, ‘Man, all this money I’m leaving on the table,’” he continued. “We cannot leave all this money on the table.” He also admitted that he sent Bu to perform at a Hot 97-hosted show at one point even though he can’t sing.
Apparently, people could only tell the difference between because one thing, Bu would wear hats and Akon wouldn’t.
Akon joked that his brother Omar did the same thing, but without his permission.
“That was probably the funnest part of our lives,” he recalled.
Since Akon’s admissions, Twitter users have gone wild. Rumors of the switch started a while back but it was T-Pain that caused them to come back.
“Imagine thinking you booked Akon but it was A CON the whole time.” one used tweeted.
“Akon is officially the best African scammer since those Nigerian prince emails,” another posted.
Thoughts?
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