Akon Reveals Plans To Make Good On Promise to Open Music Schools In Africa He Planned With Michael Jackson

As his eponymous futuristic city rises, Akon has disclosed a plan he and Michael Jackson discussed before the King of Pop’s death in 2009—building music schools all throughout Africa.

Akon, an artist, producer, and entrepreneur said he and Jackson hung out “practically four, five times a week” and had “real conversations,” according to HipHopDX. In their two-year friendship, Akon learned that Jackson always made sure “kids were in a comfortable position to be a kid” because “he never really had a childhood himself.”

“He was a big star as a child,” Akon told the online magazine. “He didn’t get a chance to go to the carnival, go to the movies, eat candy, like things that kids naturally did so when he got older, he surrounded himself with all those kiddish things that he never had a chance to be at.”

For Akon, who has devoted his life to creating a better future for the kids in Africa, Jackson’s character is a reflection of what he’s endured and paid forward. Jackson participated in humanitarian efforts to help people all over the world, especially children in need.

“We wanted to create a music school that allowed kids to learn how to play instruments, vocal coaching, the music business, entertainment, so they don’t just walk into it not knowing the education of how the business works and things like that,” the Senegal native revealed, adding that the first educational district in Akon City will be named after the late icon.

Back in 2020, a $6 billion construction contract had been awarded to build Akon City in Senegal, Africa, as BLACK ENTERPRISE previously reported. The crypto-currency themed project, which is operating in a 10-year building block, is currently in Phase 1 according to Retail & Leisure International, with the “construction of roads, along with a Hamptons Hospital campus, a Hamptons Mall, residences, hotels, a police station, a school, a waste facility, and a solar power plant.” The first phase is expected to be completed by the end of 2023.