"He's a genius. Just to be in the same room with him, I felt everything I wanted to accomplish in life has been achieved. That aura...That's how incredible that aura is. We're about to shake the world up, man. You know how you'd be with somebody and you can't even explain the feeling? I used to sit and think, 'How does somebody sell so many records and dominate a whole business genre, to a point where nobody can't be a part of that without associating with you?' The way he thinks...
Some artists think regional, some think national. I was thinking international. He thinks planets. It's on another level."

Akon  2007