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Akon

Akon, singer, "Daily Star" (August 7, 2008)

Akon, 35, told me [about his first meeting with Michael Jackson]: “He actually took me to the movies with him and that was an experience.

“I was like: ‘Are you going out like that?’ He was in his pajamas and I was waiting to see if he was going to change. “He grabs a scarf and puts it around his head, then he grabs the kids and puts a scarf around their heads, so I grab a scarf and put it around my head and off we go.”

“Entertainment Weekly” (November 19, 2010) (archived)

Earlier this week, “Hold My Hand,” produced by and featuring Akon, hit the Net as its official single. Even though he let this track out of his vault, don’t expect Akon to release any more M.J. collabs ever again. As he tells MTV in a recent interview, the only reason “Hold My Hand” is featured on Michael is that it’s actually a finished track.

“‘Hold My Hand’ was one of the records that was actually fully complete,” Akon says. “The rest of the ideas aren’t fully complete. They’re just ideas, concepts, and harmonies which the world will probably never see, because I would never put it out unfinished. So I might just burn it after this interview… We’ve done plenty of records outside of this. But they were just incomplete.” ‘Kon’s sentiment is similar is the Black Eyed Peas’ Will.i.am, who refuses to release any of the work he and Jackson did during the latter years of his life.