One of the biggest rap-pop hits of the 2000s almost never happened. Akon shared a detailed story about how he tracked down Eminem in Detroit, ended up with the song that became “Smack That”, and learnt a life-changing lesson from Marshall’s work ethic.
To this day, “Smack That” remains the defining record of Akon’s career. Yet according to Akon, getting Eminem required persistence, patience, and a little help from Obie Trice.
Chasing an Eminem feature
Speaking on Andrew Schulz’s Flagrant podcast, Akon’s credit Shady Records artist Obie Trice for making connection to Eminem. At the time, Akon had produced a record for Obie and wanted something in return.
“I was like, ‘Obie, don’t worry. You ain’t got to pay me. I just need a feature from Em’”, Akon recalled.
However, there was a problem. Obie warned him that Eminem’s manager, Paul Rosenberg, would be difficult to bypass. Rather than going around Rosenberg, Akon decided to handle things properly.
First, he called Rosenberg and told him he had a song he wanted Eminem to hear. Then he headed to Detroit to find Eminem in person.
That proved easier said than done. “You don’t ever really know where Em’s going to be”, Akon laughed.
The pair spent a whole day waiting outside the studio. One morning, they arrived at 6 a.m. to make sure they would not miss him. Eventually, Eminem walked through the door.
A hit in the making
Eminem was in the studio. Moreover, he was willing to work with his unexpected guest. Akon was ready. He brought a briefcase full of music and planned to play Eminem several records before asking for anything in return.
Instead, the meeting took an unexpected turn.
“Yo, you know I produce too”, Eminem told him. Akon had no idea. Soon, Eminem began playing beats, and one of them just felt right for Akon.
“The ‘Smack That’ track came on”, Akon remembered. “I was like, ‘Yo, this shit is crazy. Can I get that?” Eminem handed over the beat along with four others that Akon hopes to release one day.
Many fans still assume Akon produced “Smack That”. According to him, that is not the case. “That track was produced solely by Eminem”, he said. “A lot of people don’t know that”.
A lesson in discipline
For Akon, surprises did not stop that day with Eminem’s apparent talent for producing. Even more unexpected was Marshall’s schedule. Eminem treated the studio like a regular job. He arrived, worked, took lunch, and left at five o’clock.
“He treated it like a real 9 to 5”, Akon said. The approach shocked him. “It fucked me up because he accomplished just as much work as he was supposed to accomplish in that little time that I did spending the night there”.
Until then, Akon often spent entire days and nights in the studio. Watching Eminem achieve the same results in a structured workday changed his outlook. “After that, I realised now I can make time for my kids, make time for my family, and not be consumed by the studio all day every day”.
The surprise verse
The next day, Akon returned to the studio. Eminem had been working on the track. At first, Akon thought Em was simply tweaking the production. Then he heard something unexpected.
His own verse played. Then another voice came in. “Whoa! Bring that back!” Eminem had recorded a verse.
Akon instantly knew the song had become something bigger. Yet there was still one question. Whose song would it be? Akon expected Eminem to keep it for himself. After all, he had produced it and now appeared on it. Instead, Eminem insisted it belonged on Akon’s album. “No, bro. It’s on your album”.
Eventually, Marshall remixed “Smack That” on Eminem Presents: The Re-Up with vocals from Stat Quo and Bobby Creekwater. Akon could not be happier. “It was even better because now I got a bigger, broader audience on top of that to also bring this record to them. And then it just goes crazy”.
A gift that keeps giving
Naturally, Schulz wanted to know how much money that translated into. While Akon says he does not attach any commercial value to a song at the moment of creation, he is certainly keeping an eye on how it performs later. And “Smack That” appears to be one of the songs that can sustain an artist for a long time.
“A hit record is going to generate money, no matter what”, Akon is confident. “Let’s take ‘Smack that’. I can’t tell you the exact number, but I can tell you that I’ll be getting paid for that record for the rest of my life. You can’t quantify how much it will eventually make because it will always continue to make money. Every three months, that record could generate easily about $150 to $200,000. That was before digital, with the label taking all the extra shit out. Now, digital is more accurate. The record now goes from that into the digital world. It tripled off the top just from that. It now becomes even bigger and global, it can make easily up to a million dollars a quarter”.
And here is where the difference between a hit and a classic lies. Hits come and go, Akon said. Classics stay. For him, “Smack That” belongs in the second category. More importantly, it changed Akon’s career.
Every time he tells the story, some details shift. In earlier versions, he recalled searching for Eminem in Detroit strip clubs. On other occasions, he suggested that Eminem was eager to join the song from the start.
The details may change, but the outcome does not. Akon left Detroit with a future classic, a lifelong revenue stream, and a new understanding of discipline and time management.
Not bad for a meeting that almost didn’t happen.