“Smack That” remains the most streamed Akon’s song on Spotify but it was conceived by a pure accident.
Akon recalls in his recent interview with VladTV that he was determined to get Eminem on his album and even had a song planned for them both. But when he went to Detroit without the slightest idea where to find Marshall he did not know what it would bring to him:
Em as always one of my favourite rappers, back then especially. I just did the record with Snoop “I wanna love you” and then I was like, “Man, I was able to conquer Snoop. Now I gotta get Em. I got to”. And back then he didn’t do features at all. It was a shot in the dark. So I just said, “Let me just go to Detroit. I’m just gonna go there”. So I booked a ticket and flew out there. And when I was out there I was hanging the strip club just asking questions like, “Yo, you know where Em at? Where’s Em hanging out at?” And then I run into this one nigga, he said, “Yo, I heard you’re looking for Em”. I said, “Yeah, I’ve been trying to get a hold of him but I’ve got no line on him right now”. He said, “Well, Obie [Trice] is my man!”. So he called Obie, Obie comes to meet me at the strip club. We hang out for like two days. Then he said, “Yo, I’m gonna take you to the studio so you can go meet Em”. I was like, “Nigga, perfect!” So Obie takes me to the studio. Me and Em connect instantly. He played me some beats and everything. And at the time I already had the song that I wanted to do with him, I already had it set up. I never even got to play him that song. He was playing me all these beats and then he just pulled that beat [sings “Smack That” beat]. I was like, “Oh, shit”. Em produced that track. When I heard that I was like, “Oh, this shit is about to be crazy!”. So off top I just go into the booth and start freestyling harmonies. By the time I get out the booth Em had already left. I was like, “Where the hell this nigga go?” So I said, “Fuck it, I’m gonna finish this song and let him hear when he get back tomorrow and he can lay his verse to it”. So I laid the whole joint, come back the next day. It was about one pm by the time I got there. The song was already laid. This nigga came in at eight o’clock that morning, laid his verse and left for lunch. So I got there around lunch break, he hadn’t already came. By the time he came back in he’s like, “Yo, you want to hear it?” I said, “Hell yeah”. He plays it for me, I go crazy. I was like, “Where was you at?” He said, “I went to lunch”. I said, “You ain’t just order food to come here?” He said, “Nah, man. I treat this shit like a real nine to five. I come in early, nine to five, I leave at five o’clock on the dot every day. I come in, I take a lunch break and I come back to work. Five o’clock I’m home. I treat this like a real job”. And I thought about this shit. I was like, “Damn, that shit is smart”. Because it’ll open your days up. It was through him that made me start saying, “Okay, I need to start scheduling it”. Nine to five was a little too early for me but I had my schedules. I don’t do late night studios anymore, I just do them during the day and I’m out before midnight.
Watch Akon detailing his search for Eminem:
