Akon has recently explained why he lied about being an African prince.
Speaking on the Drink Champs podcast, the rapper, who was born to Senegalese parents, opened up that he used to tell people he was a member of African royalty only to be “accepted”.
“I kind of used the excuse that I was a survivor because it made me feel better about it,” said the 50-year-old musician.
The Smack Down hit-maker continued, “There was nothing for me to survive. Because my parents were actually really wealthy.”
“I was living in New Jersey. We lived in a three-story house, just me and my older brother. We had the whole house to ourselves!” stated the singer.
Akon mentioned, “Now when I think about it, we were just bored as hell looking for something to do.”
The singer noted that he did “all the things” to get acceptance “amongst the crowd”.
“I think a lot of my choices came from just wanting to be accepted, you know, amongst the crowd,” remarked the actor.
Akon added, “So, that’s how I got caught into all the things that I got caught into, including cars. Because cars made me feel special.”
“I was young, I can drive with the most elite vehicles, and I ran with the scenario that I was an African prince,” disclosed the crooner.
Meanwhile, Akon also said that he was inspired by the Eddie Murphy’s Coming to America and started calling himself the “African prince”.