Abou “Bu”Thiam, 25 David “Sweetz” Smith, 29 David Banner’s lil’ cousin (“His mother and my father
are sister and brother, and his father and my mother are brother and sister too. He’s like my older cousin/big brother.”)
Hype Man/Promotions/Marketing/Street Team/Security (“Whatever the fuck needs to be done”)
Is this your full-time job or do you just help out on the side? I’m back in school now [at Jackson State University]. I didn’t start doing this as a fun thing, it was an escape route. I went to jail and dropped out of school, and no jobs were tryin’ to fuck with me because I was a felon. At that time, that’s when my cousin’s career started to jump off, so it was an escape route and a way for me to leave town and get paid. So it was out of love, but it got professional. Right now, I’m trying to finish school. I’m a Marketing major and I’ll be graduating in December, so hopefully then I can apply it with my cousin in some form or fashion and get some of this real money. When did you realize your cousin was going to be a star? To be honest with you, I always felt that way. Banner’s been doing the music shit all my life. It was just a matter of time, as far as I was concerned. Growing up, I always thought he was a star anyway, cause with all the niggas I grew up with, he was above their head with the shit he was listening to. But I really knew it was serious when he formed his own group and was doing shows around Mississippi when he was in high school. That’s when I felt like, damn, my cousin might really have something goin’ on with this music. Who would win in a fight? I wouldn’t fight Banner. I would try to talk him out of it, because he’s bigger than me and he’d win. But I don’t fight anymore; we’d have to talk it out or it’d be fatal. Do you have any entertaining stories from back in the day? Bonecrusher used to live in the house with us in Mississippi, like 13 years ago, when both of them was tryin’ to get on. I was on house arrest, Bonecrusher was broke, Banner was broke, and my uncle was a fireman - he passed away recently. Bonecrusher used to find old shit in the cabinets and make meals out of it. I didn’t know how to cook so I’d be looking at him crazy. The [food] was probably outdated but he’d make more meals out of it. [Banner] had this girl that he was involved with and we used to always call her psycho; we’d make up these scary stories about her and tell [Bonecrusher] these bullshit jokes. One night she was supposed to be out of town. It was 2 in the morning and somebody knocked on the door. Our carport was so dark and when we put the light on, it was her. We all started running and hollering and shit and she was looking at us like we were crazy. (laughs) What have you enjoyed the most about being on tour with your cousin? The tour I enjoyed the most was the Ludacris Chicken & Beer tour, but the one I feel like I learned the most on was the 50 Cent Beg For Mercy tour – I learned to be more professional because there’s a lot of money involved. // Words and Photo by Julia Beverly
Akon’s younger brother Co-CEO of Konvict Music What are your job responsibilities? Making sure all our albums are delivered by our artists which are T-Pain, Kardinal, Ray, Rock City. I’m more on the A&R side because Akon can’t really be involved and at the same time be the producer. He can’t really be in the studio every time with the artists. I make sure the right records get done, A&R his album, make sure he’s doing what he needs to do as far as performances. I’m on the phone with the labels making sure we have the right marketing for every artist, making sure the budget is right. I just make sure the business is right when we have an artist that comes out. What was your job before this? I used to road manage Loon from Bad Boy back in the day. That kind of gave me some insight on the music industry and how it works. At what point did you realize that Akon was destined to be a star? Honestly, ‘Kon always did music but he never let anyone hear it. He used to just do it as a hobby. He never really shopped a deal or none of that. He was just doing it ‘cause he liked doing his thing. He used to really be wild back in the day. He had a car ring but at the same time he always made music in his room. He had his own little studio. I really knew he was going to be a star when I heard the record he did with The Fugees on The Score album. He was on the remix to “Oh La La La.” When I heard that, I knew he was really going to be something in the game. Do you have a favorite tour memory? Probably when we were on tour with Gwen Stefani. My favorite memory with T-Pain was in Atlanta. He was on stage with T.I., Ciara, Yung Joc, and Lloyd, and in the middle of the show he stopped performing and was like, “Before I go any further, there’s some things I gotta say. I got to give it up to Bu – he was the guy that discovered me and if it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be here right now.” It meant a lot to me ‘cause a lot of times artists sell a bunch of records and forget who helped them get to that point. That was one of my favorite moments on that tour. What’s something interesting about Akon that the public might not know about him? He’s a real funny dude and a family-oriented guy. He’s also into golf. But he’s a real family-oriented guy. A lot of guys get into the hype of having a different girl every night, but he loves his wife and kids. He loves me and my brother O. He has our back 100%. Did you get along well when you were kids? Our parents are from West Africa and my father made sure we all looked out for each other. Growing up, ‘Kon used to be into stealing cars, robbing and shit like that. So me, as his little brother, everything he got into I got into ‘cause I thought it was cool to do. He always had the flyest cars ‘cause he would steal ‘em and hook ‘em up at the chop shop. So when I got into high school, that’s what I did too. Who would win in a fight? Back in the day, he would, but I’m getting my work out on so I think I might have him now. // Words: Ms Rivercity // Photo: Julia Beverly OZONE MAG // 53