She may have sold over 170 million albums, singles, and videos worldwide, but Whitney Houston hasn’t lost her roots, according to Akon.

“That’s my girl right there,” the “Beautiful” singer tells Rap-Up in the Summer 2009 issue. “She’s straight ’hood, but at the same time she can switch it up.”

He expressed his admiration for the 45-year-old singer. “I love Whitney, man. She’s really down-to-earth. That I can say. She hasn’t lost her roots.”

Akon recorded two songs with the diva, but it’s unknown if any will make her new album. One of those songs, “Like I Never Left,” leaked to the Internet last year. “After that song leaked, they pulled that back. That was officially supposed to be a single for her as well. But we’ll see what happens.”

Find out if Akon’s contributions made the cut when Whitney Houston releases her seventh studio album, I Look to You, on Sept. 1.

Akon talks about working with another musical legend, Michael Jackson, in the Summer 2009 issue of Rap-Up, on sale now.