Lady Gaga’s success has afforded Akon an early retirement. “She’s pretty much retired me,” he tells AP of the pop superstar, who was about to get dropped from Interscope Records before he signed her to his KonLive imprint. “She was definitely a blessing. She came at the right moment.”

He also drops another bombshell, hinting at what could be a track from Dr. Dre’s long-awaited Detox. “You’ve got some straight hardcore hip-hop guys actually moving into the dance realm,” adds Akon. “That’s shocking when you got someone like Dr. Dre about to do a dance record.”