Akon revealed that he turned down the chance to sign Drake in mid ’00s because he sounded like Eminem.

In a recent interview with VladTV, the rapper talked about how he was sent a Drake demo ahead of the release of his breakout single, ‘Best I Ever Had’. He explained, ” Kardinal Offishall brought him to me back in like 2005 I think it was or was it ’04? It was right before ‘Best I Ever Had’ blew up because it was like more mixtape-ish. And at the time, believe it or not, Drake sounded more like Eminem. With that demo that I heard? He was sounding more like Em. But I think that was around the time when… That’s every artist developing. You can see the difference between that demo and ‘Best I Ever Had.’ It was completely different.”

By the time Drake developed his style and sparked a bidding war with “Best I Ever Had” and So Far Gone, the price of the brick had skyrocketed. Akon previously spoke about turning down Drake before but this time he’s revealed that Drake’s likeness to Eminem turned him off.

“Out of all the artists today, to me, Drake is worth every single fucking penny,” Akon said to DJ Vlad. “Every single penny. That motherfucker’s a genius, bro. It’s revolutionary what he’s done.”

Despite turning Drake down, the rapper made big scores as an executive. He signed T-Pain and was also responsible for starting Lady Gaga’s career.