Savage’s debut album, Moonshine, hit hard from the very start.
The album’s second single, its title track, featured the one and only Akon, with their collaboration going on to spend seven weeks atop the New Zealand Singles Chart. “Moonshine” was a hit across the ditch in Australia, too, reaching the top 10 on the ARIA Singles Chart.
But how did Savage and Akon overcome geographical differences to link up together in the first place?
In an exclusive new interview with Rolling Stone AU/NZ, the legendary Aotearoa rapper revealed how “Moonshine” came to be.
When Mareko, a member of hip-hop group Deceptikonz alongside Savage, recorded his own debut album, White Sunday, in 2003 in New York with Kirk Harding from Loud Records, a bunch of demos were brought back from artists they were considering signing.
One of those demos featured a then-unknown artist by the name of Akon. Savage was hooked right away.
“I became obsessed with that demo. I played it constantly. My cousins started loving it too, but I was gatekeeping the CD because I knew Akon was about to get signed,” he told us. “Somehow one of my cousins copied it, and suddenly everyone in South Auckland was playing Akon before his album had even come out!”
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When Savage then had to decide who he wanted to guest on “Moonshine”, he chose Akon over much more established names like Lil Wayne and Mobb Deep.
“I told Kirk I wanted Akon,” he revealed. “He couldn’t believe I was choosing an unknown artist over all those established names. But I believed in Akon’s voice and songwriting. We jumped on a call together and he asked me where New Zealand even was. I told him it was the bottom of the world and he laughed.”
“The rest is history,” as Savage said. “We actually recorded the song at the end of 2003 but held onto it for a couple of years because we wanted the timing to line up. By the time ‘Moonshine’ came out, Akon was blowing up internationally with ‘Lonely’. Everything aligned perfectly and the song just exploded from there.
“The collaboration with Akon was probably the most mind-blowing moment of my career.”
Read our full interview with Savage here.
