It all seems rather strange, but it appears Akon is closely collaborating with Senegal to create something truly unique. He has even reportedly signed a “memorandum of understanding” with the state-owned tourism company SAPCO, which probably wouldn’t be cool with a seaside supervillain lair located five minutes from a brand new international airport.

Akon City is supposed to be an ultra-futuristic high tech town, while also being advertised as “an environmental campaign and sustainable tourism village.” It’s also a ten-year project that Akon says won’t even reach stage two until 2025. Long-term do-good projects certainly seem more on brand with Akon than a side gig as a Bond villain, seeing as he has a history of large-scale charitable actions in Africa. For instance, CNN tells us his “Akon Lighting Africa” project is working to provide electricity to roughly 600 million people on the continent. In fact, he says that a big reason he’s involved in blockchain and cryptocurrency is because he feels they bring “the power back to people” and could be the key to saving Africa by allowing people to “advance themselves independent of the government.” He’s not alone with his thoughts, either: Reportedly, Twitter CEO and huge Bitcoin fan Jack Dorsey has similar feelings about Africa’s potential cryptocurrency market, as do the United Nations.