[Mz K]

in the wake of Jackson's passing, Akon would prefer to reminisce about the man, not the music.

"My favorite moment was the day we actually met, because I didn't expect him to be that cool," Akon said in MTV's "Michael Jackson's Human Nature" special, which aired over the weekend. "I expected him to be this diva — just hard to deal with, rarely speaks, got to send his message through someone else, you know? Because these are the stories you hear."

Before they recorded a note of music, Akon had a sitdown meeting with Jackson, one that began predictably — and seemed to confirm the producer's worst fears — but quickly became a life-changing event.

"So I'm going upstairs [to meet him], I knock on the door, his bodyguard opens and says, 'OK, he's waiting to meet you.' I walk in and [Michael's] in this spinning chair, but it's facing backwards, so I walk in the room, but his back is turned, and the guard says, 'Hey, Mike, Akon's here.' So he spins around, like it was choreographed — so right away I was like, 'Oh boy,' " he laughed.

"But as soon as he turns around, gets up, 'Yo, what up, man?!' and I was like, 'What up, Mike?' and he gave me a pound, we hugged each other. He's like, 'Yo, I've been waiting to meet you for so long, this is a great honor, thanks for showing up, thanks for making the time.' And in my mind I'm like, 'You know, I should be thanking you for making the time.'

"It was the craziest thing, because we sat down, we talked about Africa, we talked about my foundation [Konfidence], we talked about the music, we talked about girls. We had a great, incredible time that day," he continued. "He was extremely funny, he told jokes, and he liked to have fun."