Akon

The uprising star of the mainstream music, Akon, was born in Senegal to a family of a famous jazz musician Mor Thiam. There are several opinions on his real name, but according to the most popular version, it is Aliaune Thiam. In such circumstances, the boy could not but love music, especially drums and percussion. When he was seven, he moved to the States. He studied poorly and always found troubles with law. Aged fifteen he wrote his first composition, Operations of Nature. It was never released as Akon was not deeply interested in music at that time. As a teenager, Akon decided to launch an illegal business selling stolen cars. He offered his vehicles to celebrities, sportsmen, actors and musicians. This occupation brought him to prison where Akon spent three years. The sentence time was enough to reconsider life values and directions to go. Locked in jail, Akon wrote some of the songs that would be featured on his albums. Three years in confinement persuaded the young man to never break the law again.

After leaving the prison, Akon equipped his own room with the necessary facilities and built up a small studio to work on his own material. He sent his demos to numerous companies until SRC, a Universal subdivision, signed him up. In 2004, the singer released his first long player, Trouble. It was loaded with his experience and impressions from the past life, mostly dark emotions and memories. Indisputably talented, Akon presented a unique type of music decorated with his gentle voice sounding intimate and profound. As only author and producer of his own songs, Akon was free to look for unusual sounds, patterns and solutions. One of the first successful experiments was the composition Show Out featuring him uttering fragments of poems from school text books. First fame and recognition came with the single Locked Up, written by Akon during his sentence. Another song conceived behind the bars was the hit Ghetto. One of the untypical joyful songs on the album was the dance smash Bananza (Belly Dance), a favorite of most leading dance floors. The album did not reach the first place in the charts, but it managed to remain there long enough to become platinum.

The subsequent release by Akon, Konvicted (2006) was considered one of the best releases of the year. The singer wrote all but one tracks from the album. He got some of his friends involved in the session for this record. One of the compositions, Smack That, was made in cooperation with Eminem. This song made one of the most incredible jumps in the charts soaring from position 95 to 7 in Top 100. Snoop Dog also helped the young artist create this album as he participated in making the ballads I Wanna Love You, and Don’t Metter. It took Konvicted only seven weeks to become platinum. The two high selling albums made it possible for Akon to launch his own label, Konvikt Muzik. Famous and prosperous, Akon announced his plans to broaden his activity with starting his own TV show and shooting a movie based in the facts from his life. He has already founded his clothing line, Konvict Clothing. In December 2008, Akon released his third album, Freedom.