ALL ABOUT KONVICTION

29 June 2007

The music industry has a new name to learn these days, but at least it's a short one: "Akon." The Senegalese-American R&B artist/writer/producer, born Aliaune Thiam in St. Louis, has been on a tear since the November release of his second album, Konvicted.

It has sold more than 3.5 million copies worldwide and launched a trio of hits: the chart-toppers I Wanna Love You and Don't Matter, plus the Grammy-nominated Eminem collaboration Smack That, which hit No. 2 and set a Billboard record with an 85-place jump on the Hot 100.

But that's only part of the story.

These days you'll find Akon all over the pop charts, on such hits as Gwen Stefani's The Sweet Escape, Young Jeezy's Soul Survivor, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony's I Tried and DJ Khaled's We Takin' Over. He's also featured on upcoming albums by Daddy Yankee, Fabolous, 50 Cent, T.I. Mario, T-Pain and Three 6 Mafia, among others. Akon is working on tracks for Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson and Elton John, and is talking about a collaborative album with Young Jeezy.

He's also launched a label, Konvict Muzik, as well as a fashion line, Konvict Clothing. And he's working on an autobiographical film, Illegal Alien, with Mekhi Phifer in the starring role.

As Bones Thugs-n-Harmony's Layzie Bone puts it: "He's killing it, man. Akon is the man. He's got the touch of gold. That's really a blessing, for real."

A Success Story

The 34-year-old Akon claims to not pay much attention to his success.

"I normally don't keep track," he says. "I keep working. I deal with the numbers later. I don't look back to see how I'm doing each week. I just keep working as hard as I can, man - and then I'm surprised by (the success)."

As for juggling all his endeavors, which might seem daunting, Akon says it's "really simple."

"The thing you've got to realise," he says, "is that you can't do it all yourself. You've got to hire. You make sure to get it done and get qualified people to run your business. That way you can focus on being an artist and a creative guy." That drive comes from a life that's seen its share of turmoil. The son of jazz percussionist Mor Thiam, Akon moved from St. Louis to Senegal and then to New Jersey, where he discovered hip-hop culture and, at 15, recorded his first song, Operations of Nature. He continued to develop his skills in jail, where he's spent a total of about five years after convictions for armed robbery, drug dealing and auto theft.

Incarceration inspired many of the songs on his 3-million-selling debut album Trouble (2003), including the breakthrough hit Locked Up. It also charged Akon, who now lives in Atlanta, with a desire to help other former convicts, mostly by providing jobs in his burgeoning Konvict empire.

"When I first came out I couldn't get a job to save my life," Akon says. "Society won't accept you when you're a convict. So I'm pretty much giving these people a second shot to prove to the rest of the world that you can make mistakes and you can overcome them and do positive things with it.

"That has a lot to do with the success I have too," he adds. "A lot of these people never had a shot like this, so everybody has something to prove. My success is theirs too."

Akon hasn't entirely managed to stay out of trouble, of course. In May he issued a public apology for performing a sexually explicit dance on stage with a 14-year-old audience member in Trinidad - which caused Verizon Wireless to drop its tour sponsorship - saying that he hadn't realized how young she was. In June Akon threw a young fan from the stage during a show in Fishkill, N.Y., after the 15-year-old allegedly threw something at him.

Despite the legendary "sophomore jinx," Akon says that Konvicted came easily to him, since he'd already proven himself with Trouble.

"When you have a sophomore album," he says, "it normally gets easier because you've already accumulated a fan base. It's a lot harder on the first album. Nobody really knows you, and you don't know what will work or what won't work. But on your second time out you pretty much have a better sense of what will work, what kind of records to release for what audience. It's definitely a lot easier."

It didn't hurt, of course, to have Eminem on hand for Smack That.

"We felt that we could do a record that fit both our personalities and was a fun club record," says Akon, who met the Detroit-based rap superstar when he recorded another song, Snitch, with Obie Trice, who's part of Eminem's Shady Records stable. "It was no different than working with any of the other artists, really."

Working with Whitney

As for the future, all eyes are on his work with Whitney Houston, the troubled superstar who's attempting a comeback. What Houston needs now, Akon says, is simple: "great songs."

"I think the music will overcome all the things she's been through," he says. "The voice is there - I don't think anyone could ever take that from her. As long as we apply that voice to hit records, she'll be right back where she left off."

As for his own next album, Akon says that he's "about 85 per cent done," with much of the recording being done with studio gear aboard a tour bus.

"If you love the 'Konvicted' album, this one's going to knock your socks off," he predicts, although he hastens to add that he feels no pressure to one-up himself. "Every album seems like it's getting easier and easier, because I'm growing more and more - learning about music, learning about the business, more about my fans, more about the market itself. I'm soaking it all in as I go.

"So it's easier to create songs," Akon says, "because I get a better feel for what people want to hear from me, and I can give them what they want. That's how you keep it going, man."

Copyright © 2007 Khaleej Times All Rights Reserved.