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Akon (born Aliaune Damala Bouga Time Puru Nacka Lu Lu Lu Badara Akon Thiam*) on October 14, 1981, is a Hip-Hop and R&B singer. He was born and raised in Dakar, Senegal, and at the age of seven he moved to the USA, settling in Jersey City, New Jersey.• He is the son of jazz percussionist Mor Thiam and is fluent in his native language of French as well as English.
Career Akon grew up in Senegal as a Muslim, before he and his family (including his father Mor Thiam) eventually settled in New Jersey. There he discovered hip hop for the first time, as well as crime. He was eventually jailed, but he used the time to work on his musical ideas. Upon release, Akon began writing and recording tracks in a home studio. The tapes found their way to SRC/Universal, which eventually released Trouble, Akon's debut LP, in June 2004. The album was an interesting hybrid of Akon's raps and silky, West African-styled vocals with East Coast and Southern-styled beats. His debut album included the singles "Locked Up", "Lonely", "Bananza (Belly Dancer)", "Pot Of Gold" and "Ghetto". "Locked Up" reached the top 10 in the U.S. and the top 5 in the UK, and was written after Akon served time in jail for grand theft auto. His manager Robert Montanez was gunned to death following a dispute in New Jersey in December 2005. "Ghetto" became a radio hit when it was remixed to include verses from legendary rappers Notorious B.I.G. and 2Pac. In 2005, he released the single "Lonely" (which samples Bobby Vinton's "Mr. Lonely"). The song reached the top 10 on the U.S. charts, and was Akon's sophomore album, entitled Konvicted, is scheduled to be released on November 14, 2006. Konvicted will also include collaborations with Snoop Dogg, Styles P and Konvict Muzik label-mates Brick and Lace. Late August 2006, Akon released the single "Smack That" featuring Eminem from the upcoming album, as well as a notable new track featuring Styles P, "All My Life", released on a mixtape. The video for "Smack That" was directed by Raymond Garced. On the week of October 5, Akon broke a record on the Hot 100, as Akon achieved the largest climb in the chart's 48-year-history with "Smack That" featuring Eminem, which rocketed from 95-7. The song's monstrous leap is fueled by its No. 6 debut on Hot Digital Songs with 67,000 copies sold. The 88-spot jump bests the 86-4 move by Vanessa Hudgens, Zac Efron, and Andrew Seeley's "Breaking Free" in February. Chilli from TLC recently signed with Akon's Interscope label Kon Live Distribution to release her debut album executive produced by Missy Elliott. Chilli and Akon have recently finished working on 4 new tracks for Chilli's debut solo album due sometime in early 2007. He recently appeared on Bone Thugs-N-Harmony's unreleased song titled "Forget Me" it will be on Bone Thugs-N-Harmony's new album, titled The Bone Thugs Story, it will be released in late 2006 or early 2007. He sings the vocal for the chorus. In October 7, 2006 a short clip of the unfinished song was leaked onto the internet. Layzie Bone's verse is the only one completed. Film Akon is also planning to work on a full-length movie about his life. The title has been confirmed as Money, Power, Respect: A Hustler's Dream, and the release date will be in late 2007. Video games Akon, in collaboration with Japanese band Dreams Come True and video gaming companies SEGA and Sonic Team, has produced music for the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog video game. These works include a remixed version of Dreams Come True's "Sweet Sweet Sweet" to be titled "SWEET SWEET SWEET -06 AKON MIX-".•• "Sweet Sweet Sweet" was originally the ending theme for Sonic the Hedgehog 2, however Masato Nakamura of Dreams Come True liked the piece of work so much that he added lyrics to it and released the song in both English and Japanese with his band, Dreams Come True, releasing it in Japanese a week before the release of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, on the album The Swinging Star. Albums Singles Music videos Guest appearances Trivia Footnotes Note: All citations to magazine articles lead to a website where scans of these magazines can be viewed free of charge | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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