Akon
by: Tom Janison

Akon is a Senegalese American Hip Hop singer and songwriter. Akon whose real name is Aliaune Thiam was born in 14th October 1981 in Saint Louis Missouri, but his family settled down in New Jersey. It is in this city that Akon encountered name, fame and also faced penalty for breaking the law. Akon was charged and jailed for armed robbery of automobiles and drug distribution charges. He made good use of his time in prison by working on his music. After he was released form prison he wrote many music tracks and songs working in his home. He also recorded some songs as well and his tapes found their way to SRC/Universal and they releases Akon first album titles Trouble in 2004. This album was a fine blend of West African styled vocals, combined with southern beats, east coast beats as well. Till date Akon has produced about fifty songs to his credit.Later he released many hit singles like Lonely, Pot of Gold, Ghetto, Locked Up and Belly Dancer. The time that Akon spent in jail has a significant impact on his works and this was very much evident in is songs that were released later on. In his hit single Locked Up his experience of the auto theft and his subsequent jail sentence can be felt. The song reached to the top ten in US and the top five in UK. The song Ghetto became a radio hit when this song was remixed by Green Lantern and verses from other rappers like The Notorious B.I.G and 2Pac. Another single Lonely was released in 2005 and this song reached the top 5 in Billboard Hot 100 and was a chart topper in UK, Australia and Germany. In fact Akon’s single became the longest running single at the top running for more then fifteen weeks at a stretch.In November 2006, Akon released his sophomore debut album Konvicted. This album had collaborations from Eminem, Styles P and Snoop Dog. The album Konvicted has a fine blend of reggae, R and B and Rap that is very true to his African roots and origin. Eminem features in the song Smack That and this is one of the most played songs in the album. Snoop Dog features in the song I Wanna Love You and just as the title suggest this is a love song. Mama Africa is another warm song which features in the album and anyone who has been associated with Africa in anyway will surely love this song. Akon’s Konvicted made its debut at number 2 in Billboard 200. The album sold more then 280,000 copies in the first week itself. The album continued to be at the top of the Billboard 200 for more then 25 weeks.Currently Akon is planning to wok on a movie that will be based on some of the events in his life. He has also lunched his own clothing line titles Konvicted Clothing. His cloth lI Wanna love you is a name suggest is a love song sung by Akon, the Senegalese born American Hip Hop singer. This is the second single by the singer and also features Snoop Dog, I Wanna Love You is a single form his album Konvicted. Akon is a Senegalese born Hip Hop singer and songwriter currently based in United States. This is Akon’s first number one single in the billboard and for Snoop this is his second number 1 song at the billboard. I Wanna love you is a censored version of the song which had a different title earlier, in this song Love has replaced other words. This song was performed live at the American Music Awards in the year 2006. This song was originally made by Piles; he is an upcoming rapper from Ft Myers in Florida, but later on due to some reasons he was replaced by Snoop Dog to work on the song.Originally when the song came out under another title, and this generated huge controversy which forced a change in the title. However most of the elements of the songs remained as was in the original, only the world fuck was changed to love to make to deal with the controversy. Other then this certain words in the lyrics that were found to be not fit for younger audiences was also removed from the content. The video of the song is shot very well and it revolves around the character of the song who notices a stripper in a strip bar doing her work Both the character and the stripper notice each other, get attracted and wish to be together with each other.Though Piles was the original writer of the song, he was replaced by Akon later on with Snoop Dog. The main reason behind this is the fact that Piles was arrested for illegal possession of gun. Two of his close people were further charged with attempted murder in a shooting that broke out in a Nightclub at Florida. Though Piles was released on bail, but this had a heavy impact on his work and was consequently replaced by Snoop Dog in the song. Akon is one of the most popular artists in the Hip Hop scene today. He released his album Konvicted and this album was made in collaboration with Snoop Dog, Styles P and Eminem. This album which contains the song I Wanna Love You made its debut at number 2 in the Billboard.The I Wanna Love you and other songs of the album have gone on to become chart topper at many places worldwide. On the whole the album Konvicted is a good blend of music of different types. The album has Hip Hop songs, Rap, R and B and Reggae which reflects his African origin and roots. The album has recorded a sale of more then 2000,000 copies and that too within the first week.