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Aliaune Damala Bouga Time Puru Nacka Lu Lu Lu Badara Akon Thiam (born October 14, 1981), also known simply as Akon, is a Grammy Award-nominated Hip-Hop and R&B singer. He was born in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, lived in Dakar, Senegal until the age of seven, then moved back to the U.S., settling in Jersey City, New Jersey. He is the son of jazz percussionist Mor Thiam and speaks English, French, and Wolof. To date, Akon has released two albums, Trouble and Konvicted, each of which has produced huge smash single hits, primarily "Locked Up" (U.S. #8), "Lonely" (U.S. #4), "Smack That" (U.S. #2), and "I Wanna Love You" (U.S. #1). He has become well known for singing hooks.
Akon grew up in Senegal until he was seven, and his family eventually settled in Jersey City, New Jersey. He attended Snyder High School. There he discovered a liking to hip hop for the first time, as well as crime. His first song was entitled "Operations Of Nature," sung when he was 15 years old. Then he was jailed for armed robbery and possible drug charges, but he used this time to work on his music. Upon release, Akon began writing and recording tracks in his home studio. The tapes found their way to SRC/Universal, which released Akon's debut LP Trouble June 2004. The album is an interesting hybrid of Akon's silky, West African-styled vocals mixed with East Coast and Southern 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 2Pac and Notorious B.I.G. 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 #1 in Australia, the UK and Germany. His album also climbed to #1 in the UK in April, 2005. When music channel The Box had a top ten weekly chart, which was calculated by the amount of video requests, Akon's "Lonely" became the longest running single on the top of the chart, spanning over 15 weeks. It was finally beaten by James Blunt's "You're Beautiful". Recently, he gained more popularity after being featured in the song "Soul Survivor" with rapper Young Jeezy. He also has his own record label, called Konvict Muzik, thus reason for his famous trademark at the beginning of his songs of the clank of a prison cell while uttering the words.
Akon's sophomore album, entitled Konvicted, was released on November 14, 2006. Konvicted included 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 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. Konvicted debuted at number 2 on the Billboard 200, selling 285,000 copies.
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.
Akon has recently has been spending a lot of time in interview promoting Chilli from TLC who recently signed with Akon's Kon Live Distribution label to release her debut album. The untitled album due sometime in mid 2007 includes production from Missy Elliott, T-Pain, Timbaland, will.i.am and Akon himself. As well as a guest appearance form groupmate, T-Boz. He recently appeared on Bone Thugs-N-Harmony's unreleased song titled "Never Forget Me," which will be on Bone Thugs-N-Harmony's new album, titled Strength and Loyalty. Akon has also done production work for the upcoming album. It will be released in December 19, 2006.
He has recently been featured in Gwen Stefani's "The Sweet Escape" from her latest album '"The Sweet Escape." The album also features production from him as well. It is scheduled to be released on December 5, 2006. He performed on Saturday Night Live on December 10, 2006.
Akon's Smack That was recently nominated for "Best Rap/Sung Collaboration" at the 49th Annual Grammy Awards.
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 or 2008.
Akon has had many troubles with the law in his life, including a charge for grand theft auto for which he received a jail sentence for three years. He has also gone to jail on many other occasions. Akon is a Muslim and sometimes cites the Qur'an. Akon as well practices polygamy and as such has three wives.
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