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Break on through, to the other side

Posted on 11 Jan 2007 by Webmaster

by Adly Syairi Ramly

AS a lyricist, Aliaune Akon Thiam has a lot of stories to tell.

Akon

With Smack That and I Wanna Love You, the fi rst two singles off his latest album Konvicted sitting comfortably high at the Billboard Hot 100 charts, you’ll know that a lot of people are listening, well, grinding and bumping to it to be more precise.

Quite a feat, considering that a couple of years ago, he was doing time in a Georgia state penitentiary for a grand theft auto charge and the only one “listeningwas his notebook, where he wrote down all the lyrics to his music.

One of his scribbling later became Locked Up, the fi rst single of his multi-platinum debut album, Trouble, in 2003.

It also became Atlanta’s police department anthem.

Legends have it that the police would play that song when they pick kids up to take them to jail.

Most importantly, it was the song that signalled Akon’s arrival in today’s popular music.

With his second album Konvicted currently riding high on both hip-hop/R&B and pop charts, Akon arrived for the second time – this time, as a the R&B/hip-hop phenomenon that he is today.

Thanks to Universal Music Malaysia, Buzz had a quick chat with the 25-year-old multifaceted singer recently where he talked about Konvicted, working with Eminem, his music and his plans to come down to KL.

from zero to hero “I think it all boils doing to great songwriting and my competitiveness nature,Akon said in a confi dent tone when we popped the question, what made his music easily and widely accepted.

“I’d call it Konvict music. Simply because I don’t think my music fi ts into any other genre. It’s not hip-hop or R&B per say. It requires a genre of its own,he added.

As boastful that may sound, there’s some truth to it.

Since Trouble’s success, Akon has found himself being currently one of the most sought after producer and guest artistes around.

Some who have enlisted him as producer includes Young Jeezy, R Kelly, Obie Trice, Elton John, Daddy Yankee and Gwen Stefani.

And it doesn’t ends there.

At Press time, he has been enlisted to work on Whitney Houston’s comeback album, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony’s upcoming album, Strength and Loyalty, Young Buck’s sophomore album, Buck the World, as well as artistes under his Konvict Muzik stable, T-Pain and former TLC member Rozonda “ChilliThomas.

When asked where he got all the energy to do all these, his answer was a simple: “I can’t sit easily when hear a great tune.

I would always go, ‘How can I come up with something as good if not better than that?’ That’s what drives me.

That’s why I’m constantly at work.

The fact that music was also a salvation of sort to him was also a factor.

the seed of akon SON of Mor Thiam, a master percussionist who have worked with the likes James Brown and Michael Jackson, Akon was born on Oct 14, 1981, in St Louis, Missouri, before moving to Dakar, Senegal, until the age of seven.

Looking at his earliest musical exposures, it’s easy to understand how he is capable of making music that sounds like no other.

“I grew-up listening to all kinds of music.

Obviously, I love soul songs, but I also like mixing in other types of music,Akon confesses.

“For every Stevie Wonder track I’ve listened to, there is another by Steely Dan that helped shape me as an artiste.

You can say that I’m inspired by great songwriting regardless of what type of music, period,he added.

Upon returning to America, the boy with strong African values found himself in a diffi cult situation.

“I used to get picked on because I was from Africa.

I had nappy hair and my clothes were cultural.

So people reacted to me in an ignorant way because they didn’t know my culture.

My whole thing then was, if you’re going to be ignorant to me, I’m going to be ignorant to you.

It got to the point where I was fighting every day at school,he said in an interview with VH1.

His rebellious gestures lead him into gangsta land.

“I got accepted by the gangster crowd because they saw that I wasn’t afraid of nobody and I would fi ght anybody.

I was always a smart kid, so I always found a way to make more money.

If you gave me a little respect, I could take that little and create a lot more.

Before I knew it, I became the most popular kid in Jersey City as a good bad guy,he said.

Like any gangsters, life only offers two conclusions – end up in jail or to be killed in the fi eld.

Luckily for Akon, he was busted.

“I got locked up and put away for three years.

I tried to stay focused on music.

It was the road to the beginning, even though I was still easily distracted.

When I got out, I decided I should try and get a job, but no one would hire me because I had a record, so it was like there was no where else to go but music,he told MyVillage.

com.

Now devoted to music, a demo he recorded fell into the hands of Devyne Stephens, connoisseur of artist, developiment and CEO of Upfront Entertainment.

Impressed with what he heard, Stephens went around shopping for a label and in 2003, a deal was penned with SRC/Universal Motown.

His fi rst release was Locked Up, a song he once described as ‘the slowest growing single in the history of music’.

“It took a lot to get that song airplay because the subject matter was too blunt for radio.

How we promoted it was that we did a penitentiary tour.

The inmates would call their families and the families would request the record at the local radio station and that was how we pushed the song.

Once it broke on radio, it was like a virus, it started catching.

Before you knew it, it was like one of the biggest records in the world,he said in an interview with MyVillage.

com.

Still, Locked Up is nothing compared to the second single, Lonely.

Using the hooks from Bobby Vinton’s Mr Lonely, the song became the longest running single on the top of the chart, spanning over 15 weeks.

The same song also catapulted the sales of Trouble to a staggering three million copies worldwide.

it’s konvict-ion time SOUNDBITES on the follow-up to Trouble first surfaced during the 2005 Third Annual Vibe Awards in November that year.

“The next album is completely fi nished, and in a minute, I’ll be promoting that.

It’s called Dark and Light Shadows.

That’s the most I’m going to tell you,he told VH1 then.

Well, Dark and Light Shadows became Konvicted and according to Akon, despite the rather negative album title, it’s actually a celebratory album of sorts.

“ Trouble was like an ode to my redemption after serving time in jail while Konvicted is more like a rebirth, a story of my life coming out of prison, going back to the club,he said.

He then added that both Trouble and Konvicted are part of an ongoing anthology of his life story.

“Basically Trouble, Konvicted and the future albums are going to be like a soundtrack of my life.

For instance, in the next album, lyrically, it’s going to be about what I’m going through now, the success and so forth.

Other than that, both Trouble and Konvicted still have one running theme, my views and take on life issues that I feel strongly about.

Sharing with us about the recording process, Akon said that everything was smooth sailing.

“If there was any problem it would be when I had to sit down and pick the best songs to be featured on it.

I had around 30 to 40 songs to choose from,he laughed.

As for his collaborators, especially, Eminem and Snoop Dogg, Akon has nothing but praise for the two respective fi gures in hip-hop music.

“I carefully handpicked my collaborators.

Both Eminem and Snoop Dogg are on top of their game and it’s an honour for me to have them wanting to do a track together with me,he said.

“It’s really an honour to have Eminem on board, especially, when he’s not the type who would simply collaborate with others artistes outside of his immediate families.

When he called and said he was ready to go into the studio, I knew it was a blessing.

The collaboration was made possible because we respected what each of us was doing,he added.

Smack That is not the only standout track on the album.

There’s also the infectious collaboration with Snoop Dogg on I Wanna Love You, the anti-gangsta track “ Runnin’, Gangsta Bop, the haunting ballad Never Took the Time and his ode to his African roots in Africa.

Which leads us to another feature that made him stood out compared to rest of R&B/hip-hop players – how he balances the typical subjects of girls, guns and blings with socially conscious lyrics.

He’s one of the few artistes who have achieved commercial success with such approach.

When we raised the fact to him, his response was a modest one: “As it is, there are already a lot of socially-conscious artistes out there.

You just have to look beyond the pop charts.

Radio and TV, they won’t push this type of music because it’s all about pop buyers.

beyond konvict LIKE any entrepreneur-minded artistes, Akon has no plans to restrict his career only as a singer and producer.

Like Jay-Z and Diddy, he foresees a dynasty that will also includes a record label, a diamond line, fashion line and a fi lm production house.

“My record label, Konvict Music, currently has T-Pain and former TLC member Rozonda “ChilliThomas on the stable,he said.

Chilli’s album, Point Of View, is set to be released during the middle of the year while T-Pain’s second album, R&M: Rhythm & Music, is expected to be released sometime next month.

Also in February, Konvict Films will start casting for Illegal Alien, a movie inspired by his life story.

“The majority of the fi lm is basically true,said Akon, who will write, produce, codirect and score the movie.

With Smack That in the running in the Best Rap/Sung Collaboration at the upcoming 49th Annual Grammy Awards, and a world tour that will bring him to Africa, Europe and America, not forgetting his special KL visit next Monday, (Jan 15), it looks like nothing is stopping Akon for now.

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