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AKON YOU CAN TRUSTBY RUSSELL MYRIEAkon beats the sophomore jinxLife is pretty good for Akon right now. In addition to his success as a solo artist, his success as a budding mogul is also making people take notice. The son of renowned Senegalese percussionist Mor Thiam is building an empire of interesting artists. Chilli, formerly of classic R‘n’B group TLC, is the latest addition to his Konvict music label. Rumour has it that our very own Sway will be doing some business with Akon too. Rapper Ternt Sanga the debut album from his first signing, T Pain has already gone gold.Akon’s own debut Trouble went platinum (and more often than not multi-platinum) in 18 countries. Not bad at all. But, if he’s nervous about following up such a massively successful record, he’s not letting on.“If anything, I’m more excited than nervous,” he says. “I can’t wait for the album to come out ‘cos I wanna see what it’ll do. I know this new album’s gonna be crazy.”When Akon’s debut single Locked Up first became popular after it began spinning regularly on the radio, the face attached to the voice singing about the belly of the beast was yet to be revealed. As Styles P from The Lox dropped two verses on the hit tune at the same time, he himself was locked up, (“Somebody got me aggravated and I did something. I wish it wouldn’t have happened,” he told allhiphop.com at the time. “I hope the shorties out there know you gotta pay your consequences and repercussions.”) It was assumed by some that Locked Up was a Styles P tune featuring ‘whoever it was’ singing on the hook. Of course, all that changed drastically before too long. Akon’s second single Lonely was one of the biggest hits of last year, going double platinum in England alone. When it hit number one it made him one of the few artists to enjoy a chart-topping album and single simultaneously.AFRICAThis omnipresence intensified after Young Jeezy’s Soul Survivor. The success of that song has made Akon the hook king. Obie Trice’s Snitch, and Cross That Line by Rick Ross are a just a couple of the songs where his voice can be heard.“I’m a producer first,” he said, “I produce these records and I feature on them.”Expect to hear that production on tunes by Gwen Stefani, Elton John and Dr Dre. Yes, Akon is contributing to the long awaited Detox. While new album Konvicted has many big tunes on offer, the album’s masterpiece is Mama Africa, a beautiful reggae tune that celebrates all the positives about the motherland.“Now that I’ve let it be known and put myself out there and let people know that I’m from Africa, I had to make a statement and dedicate that to the continent. It was pretty much so people can bring new awareness to Africa, ‘cos a lot of people don’t know too much. But they won’t take the time to go and just (see for themselves). That’s one of those songs that encourages people to know more about Africa, or even perhaps take a trip out there. I’m yet to meet an African who is happy about (the way the media portrays the continent.) They have a stereotypical way they do Africa and it’s always like that on TV, so you know. You gotta go and see it in your life ‘cos you’re not gonna be able to see it on TV.”To prove his point, Akon is putting his money where his mouth is. The Senegalese-born singer has established a diamond supply and mining company, called Aliaune after his government name.“I’m African so I’m always thinking outside the box. One thing about Africa that I will take advantage of is the natural resources. You got the gold, you go the diamonds, you got the oil. That’s where all the substance is at. It ain’t in the clothes. If you want to live forever, if you want your family to be set up forever, you gotta get a part of the natural resources, man. And diamonds is real close to everything I do, so it’s only right,” he said.Konvicted’s second single, the Snoop Dogg featuring I Wanna Love You is sure to be one of the first hits of 2007. “Every album, we have a tradition now, we gotta make a record for the strip club,” he says of the trend that is yet to catch on in the UK. “In the States they’re expecting us to come with that record every year.”How often does he find himself in the strip club?“We break deals in the strip club,” he counters. “A lot of deals get cut in the strip club. You’d be surprised,” he said.Last but not least, anyone who has seen the video for Konvicted’s jump off Smack That will have noticed a plethora of Playboy bunnies in the place. As Eminem produced and guests on the joint, he was naturally at the video shoot. However, after the video shoot Playboy supremo Hugh Hefner was apparently none too pleased with Slim Shady.“You know Em got two different personalities,” Akon begins diplomatically, at pains to point out there was no violence involved. “Marshall Mathers and Slim Shady. Well, he brought Slim Shady to the video shoot. He was toasted, crazy drunk. One of the chicks who was dancing there, kept playing with his hair. He was like ‘Yo, stop playing with my hair.’ Of course he had the stunt that he was trying to do when he flips over the chair, but the chair would never flip over so he was already mad at that, and Shorty kept playing with his hair. So he was having words with Benny Boom the director and next thing, the girl came and started playing with his hair again. He just grabbed the whole bucket of water and just poured it over her head,” he said.More importantly for the bottom line, Smack That moved some serious units in America and should be a top-10 record over here by the time you good people read this.“We set a record on Billboard,” Akon says excitedly. “Ninety-five to seven. It was like the biggest jump in Billboard history. I knew the song was huge but I didn’t know it was that big.” he said.• Smack That and Konvicted are out now on UniversalPublished: 21 November 2006Issue: 1245
fuck detox!give me a new quik album!
I am producing on DETOX as wellthis is the beat that Dre picked out http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInfo.cfm?bandID=387291&songID=4461711
is dre gonna produce Detox?? Or just a couple songs. Cause i dont want nobody else producin on it.
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