![akon and young jeezy soul survivor clean akon and young jeezy soul survivor clean](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/FigrrH40qIw/hqdefault.jpg)
![akon and young jeezy soul survivor clean akon and young jeezy soul survivor clean](https://www.hrbooking.com/media/artist_header_images/young-jeezy-topbanner.png)
“I was like, ’OK, this will set up for the next album. “It got to the point where I needed more exposure, so I kicked in on the production side,” he says. But the request for beats exploded as Akon took off with his debut album, 2004’s “Trouble.” Soon, Akon found that producing and writing others - while carving out a prime guest spot on the track for himself - was the best way to build his own success. The plan was to work quietly as a producer for others while building up his own career as a singer. After that, he plunged completely into music. He’s featured on Gwen Stefani’s new record, wrote a sweeping anthem for teen heartthrob Mario’s upcoming album, did a remix for India.Arie’s empowerment song “I Am Not My Hair” and even plans a song for Michael Jackson in 2007.Ī car theft rap in Atlanta, where Akon now lives, was his last stint behind bars. This year, he’s worked with another hard-core rapper, Rick Ross, on his debut record, and the first smash from Akon’s album is the sexually charged “Smack That” with none other than Eminem, while “I Wanna Love You” - the clean version of another naughty song - features Snoop Dogg.īut there’s more to Akon than rap collaborations. His breakout song, 2004’s “Locked Up,” found him warbling about his stint behind bars on “Soul Survivor,” the urgent track he penned for rapper Young Jeezy, Akon’s sweet falsetto belies the threatening words he sings: “If you lookin’ for me I’ll be on the block / With my thang cocked possibly sittin’ on a drop. Though he had a hit with the Bobby Vinton cover “Lonely,” he’s better known for conveying what could be called gangsta angst. Singing about life behind barsNow everyone is hearing what Akon has to say - and few would ever describe the singer, writer and songwriter as soft. So, even though I did those kind of records, they would never hear them.” “I had a lot of people that was around me too, just straight street, gangsters, people that really looked (at) R&B like it was soft. I never even thought about music as a career,” says Akon. In some ways, it wasn’t that much of a stretch his father is a jazz percussionist, and Akon had been writing songs for his own amusement for years. It wasn’t until he had an extended stint in the penitentiary that Akon explored the talents that could make him money legally. “I wasn’t realizing that same attention, that same cash flow, that same surroundings like that whole hype around it could be done in a legitimate way too,” says the congenial Akon, who this week released his sophomore album, “Konvicted.” “You could be a hood celebrity for the rest if your life, just never leave the hood, always be popular - everybody love you.” And it was a life he was reluctant to give it up. This life repeatedly landed Akon behind bars.