My dudes - Did anyone know this?
Skip Drinkwater
1,694 Posts
Akon, born Aliaune Damala Bouga Time Puru Nacka Lu Lu Lu Badara Akon Thiam, is the son of jazz percussionist Mor Thiam
http://www.popsike.com/php/detaildata.php?itemnr=270030558390Think he's got any copies? 
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http://cgi.ebay.com:80/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?...DME:B:WNA:US:12
strickly for the
........is it that good????????????
I'd never pay $800, but it's not surprising that someone would. It lives up to the hype, IMO.
Nope - he hasn't. Ask the Bizzo. Really good album btw.
" Akon's rise to worldwide stardom is the latest chapter in a remarkable life that started in Senegal ??? and later saw him jailed for car theft. He talks to Angus Batey in New York.
His new singles are at numbers two and three in the US chart, his second album sold more than a million copies around the world within days of release, he part-owns a diamond-trading business, and is the owner of what is surely the longest name in pop music.
Aliaune Damala Bouga Time Puru Nacka Lu Lu Lu Badara Akon Thiam ??? to the relief of chart compilers across the globe, he is generally known as Akon ??? is a man whose time has come. But what has seemed to be a serene and speedy ascent to pop's summit has, in fact, been a tortuous and troubled process.
The son of the Senegalese jazz percussionist Mor Thiam, Akon lived in Dakar until, aged seven, his father took him to New Jersey. Hanging around with Puerto Rican kids ??? "We had that one thing in common: we weren't from here, so we all got treated a certain way" ??? he became aware of hip hop, and joined the extended family of fellow Jersey-based rappers the Fugees. But, while they became stars, Akon had relocated to Atlanta, and landed himself in serious trouble.
Sitting in the Manhattan offices of the label he is signed to, wearing a chunky logo pendant and an outsize wristwatch, both encrusted with diamonds, Akon describes how he won a basketball scholarship to a prestigious Atlanta university, then, when a knee injury forced his retirement from the sport, turned to crime.
He has learned the lessons of his time as a car thief, but he hardly comes across as penitent. "We paid the valets, they gave us the keys, and we just drove off with the cars!" he giggles. "It was as easy as that! You drive it straight to the chop shop, change the colour, change the number plates, get new paperwork for it, and get it out on the street. We used to sell four, five cars a week."
After an accomplice shopped Akon's crew to the FBI, he was sentenced to three years' jail. He'd missed the Fugees' years at the top, but, undeterred, he returned to making music and within a year had secured a record deal.
His first album, Trouble (2004), traded off his life story ??? the lead single, Locked Up, became as popular with convicts as it reputedly is with Atlanta police officers, who have been known to play it in their squad cars as they bring detainees in to the station ??? but it was the subsequent Lonely, with a chorus based around a speeded-up sample, as if Tweety Pie was singing it, that made him a star.
It was a number-one hit in the UK, and consolidated his position in America, but was seen as something of a novelty. Yet something has happened to Akon and his music since then.
Between Trouble and its follow-up, Konvicted, which was released last month, his has become the most in-demand voice to deliver hooklines and choruses to the hip hop elite. Eminem and Snoop Dogg guest on Konvicted, and Akon appears on their new albums; he has also recorded a track for Dr Dre's forthcoming magnum opus, Detox. Suddenly, he is not only hugely successful, but cool, too.
"I never really had a particular sound that I concentrated on," he says of his signature vocal sound, which incorporates a hint of a quaver reminiscent of his fellow Senegal native, Youssou N'Dour. "I think we have a similar tone, though the melodies vary. Youssou N'Dour and my pops are almost like brothers, and I was definitely influenced in a lot of different ways."
By now, music has more than made up for the ill-gotten gains the FBI confiscated. "I owned a lot of property, a lot of cars, and of course it was all seized," he says. "But everything I lost, I pretty much got back, and now it's legitimate. It's a great feeling."
Perhaps conscious that everything could yet be taken away in an instant, Akon is diversifying. His charity, the Kon Kids Hope Foundation, works to improve education and healthcare for children in West Africa, but, outside philanthropy, he is keen to build the Akon brand's profitability while it is powerful.
A film based on his life story is in the works. He has set up a record label, Konvict Music, which has signed the former TLC singer Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas, and is in negotiations with Sway, the Mobo-winning British rapper, who also has family ties to West Africa. Reports have even suggested Akon owns a diamond mine, but the truth of the matter is rather more prosaic, if no less impressive.
"When I went in to South Africa I ran into some guys who owned mines, and they were like, 'Yo, we need a face. We need someone that we can be a partner with.' I became an equal partner, wholesaling the diamonds in the US. I've been involved for about a year and a half, and the income is good.
"Music is in and out" he says, encapsulating his ethos. "You come in, get the popularity, and use that popularity to open other doors."
no thiam does not have records.
but rumour has it that akon does.
but you have sing "I wanna love you" to him over the phone in order to get them.
PM me for details.
Same can be said about Nas in recent years.
dood is getting paid in full - unlike his pops ever did. I won't try to stick up for the quality of his music, but he writes his songs and writes songs for other pop stars and is using that income to start a diamond biz... that garbage just paid for his great-grandkids to go to college. as long as he doesn't get into drugs and fuck up...
for about a year everything he touched was kinda awesome but lately its just formula
Not really.
co sign
Akon is good and you guy's are soft.
WHINING AND GRINDING UP ON THE STRUT.
No one gave two shits about Mor Thiam in 2002.
cosign
you mean autotune
Street's disciple was pretty much garbage. I haven't gone back to it since it came out. Any reason to revisit?
Urgings to revisit unaccompanied by explanations will be rejected.
Nope--it's the worst album of his career, but if you can chase down a copy of Dirty Harry's tape from last year, on which Harry rescues a lot of verses from that album by pairing them with better production, you'll realize that the problem was much more with Salaam Remi and whoever else contributed beats than it was with Nas.
That album aside, his most recent one is really good. And God's Son also had some strong material on it.
Just saying--Nas's musical contributions dwarf those of his father, who really is just a footnote.