Africahit - American Or Senegalese, Akon's Music Cuts Across All Borders

Alioune Badara Thiam is the name of the American R&B singer, rapper, songwriter as well as record producer and executive popularly known by the stage name Akon. But Akon hates the media's penchant for referring to him as an American artiste: he insists that he is a Senegalese and an African, a statement that has got the 27-year-old into trouble many times.

Born in St Louis, US, he says his parents made sure his siblings and himself were all born in America for immigration purposes.

The young Akon and his siblings went to school in America from a tender age, but went back to Senegal every holiday and any other opportunity that came the family's way.

In an interview with the VH 1 online magazine, the Grammy Awards nominee revealed that his returns to the US from holidays in Senegal saw him become a victim of hate from his peers because of his nappy hair and African cultural way of dressing.

"People reacted to me in an ignorant way because they didn't know my culture," he said. "My whole thing was: if you're going to be ignorant to me I'm going to be ignorant to you.

Abused drugs

It got to the point where I was fighting everyday at school."

The hardline stance was to land Akon in to trouble later on after high school as he fell in to bad company and was soon taking part in robbery and selling drugs even though the mellow-voiced artiste confesses he has never personally abused drugs.

On one of the robberies, the heavy hand of the law caught up with his gang and he was convicted and jailed for being the ringleader of a gang that had just robbed a shop and for doing drugs.

Asked to comment about his experience in prison, Akon said: "It's so crazy because in the beginning you feel like your life is over.

But once you're in there for six months, it feels like home. When I became comfortable that's when I got scared. That's what made me say: 'This is time for me to change. I want to do something with my life.'"

The most comfortable thing was to fall back to a career that had propelled his father before him to considerable international fame and one that Akon himself had briefly tried before his imprisonment - music. His father - Mor Thiam - was a celebrated master jazz percussionist in his own right, who buddied up with superstars such as James Brown, The Jackson 5 and Michael Jackson himself.

However, it wasn't James Brown or the Jacksons who inspired Akon to music. The group that eventually did much later is the Fugees - the multi-million-dollar band that comprised Wyclef Jean, Pras Michelle and Lauryn Hill.

"They introduced me to the music industry," he recalled.

"I used to work at a barber shop in Newark and Clef used to come get his hair cut. At the time he didn't have a deal. We used to go in my basement outside of Newark and just create music."

He added that he was one of the original members of the Refugee Camp, but left to take up a basketball scholarship in Atlanta which was followed by his five-year jail term.

During the stretch, Akon spent time rediscovering the music talent that he had failed to fully exploit. There, he wrote about his experience in the cells in two songs he named Lonely and Locked Up.

These were the first tracks he recorded on leaving prison and they became instant hits, thrusting Akon into the international limelight.

The debut album titled Trouble reached the top 10 in the US and UK charts - the biggest music markets after China. Another song that won great acclamation is Ghetto - a tribute to his manager Robert Montanez who was shot dead in a dispute in New Jersey.

The remix of the song won even more acclamation and propelled sales after verses from legendary rappers 2Pac and The Notorious B.I.G were added to it.

The album generally did well, peaking to No. 1 in the UK in April 2005. When music channel The Box had a top 10 weekly chart, which was calculated by the amount of video requests, Akon's Lonely became the longest running single at the top of the chart, spanning more than 15 weeks. If the debut album was successful, his second perplexed even hardcore industry analysts.

Released on November 14, 2006, the album titled Konvicted saw Akon do collaboration with internationally acclaimed artistes that many would have thought impossible for a fresher in the music scene.

Eminem, Styles P and Snoop Dogg, to mention but a few, are some of the A-List artistes featuring in that second album.

Akon's mind was limited to just performing music. Last year, he decided to broaden his scope with the launch of his label, Kon Live Distribution under Interscope Records. The first artiste to sign was Chilli from the disbanded all-girls group TLC.

Her debut solo album Point of View will be released under Kon Live. Earl Ray who has also been signed to the label, also produced Gwen Stefani's The Sweet Escape in an album by the same name. His latest and biggest venture is the collaboration with Chamillionaire in his latest mixtape entitled Mixtape Messiah 2.

Akon's attachment to his native Africa is probably the reason he is truly loved on the continent. He has toured the continent both as a nobody and as a global music icon.

His performance in his native Senegal two years ago saw the biggest gathering in the country.

He was met at the airport by a military guard, and music fans in East Africa have had the opportunity to see him as he held a sold-out concert in Arusha, Tanzania, last year.

This year, Akon is set to embark on a world tour which will start in Africa.

Rumours are doing the rounds that he will be accompanied by Michael Jackson in collaboration with diva Whitney Houston.

Asked by VH1 to comment on the collaboration with Whitney, Akon said simply: "I'm working on more up-tempo records for her," he says. "She's been through a lot and has a dark history.

So we've got to make the album brighter because she's come out of the cave now. She wants a celebration. She needs to come back to the old Whitney we remember." With only two albums to his name, Akon has done well by winning MTV Europe and World music awards, and a nomination for the top global music award - The Grammies - the dream of any musician.

A Muslim, Akon recently caused a stir when he said he is a practitioner of polygamy which he claims to have learnt from his cultural background as a Senegalese.

And while other stars own jewellery stores, the artiste actually owns a diamond mine in South Africa. And he has his own charity for underprivileged children in Africa called United for Africa.

A true example of a "son of Africa" who managed to change his life from drugs to musical fame and even at the height of his current success, many find it warming that he is truly proud of his origin.

His fans in Kenya will be holding their breath to see if Nairobi will be one of his stops during the world tour later this year.