Akon Makes Billboard History

New Album Konvicted In Stores November 21st.

Multi-platinum selling singer/songwriter/producer Akon scores big with his new single, “Smack That,” featuring Eminem with the #1 Most Added song at Rhythmic and Crossover this week at radio. In addition to the #1 status, on Akon’s myspace page (myspace.com/akon), “Smack That” has been listened to over 1 million times in just two weeks. His sophomore release, Konvicted, is set to be in stores on November 21.

Konvicted, almost entirely produced by Akon, features guest appearances by aforementioned Eminem (Em produced “Smack That”), Akon’s artist T-Pain, Snoop Dogg and Styles P.

Akon scored unprecedented success, both here and abroad, with his multi-format smash hit singles “Locked Up” and “Lonely” off of his multi-platinum debut release of Trouble in 2004. “Lonely” stayed on the Billboard “Hot 100” chart for 3 months and was the #1 song in the UK along with his album (it also scored well in territories as diverse as Japan and Australia). “Locked Up” was a Top 5 single throughout the world.

The talented singer/songwriter/producer established himself as the premiere production and writing wizard over the past couple of years. He has produced, written, and/or appeared on hit songs for Young Jeezy (“Soul Survivor” was also written by Akon), Elton John, R. Kelly, Gwen Stefani, Beenie Man and T-Pain.

With the success of a multi-platinum record under his belt and with his artist T-Pain on Jive Records, Akon recently secured a label deal through Interscope Records called Konlive Records where one of his acts will include Chilli from super girl group, TLC. His 1st release on Konlive is due early 2007.

Not one to put all of his eggs in the music basket, the Senegalese-born star, has also established a diamond supply and mining company called Aliaune that supplies diamonds to dealers across the world. He is also working on his clothing line as well as a movie project based on his own inspirational story.

Akon Personal life !

He was born in St. Louis, Missouri instead of Senegal because his family didn't want to have to go through immigration problems and so he and his siblings could get a better education. He has been in jail for a total of five years. In late 2005, his manager Robert Montanez was killed in a drive by shooting, the album Konvicted is dedicated to him. Akon was also in the car and was shot in the shoulder, however he made a full recovery. He is a Muslim, and is a believer and practitioner of Polygamy.[11][3] This caused some amount of controversy when he first disclosed it on a radio program saying, "I really don’t bite my tongue for anybody and I always felt like if you’re going to be real, you got to be truthful all the way around the board. Lies only make things worse. But it got to a point where my coming out like that ended up being a mistake."[12] He drives an orange Lamborghini Gallardo.[3] He also has his own charity for underprivileged children in Africa called United For Africa.[citation needed] Akon also owns a diamond mine in South Africa and denies the existence of conflict diamonds saying, "I don't even believe in conflict diamonds. That's just a movie. Think about it. Ain't nobody thought about nothing about no conflict diamonds until the movie came out."[13] He also had a previous occupation as a drug dealer but states that he has never used drugs. He also said that in spite of his previous criminal history, he has turned his life around, as sung in "Tired Of Runnin'".