Locked Up

Akon was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1973, to the Senegalese percussionist Mor Thiam and the dancer Kine Gueye Thiam. He spent much of his childhood in Senegal, which he called his hometown, and learned to play several instruments, including djembe. At seven he moved with his family to New Jersey and for years split his time between the two countries. When his debut album Trouble was being prepared, many expected the gentler "Lonely" to be the lead single. The producer Knobody chose "Locked Up" instead, because he wanted to break Akon on the streets first and cross over later. He told HitQuarters that he deliberately wove in details that would touch people: relatives sending magazines and money orders, visits, questions about the lawyer, accepted phone calls. Released on 5 April 2004, it reached number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 and the top ten in the UK and Ireland. Many Akon songs open with the clank of a cell door and the word Konvict. The persona had a complication. Akon said in interviews that he had run a car theft ring and spent three years in prison. In 2008 The Smoking Gun challenged that with court records and interviews with detectives, concluding he had not served prison time; Akon replied that his time had come in shorter stretches. His only conviction, it is now acknowledged, was a 1998 gun charge that brought probation. The song still made him a star, and it remains a sharp lesson in how a story can sell a voice.