Rapper Akon has long traded on his criminal past in interviews and songs. Or at least that's what I'm told, personally I hadn't noticed. But we're told he has, which is why it is news that TheSmokingGun.com has revealed those claims are untrue.
Akon has claimed in many interviews and the supposedly autobiographical song 'Locked Up' that he was once head of a "notorious car theft operation" but was sent to jail for three years after jealous members of his gang turned him over to police. In prison, so the story goes, he became a "champion" fighter, feared by other inmates because "I knew where to hit you to knock you out, so I didn't fear you". A formidable story that has helped the rapper to become a big name in hip hop, but, say TheSmokingGun, completely false.
According to the website, while Akon's rap sheet does list half a dozen arrests, he has only ever been convicted of illegally possessing a firearm, to which he pleaded guilty in 1998 and was given three years probation. The reality of the big bust that he claims sent him to prison for three years is, in fact, that he was arrested for possession of a single stolen BMW, again in 1998, and held in the DeKalb County jail for several months before prosecutors dropped all charges against him.
In a lengthy article, The SmokingGun says: "Akon's deceptions have gone unchallenged and unexamined by the music press, which has been happy to promote him as one of the beleaguered recording industry's few bright lights. With the single exception of a Washington Post reporter, entertainment journalists have played right into the manipulation".
To read the full report and watch a video compilation of Akon's claims, go to http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2008/0416081akon1.html