Akon Addresses Allegations of False Criminal Background

Dogged by allegations from the The Smoking Gun that his criminal background is fabricated, superstar singer Akon has decided to come clean regarding the accusations against him.     In an interview with Access Atlanta, the singer clarified his previous statements that he was incarcerated for three years.     “I got caught up in […]

Dogged by allegations from the The

Smoking Gun that his criminal background is fabricated, superstar singer Akon has decided to come clean regarding the accusations

against him.

 

 

In an interview with Access Atlanta, the singer clarified

his previous statements that he was incarcerated for three years.

 

 

“I got caught up in cars and this and that. Kept going

in and out of jail. Three months here, six months there, two weeks here,” Akon explained. “And it was to a point where I was

like, ‘This really doesn’t make any sense. What am I

doing?’ And the last stretch I did was six months in Dekalb

County (Georgia) after I was pulled over in a stolen car.”

 

 

According to the multi-talented artist, his previous

statements of doing a three year bid in prison

represented the accumulation of all of his run-ins with the law, not one

stretch.

 

 

“So I guess when I was being interviewed, and I would

say, ‘Yeah I did about three years,’ I wasn’t saying I did a three year

stretch, I was calculating the time from when I started to get in trouble to

the time when I said, ‘Enough is enough.’ And I think that was mistranslated in

the Smoking Gun article and other stories.”

 

 

Akon also dismissed the story of

him being jailed for being a leader of a car theft ring, revealing his time in

prison was always for receiving stolen goods.

 

 

“The majority of the time I was in jail was for theft

by receiving. I was always receiving stolen cars,” Akon

states. “I mean, honestly, if I was, they would have had enough to make it

stick. They tried to convict me as (a) ringleader and they didn’t have enough

evidence.”

 

 

For Akon, the most important

aspect of his story is that his persona was a vehicle for him to inspire those

who are and have been incarcerated to turn their lives around through hard work

and personal accountability.

 

“And to give those people who I met behind bars who

were so talented. ‘Locked Up’ was like an anthem to them, before it was a hit

record,” Akon adds. “I’m not trying to

glorify convicts and jail life and gangsters.”

 

 

Akon’s statements come as he

celebrates the December 2 release of Freedom, his third studio album. The LP

features appearances from Lil Wayne, Young Jeezy, Wyclef Jean, and Kardinal Offishall.