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Akon
Comment:
Born in St. Louis but raised in Senegal, Akon was torn between two continents until he turned 15 and set up shop in New Jersey. Needless to say, everything was full speed ahead from that point on, as he blended his West African roots — the singer’s father, Mor Thiam, is a Senegalese percussionist — with a prickly persona caught somewhere between a hardcore hip-hop head and a bedroom-scoring R&B star. Which says nothing of his solid-gold songwriting skills — a point hammered home by the six Akon-related singles that landed on Billboard’s Hot 100 in 2007, running the range from the low-end lashings of “I Wanna Love You” to the candy-striped hooks of “The Sweet Escape.” Oh, and we can’t forget the absolutely banging posse-cut stylings of “We Takin’ Over.” Ubiquitous? Maybe. Brilliant? Absolutely.