Akon: in a hip-hop world where everyone's always straining for street cred. Here's one guy who has it

Take it from Mor Thiam--it's not easy raising a teenager. The internationally respected Senegalese drumming master moved to the United States in 1968 at the invitation of choreographer Katherine Dunham and provided a home life that was cultured, bohemian, and filled with all the comforts and excitement his son, Aliaune, could want. But still, while living in St. Louis, Miami, and New Jersey, Aliaune--today better known as Akon--was consistently drawn to the street life, renting out handguns in high school and eventually spending three years in prison for car theft.

Fortunately the story has a happy ending: After being released from prison in 2001, Akon poured all his drive and hustle into a music career. His 2004 debut album, Trouble (Universal/SRC/Konvict), spawned the hit singles "Locked Up" and "Lonely," while last year's follow-up, Konvicted (Universal/ SRC/Konvict), packed hits including the Eminem duet "Smack That." Akon's plaintive, reedy voice and knack for hooks has made him among the most in-demand collaborators in hip-hop, and he shows no sign of losing his entrepreneurial drive: He also runs two clothing companies and has an interest in an African diamond mine. DIMITRI EHRLICH: You've been called the "last hitmaker" because you blew up and sold millions of CDs when the music business was in a free fall. Do the industry's problems--file-sharing, shrinking CD sales-make you feel that you have to do as much as you can in a rush?

AKON: Not necessarily. It's almost like the changes were a benefit for me, because they helped circulate my music in markets where it wouldn't normally be. I have more of an international following. A lot of places overseas don't really have radio or record stores. But through the Internet you can easily download or file-share to distribute the music.

DE: I don't know how many people know that your father is a huge star in his native Senegal. How does your father feel about what you've done?

A: In the beginning he was advising me to have a plan A and let music be my plan B. He was more in the jazz circuit, and in jazz thera's not that much money. You do it for the love of the music. Whereas my generation stepped back a bit.and learned the business. We took advantage of endorsements and clothing lines to generate a lot more income. My father didn't really know that aspect of it. He watched me grow into it and accepted it as I went forward.

DE: Now he's probably known as Akon's dad instead of Mor Thiam the djembe master.

A: [laughs] Yeah.

DE: The chemistry between collaborators is not easy to get right, but you've worked with everyone from Elton John and Gwen Stefani to R. Kelly and Ladysmith Black Mambazo to Young Jeezy and Daddy Yankee. What is it that allows so many different artists to find common ground with you?

A: I never throw myself in a box where I can only do hip-hop and R&B. I grew up around international music, so I'm pretty familiar with all types of songs. I always looked at music like it was just music. I never separated the genres.

DE: You've said that you really love Phil Collins, R.E.M., Creed, John Mayer, Guns N' Roses. Why do so few of your fellow R&B artists have that diverse taste?

A: I think it was the surroundings in which they were brought up. I had the benefits of being raised in American and African cultures. If you're raised in the United States, you're only going to hear things that are here. You rarely even hear European music--even though a lot of rock bands are from Europe.

DE: Having Eminem agree to record "Smack That" with you was obviously a huge dooropener.

A: It was. Eminem was really hard to get to. I always thought he was one of the greatest rappers. It happened that me and Obie Trice had met in the Bahamas, and I've always liked Obie too. So when I did the record for Obie, Eminem heard it and fell in love with it.

DE: The song "Tired of Runnin'" on the latest album is kind of an antigangsta track. I know you wrote those lyrics from inside a jail cell. How did that feel?

A: A lot of my songs were written at the time when I was going through the stress of being incarcerated. I was reflecting on a lot of the things I'd done. You really can't control when certain songs are released. The messages will always be different; they're always going to contradict each other because you're growing as a person. When you're going through a very difficult stage in your life, you'll have lyrics that aren't so positive.

DE: You grew up in a pretty nice middle-class household. But you gravitated toward the streets. And you became the ringleader of a national car-theft thing.

A: I came from a very great family all the way across the board. Pops always made sure we were comfortable. I was the kid who lived in the suburbs but hung out in the ghetto. The suburbs were just boring. We couldn't make any noise. Three blocks down I could play ball and chase girls, I was a little African kid coming from a whole other background. So I found myself doing a lot of things that I normally wouldn't have done just to be accepted. Whatever I got myself into, whether it was good or bad, I wanted to be the best.