Akon
Responds To Smoking Gun Report That He
Fabricated His Criminal Past: 'It Only Helps Me'
Little more than a month ago,
The Smoking Gun published an article claiming
Akon manufactured most of his past as the
ringleader of a "notorious" car-theft ring and
that he didn't spend four and a half years in
prison, as he has said. Instead, the Web site
reported, Akon spent only a few months in an
Atlanta jail for stealing a single car, according
to police, court and corrections records.
The story raised some serious doubts about the
stories Akon has been repeating in interviews for
years about his background as a hard-hitting thug
who once owned and operated four chop shops that
catered to "celebrities and drug dealers." But did
Akon spend years in prison, fighting off other
inmates on an almost-daily basis, as he's claimed
over and over again?
On Tuesday, May 13, 2008, MTV News sat down
with Akon to discuss The Smoking Gun's report. And
while he didn't come right out and debunk the
article or corroborate his accounts of a criminal
past, he said he believes the report has have done
little to hurt his rep.
"It's an article," he said. "Everyone's
entitled to their own opinions and views. At the
end of the day, the Konvict movement is keeping me
out of jail. It's nothing I want to glorify or go
back to. Honestly, I'm glad something like that
came out, because it opens the minds of other
people who're thinking positive.
"We're doing so many positive things," 'Kon
continued. "To go back and focus and put energy on
negative things like that, to try to discredit an
artist, it makes no sense to me. If there was a
motive for it, it would be worth entertaining. I'd
rather keep it the way it is and leave the article
out there. It only helps me. It's not something I
was trying to glorify or turn back to. It was
something I was trying to forget. Actually, it
worked out for me in a positive way."
Akon is still working on
Acquitted, the follow-up to 2006's
Konvicted. The album was originally slated for
release this month, but those plans have been
scrapped
