AkOnn

often goes by the shorter, **Aliaune Thiam**,[|[7]] though other sources have said his name is **Alioune Badara Thiam**,[|[8]] and About.com says the long form of his name, "**Lu Lu Lu**," has not been independently verified.[|[9]] His age has also been under scrutiny recently. Some media institutions reported that he was born in 1981. However the [|AP] has since reported he was born in 1973 and is 35 years old. In a September 2007 interview for an Israeli magazine Akon hinted that he was around 25 or 26.[|[10]] 

Background
He is the son of the Senegalese percussionist [|Mor Thiam]. He is a [|Muslim] born in [|St. Louis, Missouri], but grew up in [|Senegal] until he was 7, split time between Senegal and America until he was 15, and then permanently moved to [|Jersey City, New Jersey].[|[11]] He recorded his first song, "Operations of Nature," at the age of fifteen. He was then subsequently jailed for armed robbery and drug distribution charges, and used his time in prison to work on his music. Upon release, Akon began writing and recording tracks in his home studio. The tapes found their way to [|SRC]/[|Universal], which released Akon's debut LP //[|Trouble]// in June 2004. The album is a hybrid of Akon's silky, West African-styled vocals mixed with East Coast and Southern beats. Most of Akon's songs begin with the sound of the clank of a jail cell with him uttering the word "Convict." 

2004–2005
Akon's solo debut album, //[|Trouble]// was released on [|June 29], [|2004]. It spawned the hit singles "[|Locked Up]" and "[|Lonely]," as well as "