Aliaune Thiam s father was a famous drummer, and his mother was a well-known dancer. Those musical genes helped the boy become a performer in his own right but the road to stardom was not without twists and turns. At first, Thiam was a small-time criminal who sold test answers and marijuana. Soon he became more daring, stealing cars and selling them to drug dealers. By his early twenties, he was head of a national auto-theft operation. Eventually the law caught up with him and he spent three years in prison. That time behind bars gave him a chance to think about his life and turn it around. Now known as Akon, the former car thief has changed his ways to become one of the world s most popular and controversial R&B artists. He s got his own record label and clothing lines, and he s breaking into movies and television.
