Akon, whose real name is Aliaune Damala Badara Akon Thiam, was born in St Louis, Missouri and grew up in various places including Senegal and Newark, New Jersey.
Akon is a Muslim and uses his religion to justify his claims that he has three wives.[1] You know, because Muslims can have up to four wives. But considering his raunchy sex party music videos[2] and controversies involving him and sex acts with underage girls,[3] he's probably not a great husband–or Muslim. But he still finds it in his heart to give a shout-out to Allah in one of his songs, "Senegal," He raps:
So what you know about how God comes first in our lives, everything that we do is for Allah/So what you know about that Holy place called Touba where Prophets are born/So what you know about comin here, gettin money and investing it back home.[4]
Speaking of raunchy sex party music videos, Akon is no friend to Buddhists, at least Buddhists of the Sri Lankan variety. His video for the song "Sexy Chick" featured a statue of Buddha at a wild and crazy dance party where scantily-clad women rubbed up against the singer. Buddhists in Sri Lanka were so offended that Akon was denied a visa to perform in the country. Akon said:
[I] am a spiritual man, so I can understand why they are offended.[5]
Stuck in the middle
Akon's politics range from African diamond controversy to attempting to unite disparate U.S. political factions.
Akon is a part-owner of an African diamond mine. It's almost a guarantee that there are some human rights violations going on and Akon has denied that such a thing even exists, saying:
I don't even believe in conflict diamonds. That's just a movie. Think about it. Ain't nobody thought about nothing about no conflict diamonds until the movie, [,Blood Diamond,], came out. Where was all that shit before the movie?[6]
Ok…
In the U.S., Akon is a confirmed centrist–not Republican, not Democrat, and pissed off that these politicians can't just get along long enough to get anything done. Hey, aren't we all?
Akon donated a song to a political organization called "No Labels," which attempts to get centrist politicians elected so as to dampen rampant partisanship in U.S. politics. In the song, Akon sings:
He's a Democrat/ He's Republican/ There's a fight and a race who's gonna win/ put your differences aside 'man up' you can/ 'Cause there's way too many people suffering/ I wish they didn't have 'No Labels'/ There'd be more change with 'No Labels.'[7]
He makes a good point. In fact, Akon seems to be rather politically astute–despite his supposed ignorance of conflict diamonds. He once tweeted:
Politics is the art of postponing a decision until it is no longer relevant![8]
Amen.
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