Akon = Konvicted !

Tracklisting of Konvicted :

1. Shake Down
2. Blown Away feat. Styles P
3. Smack That feat. Eminem
4. I Wanna Love You feat. Snoop Dogg
5. Rain
6. Never Took the Time
7. Mama Africa
8. Don't Matter
9. I Can't Wait
10. Once in a While
11. Tired of Runnin
12. Gangsta Bop

After Akon's first album Trouble (although there were a lot of albums released in 2004 with that title), his latest album Konvicted is quite the improvement. For one thing, the established rappers that guest on here do much better performances than the unknowns that filled the last album. Here, you'll find nice additions to already quality songs from the likes of Snoop Dogg ("I Wanna Love You") and Eminem ("Smack That"), as well as another collaboration with Styles P ("Blown Away"). But Akon also does a good job by himself, as evidenced on the #1 hit "Don't Matter" and his tribute to his homeland, "Mama Africa"."Never Took the Time" might be suitable had it been sung by any other artist, but from Akon, it seems like it came out of left field, especially how he breaks it down at the final chorus. And "Tired of Runnin'" has him talking about being sick of the gangster lifestyle, which seems to contradict the rest of the album. Speaking of that, "Gangsta Bop" is lazy. While not a flawless album, Konvicted shows that Akon has some promise after all. If you can stand to have your R&B not 100% radio-friendly, then give it a try.