As the second album by Akon, it sure had the pressure to follow up the success from his first album, “Trouble”. “Trouble”, as you probably know, became a huge international hit. Among other tracks, it featured the super catchy and easy listened “Lonely”, a song that I think I never will forget.

In recent time the quality of rap and hip-hop has been very questionable. Most of the known artists manage to create one hit for each of their albums. It seems as the days with albums like Snoop Dogg’s “Doggystyle” and Dr.Dre’s “The Chronic” are over. Those albums were stuffed with hits, and the albums had an organic expression.

Now Akon is trying to reach for those heights that have not been reached in many years. In “Konvicted” he is collaborating with some of hip-hop’s all time greats. Snoop Dogg, Eminem and Styles-P all contribute to the album on different tracks. On the biggest hit “Smack That”, Eminem and Akon made Billboard history when it jumped from 95^Th place to 7^Th. With “I Wanna Love You”, Akon and Snoop Dogg created Akon’s first #1 single on Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.

While all this looks promising enough for those who haven’t heard any of the other tracks, the rest of the album is no fairytale. It is in fact no more than decent. He tries to hit too many nails on one stroke with the hammer, going from ballads to reggae to rap all in a matter of a couple of songs. Sure, the hit singles are okay, but even they are saved only by the contributions from Eminem and Snoop Dogg. While the reggae style on a few tracks is cool, it doesn’t really fit in with the gangster image Akon is trying to maintain. Not only is he trying to maintain a hard image, after his hit with “Lonely” he was sort of put in a “sweet guy” category. Since then he has fought to change this, latest with the title of this album, “Konvicted”. I think that the tracks are way to smooth and silky for this purpose, and throwing a ballad in there? Sounds like a bad idea. But I guess that Akon knows this best as he actually has served time for stealing a car.

All in all this album is worth listening to, with a few highlights along the way, but it will never be a classic in any sense.

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. I Can't Wait

9. Gangsta Bop

10. Tired of Runnin'

11. Once in a While

12. Don't Matter