Akon goes country

No.

No.

Say it isn’t so.

Please tell me it’s a typo.

Unfortunately, dear readers, it is not.

Akon (the singer of “Lonely”, or perhaps even better known to some of you as the “woohoo” guy from that Gwen Stefani song) has decided that he wants to conquer some new terrain. Since he probably realizes that “Akon” isn’t the best country artist name, he decided to release his album under an alias. I haven’t yet been able to find out what that alias is, but rest assured that when I do this post will receive an update.

Contractmusic.com, where I first saw this story, has this to say

And the 34-year-old insists he is already on his way to making it big as a country star as he has already released his first single - and it has been a major success. He says, “No black artist has ever broken into the genre. I’m going in under a secret alias and I’ve already got my first hit record.”

Not to say that I don’t have great respect for musicians of all creeds and styles and everything else, and i’m sure it’s got to be exciting to be the first major minority star in a genre, but I can’t believe that someone as terrible as Akon is trying to cross genres. If there had to be a first, I’d want to it be someone amazing. A black artist that really, truly, people can respect. And no, I’m not just talking about Mos Def. It can be anyone, but it should be someone that represents something about the culture. Not Akon.

Anyone but Akon.