Lord of the Ring Tone, And More

Oh, and he also wrote, produced and sang on Gwen Stefani's "The Sweet Escape," No. 4 on the latest chart.

It's Akon's world, and you're just humming along in it.

"There just aren't that many mass-appeal male pop stars," MTV's Baron says. "Justin's one of them, and Akon is another. It's Akon's moment right now. There's just something about him. He has a different sound, a different look, a different vibe. He's doing something nobody else is doing, blending pop melodies with hip-hop beats and adding Caribbean and African influences. It doesn't hurt that he's great-looking, very stylish and very likable. It's a magical combination."

Says Steve Rifkind, who signed Akon to his label, Street Records Corp., after hearing a demo recording: "No matter how bad the record business is right this second, people still want to hear great music."

So far, 1.6 million people have purchased "Konvicted," according to Nielsen SoundScan. The album is also a smash online, among illegal file swappers.

"There doesn't seem to be a saturation point with him yet," says Jon Caramanica, music editor at Vibe. The magazine will feature Akon on its April cover, along with a headline that calls him "The Last Hit-Maker."

Said hit-maker is in a blue mood today, wearing designer denim jeans, a blue polo shirt and a powder-blue Puma track jacket that matches his suede Puma sneakers. But there's also a brightness about him. Just look at his left wrist, which bears a gigantic, diamond-encrusted watch -- a Breitling that he's customized with roughly $20,000 worth of blinding stones.

He's also grinning and giggling. A lot. Because of his high voice (as it turns out, he speaks not unlike he sings -- only faster), it sounds as though he's been sucking on helium whenever he laughs.

It's all somewhat surprising given the glowering look he's wearing on the "Konvicted" cover, which was shot in a courtroom. There's a scowling side-profile mug shot inside the CD booklet as well. The photographs are not-quite-subtle references to Akon's criminal past: He says he was jailed in Georgia on charges that included grand theft auto. He sang about the experience in "Locked Up," the breakthrough hit from his 2004 debut, "Trouble."

But now? He seems . . . sweet. Kindly. Almost angelic. No need to act hard, he says, despite the references in "Konvicted" to a criminal lifestyle. "You would want to smile," Akon says. "Who wants to get out of that kind of life and then stay in it? That don't make sense. I'm blessed. I don't have nothing to prove to nobody. Whatever you expect of me from my past life, throw it out the window 'cause you're never going to see that person again."

That past cannot be summed up in tidy shorthand, nor can all the bullet points in Akon's biography be easily verified. Some of it sounds like the stuff of creation myth.

He was born Aliaune Thiam in St. Louis to Senegalese parents who wanted their children to become U.S. citizens. Akon, he says, is one of his middle names by birth. "You have to be careful what you name your kids," he says. "In Africa, they say that whatever name you give your kids, they'll take seven of those characteristics."