American Singer, Akon, In Trouble Over Money

<p><em>American Singer<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong> reports that legendary Senegalese- American Singer&comma; Aliaune Damala Badara Akon Thiam&comma; is currently not a happy man&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The 49 years old popular singer&comma; known as Akon&comma; rose to prominence in 2004 following the release of &&num;8220&semi;Locked Up&&num;8221&semi; &lpar;featuring Styles P&rpar;&comma; the first single from his debut album Trouble &lpar;2004&rpar;&comma; followed by the second single &&num;8220&semi;Lonely&&num;8221&semi;&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;His second album&comma; Konvicted &lpar;2006&rpar;&comma; received three Grammy Award nominations for Best Contemporary R&amp&semi;B Album&comma; and for Best Rap&sol;Sung Collaboration for &&num;8220&semi;Smack That&&num;8221&semi; &lpar;featuring <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;tribuneonlineng&period;com&sol;">Eminem&rpar;<&sol;a> and &&num;8220&semi;I Wanna Love You&&num;8221&semi; &lpar;featuring Snoop Dogg&rpar;&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Both singles became Billboard Hot 100 top ten hits&comma; followed up by &&num;8220&semi;Don&&num;8217&semi;t Matter&&num;8221&semi; and &&num;8220&semi;Sorry&comma; Blame It on Me&&num;8221&semi;&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Despite these successes and many others&comma; the celebrated singer and businessman said he was much happier when he was poor&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;He noted that the more money human beings make&comma; the more problems they accumulate&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Akon said this late 2021 while defending a statement he made in the wake of actor Michael K&period; Williams’ death earlier&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The artist had used Williams’ death as proof that the more money some makes&comma; the more problems they accumulate&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Speaking in an interview with TMZ&comma; the <strong>American<&sol;strong> singer said&comma; <strong><em>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Nobody can sit there and tell me&comma; that I didn’t go through poverty&period; I was the young African kid&comma; barefoot and playing soccer in the village with no electricity&comma; no running water&comma; I knew what that looked like – believe me&comma; I know what poverty looks like&period;<&sol;em><&sol;strong><br &sol;>&NewLine;<strong><em>But I also know what success looks like&comma; and from my personal experience&comma; I’m having more problems successfully dealing with all that comes with success than I had when I was poor&period; I was actually happier when I was poor&period;”<&sol;em><&sol;strong><br &sol;>&NewLine;<strong><em>You know&comma; this business creates this&comma; like&comma; environment where everyone’s wearing a mask&comma; no one tells you what’s really going on in your life&comma; so real friends can’t even really advise you ’cause we don’t really know what’s happening&comma;” he added&period;<&sol;em><&sol;strong><br &sol;>&NewLine;<strong><em>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;’Cause we put on this facade of success but yet behind the face there’s so much happening&period; The famous and the rich go through more issues than the poor&period; You know when they say &OpenCurlyQuote;more money&comma; more problems&comma;’ that’s a real thing&period;”<&sol;em><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;