Disco de Akon: “Trouble [Bonus CD Clean]”

Until recently, I thought it virtually impossible to describe any rapper as "talented," but Akon is actually a very talented musician. There are many cuts on these two CD's that are better than good, even to parents new to (and skeptical of) the rap genre.

Many of these songs have positive messages, too. The main point of both Locked Up and Trouble Nobody is that it's best to stay clean and straight, that one can achieve great things simply through faith and effort.

Belly Dancer (both the original and the remix on the second CD) is just a lot of fun, and more or less clean.

Other great tunes include Ghetto, a sad lament (about what it's like to live down and out, the world over), Pot of Gold (about sharing the riches of life with everyone), Lonely (a remix of Bobby Vinton's great 1964 hit, Mr. Lonely) and Journey, to name a few.

On the second, bonus CD, Akon's positive message extends to the extremely original numbers, Keep on Calli', Miss Melody, and Baby I'm Back.

Having said that, even the clean version of this platinum, 2-CD re-release has problems, from the parental point of view. The songs, Gangsta, When the Time is Right and the remix of Locked Up, all on CD 1, glamorize violence and other illegal doings, even if that's not their intent. The same is true of Gunshot, Senegal and several other pieces on CD 2, which feature drugs, guns and the like.

To resolve this problem, I screened the songs on both CDs, burned the acceptable 15 or so onto one CD and disposed of the original 2-CD set. Without that, unfortunately, I wouldn't recommend even the clean version of Trouble for young teens.

Akon deserves credit for his accomplishments in the face of obvious, multiple adversities, a heartening success story that comes through loud and clear in his moving and original work. Unfortunately, though, kids relate far too much to the negatives he overcame, a factor he should perhaps consider in future.