Rarely has there been a better pick for a debut album single than Akon’s “Locked Up.” Sure, the Senegalese-American singer had the chart-friendly “Lonely” available. But “Locked Up” set the table for Trouble perfectly, introducing himself to the world as he shared his reflections on his time in prison. “Locked Up” was chosen in a bid to connect with the right audience: “‘Locked Up’ is a street record,” SRC Records A&R Jerome Foster told Hit Quarters. “I thought that was the place for us to start, knowing that we had a record like ‘Lonely’ to follow it.” Despite not being seen as overly commercial, “Locked Up” was a success, peaking at No.8 on the Billboard Hot 100 and earning the new star a Top Five finish on the Official U.K. Singles Chart.
Akon claimed that much of Trouble was written during his period of incarceration and some of the songs feature sound effects made to replicate the clanking of a cell door. “I came out and recorded it, but it was like a dead end at that point cause I wasn’t really into the music thing,” he told Ozone in 2005. The singer told the magazine that he had only moved ahead with the record because he “couldn’t get a regular job cause I was a convicted felon.” “You can only make but so much money as a felon,” he added. “A fast food restaurant ain’t gon’ cut it, not for the type of lifestyle I was used to living. [Choreographer] Devyne [Stephens] took my music and shopped it around.” It’s a situation he recalled in “Trouble Nobody,” singing: “Let me tell you what hurts the most/I’m a convicted felon and I can’t get work.”
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Thematically, the singer wanted to make what he dubbed “reality music” rather than focus on relationships. Indeed, the only track on the record that dealt with romance was “Lonely,” which catapulted Akon even further into the limelight. It went to No.1 on the U.K. Singles and Hip-Hop/R&B Charts and into the Top Five on the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs lists. “That happened for real – she left me, for real,” he told Ozone of the story behind the song. “That’ll probably be one of the only relationship joints you’ll hear from me in a minute unless it’s for a soundtrack or something. I mean, I love relationship songs, don’t get it twisted. But for me personally, I prefer street records. I try to go outside the box.”
For Akon, going “outside the box” meant reflecting on his youth in “Ghetto” (“Gunshots every night in the (ghetto)/Crooked cops on sight in the (ghetto)”) and trying to stay out of trouble in “Show Out.” The track sampled Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five’s “The Message” to illustrate the frustrations Akon was feeling at the time.
Musically, Trouble merged Akon’s Senegalese heritage with his American upbringing, the former reflected in his vocal style. The latter, meanwhile, was represented in the beats that underpinned the record, pulling from the East Coast and Southern scenes he moved into during his time in New Jersey and Atlanta. He worked with producers Knobody, Disco D, Benny-D, and Shakim Williams across the record.
Trouble was an instant hit. It sold 25,000 copies in its first week of release and has gone on to shift more than 1.5 million units. “Locked Up,” in particular, found a surprising fanbase. “The police told me that the song is the police department’s anthem,” Akon told Rolling Stone. “They play my song “Locked Up” in their cars when they pick kids up and are taking them to jail.” The album also laid the foundation for further success in Akon’s following albums, Konvicted and Freedom, which continued the storyline of his struggles with the law and eventual redemption.
