Akon has teamed up with Vevo “CTRL” for a dwell efficiency of “Locked Up,” the lead single from his monumental 2004 debut, Hassle.
The tune, which has develop into a basic staple in Akon’s wide-reaching discography, shares the singer’s reflections of his time in jail. He sings about being behind bars and the extensive reaching implications that led to his street to redemption. He croons: “I’m steady tryna find the motive/ Why I do what I do?/ Freedom ain’t getting no closer/ No matter how far I go/ My car is stolen/ No registration/ Cops patrollin’/ Now they done stop me and I get locked up.” Much more than 20 years later, the phrases nonetheless hit powerfully.
The tune was initially recognized as a crossover reduce from Akon and his group. “‘Locked Up’ is a street record,” SRC Information A&R Jerome Foster informed Hit Quarters. “I thought that was the place for us to start, knowing that we had a record like ‘Lonely’ to follow it.” Foster was proper, as “Locked Up” was successful, reaching No.8 on the Billboard Sizzling 100 and incomes the star a Prime 5 hit on the Official U.Ok. Singles Chart.
A lot of your complete Hassle album was recorded as a mirrored image of Akon’s time as a convicted felon. “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 informed Ozone in 2005. The singer additional defined that he made the album as a result of he “couldn’t get a regular job cause I was a convicted felon.” He added: “You can only make but so much money as a felon. 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.”
Hassle was an in a single day sensation, thanks largely to the endurance of “Locked Up.” It offered 25,000 copies in its first week of launch and has gone on to maneuver greater than 1.5 million items. “Locked Up” has even discovered a fanbase Akon by no means might have guess he would have appealed to. “The police told me that the song is the police department’s anthem,” Akon informed Rolling Stone. “They play my song “Locked Up” of their automobiles once they choose youngsters up and are taking them to jail.”
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