Towards the end of the year 2005, I came across this music video on Ghana’s Metro TV. I was truly impressed by both the music and visuals. The artist was one of the rising stars in America’s music industry. It was Akon. The music video was “Pot of Gold”.
The album that holds this track “Pot of Gold” is known as “Locked Up”. Locked Up was released in June 2004 but it took well over a year for me to come across “Pot of Gold”.
Biography – Akon
Aliaune Thiam — aka Akon — grew up in Senegal before he and his family (including his father, jazz percussionist Mor Thiam) eventually settled in New Jersey. There he discovered hip-hop for the first time, as well as crime. He was eventually jailed, but he used the time to work on his musical ideas. Upon release, Akon began writing and recording tracks in a home studio. The tapes found their way to SRC/Universal, which eventually released Trouble, Akon’s debut LP, in June 2004. The album was an interesting hybrid of Akon’s raps and silky, West African-styled vocals with East Coast- and Southern-styled beats. ~ Johnny Loftus, All Music Guide
Source: Windows Media Guide
Album Details
Title: Trouble
Artist: Akon
Label: Universal
Released: June 29, 2004
Genre: R&B
Songs
1.   Locked Up
2.   Trouble Nobody
3.   Bananza (Belly Dancer)
4.   Gangsta
5.   Ghetto
6.   Pot of Gold
7.   Show Out
8.   Lonely
9.   When the Time’s Right
10.   Journey
11.   Don’t Let Up
12.   Easy Road
13.   [Untitled Track]
This is Andy Kellman’s opinion about the album Trouble;
Album Review
Senegalese-American ex-con Akon broke out with “Locked Up,” a gloomy but thrilling paranoiac tail about drug running and jail time. Placed over a fittingly dramatic production worthy of 50 Cent, with a clamping beat, simple piano figure, and frightening slams of prison bars, the single set Trouble up to be a major success. Unfortunately, no other song on the album is nearly as gripping. The club tracks fall flat, most of the soul-searching moments feel forced, and the harder and more sexual tracks tend to be more silly than alluring. At its best, Trouble places you in Akon’s turbulent world. At its worst, which is often, the album is excessively tedious. ~ Andy Kellman, All Music Guide.
Pot of Gold is pregnant with meanings, you might want to apply your own interpretation to it. I find it inspirational, thought-provoking, and reminds me of the evil days of trans-atlantic slavery.
I am also including the lyrics of my favourite track: Pot of Gold
Artist: Akon
Song: Pot of GoldOhhh yeah, dada, dodo, dada, dodo, dada, dodo, Akon
Life come and go
So let the history be too
We’re all out here
Hustlin’ to make our way
And while you’re stumblin’ and fallin’ (stumblin’ and fallin’)
Why don’t you pick yourself up now (pick yourself up now)
You see we all out here
Working day by daySo tell me
How can we work it out
On that day when its time to share the god at the end of the rainbow
How can we work it out
When good and evil be
The day you kiss this fate
Cause it will soon comeYou soon lose track of which way is up when your always being put down (being put down)
You gotta be strong and do what you feel in your heart
Regardless of who’s around (regardless of who’s around)
I know it might seem bold
But thats all we have (all we have)
Many centuries and we’re steady gettin old
But you know to what we never hadSooo
How can we work it out
On that day when its time to share the god at the end of the rainbow
(how can we) How can we work it out (how can we)
When good and evil be
The day you kiss this fate
Cause it will soon comeHow can we work it out
On that day when its time to share the god at the end of the rainbow (share the gold)
How can we work it out
When good and evil be
The day you kiss this fate
Cause it will soon comeHow can we work it out (dada)
Dodo (how can we work it out)
How can we work it out (dada)
Dodo ohhhh (dada)
How can we work it out (dodo)
Da da How can we work it out (dodo)
(everybody sing along with me)How can we work it out
On that day when its time to share the god at the end of the rainbow (that pot of gold)
How can we work it out
When good and evil be
The day you kiss this fate
Cause it will soon come (yeah)How can we work it out
On that day when its time to share the god at the end of the rainbow (that pot of gold)
How can we work it out
When good and evil be
The day you kiss this fate
Cause it will soon come (soon come)How can we work it out (work it out, work it out, work it out…)
…as I type this, I’m listening to Akon’s Pot of Gold.
