yo i read through this whole thing and i wasnt even going to say anything but yo haha i love akon and you are totally WRONG about that dude out of anybody you couldve picked in mainstream radio hip hop. he makes his own beats, plays many instruments and imo has an awesome singing voice. he went to jail for a long time and wrote like a million songs lyrics.

i also want to say that i believe the original discussion that turned, couldve been diverted by talking about people that are trying to come out vs established artists on any level. for example i believe what frustrates HD is that in the US if you meet someone who claims to be an mc they will 98% of the time claim to be able to "rap over any beat" and if you play them something different, even something within the realms of what all of us on here would consider 'hip hop' they will not be able to rap over it...as a producer in the us that could be frustrating if you are trying to find mcs to work with, but if you find real artisan mcs you can develop a working artistic relationship. things are changing though as people hear new music and become comfortable with it. on a sidenote i djed a 'hip hop' open mic tonight and played a Wiley beat and Nero - act like you know and the mc's just went with it and the crowd liked it, the next instrumental was gang starr 1/2 1/2 so i mean just combine everything you like and if you do it right people who like those things will resample your music

i didnt say that lol

No singing? I'm pretty sure Akon can sing without an auto-tuner or other type of intelligent vocal processor to fix it all up. :p

funny you should mention slugabed in this light because he and I are working on a track.

by the way akon.....eh i like to fuck to his music. i say that with meaning.