*Akon has chosen to answer questions raised by the Smoking Gun about his so-called criminal past by raising his own question about the Web site's intentions in reporting such a story.      

       "'To go back and focus and put energy on negative things like that, to try to discredit an artist, it makes no sense to me," Akon tells MTV News.      

       The Senegalese artist was accused of fabricating much of his past as the ringleader of a "notorious" car-theft ring. Smoking Gun also reported that he didn't spend four and a half years in prison, as he has stated. Instead, the Web site found information provided by police, court and corrections records that proved Akon spent only a few months in an Atlanta jail for stealing just one car.

       The article also called into question the stories he's been repeating in interviews for years about his background as a thug who once owned and operated four chop shops that catered to "celebrities and drug dealers."       

       During an interview with MTV News last week, Akon never actually denied the Smoking Gun story, but said he believes the report has has done little to hurt his reputation.      

       "It's an article," he said. "Everyone's entitled to their own opinions and views. At the end of the day, the Konvict movement is keeping me out of jail. It's nothing I want to glorify or go back to. Honestly, I'm glad something like that came out, because it opens the minds of other people who're thinking positive."       

       "We're doing so many positive things," he continued. "To go back and focus and put energy on negative things like that, to try to discredit an artist, it makes no sense to me. If there was a motive for it, it would be worth entertaining. I'd rather keep it the way it is and leave the article out there. It only helps me. It's not something I was trying to glorify or turn back to. It was something I was trying to forget. Actually, it worked out for me in a positive way."