Beneath the digital production and R2D2 vocals, Akon is secretly an old-fashioned romantic, and his third album is his most heart-on-sleeve. There's a song about high rolling ("I'm So Paid," featuring Lil Wayne and Young Jeezy) and a skeezy ode to PDA, "We Don't Care." But most of Freedom is pure melodrama about love and love lost, delivered in a hooting style over synth-swamped beats that are closer to early Peter Gabriel than to 2008 hip-hop. Some songs tend to drag on too long, with Akon crooning his chorus catchphrases — "I was wrong for falling in love," "I just want to keep you longer" — dozens (hundreds?) of times. He's pop's new King of Pain.

“My President”

Young Jeezy teams up with Nas on this track, in which he compare his own success with the idea of an African-American winning the Democratic Party's nomination in the 2008 presidential election. "When I pulled up in my car, that s--- was unbelievable to people in my neighborhood because they were like, 'We grew up with him. How the hell did he accomplish this?'" he told Rolling Stone. "I feel like it was the same way with Obama. I grew up all this time, but I've never seen a black man this close to running this country."