During a conversation with Reg Calixte on the Won of One: A PLLRS Podcast, Akon has announced he'll soon be releasing a full country album featuring entirely original material.

The R&B trailblazer has been teasing a foray into the genre for months now, with Akon previously hinting that he was readying a project featuring country versions of all his hits.

The ‘Right Now (Na Na)’ hitmaker confirms that he still plans to drop this reimagined greatest hits record, but reveals he is also recording a collection of original country songs.

During the PLLRS interview, Akon explains how it dawned on him that there was a strong appetite from fans for a full-blown country album, “Now, I’m making original country songs. We got to the point where we did real research. I didn’t realize how many country music fans wanted to hear an Akon album. They were like, ‘We want to hear you do original records.’ So, we started to pivot to doing original records”.

He assures fans he'll still be dropping the project with countrified renditions of his biggest songs after his debut country record, “I’m going to do a specialty album with all of my hits redone in country after I release the [album of original country music songs]”.

Akon goes on to emphasise that, despite making music in the R&B sphere, he has always drawn inspiration from country music, “All my songs are inspired by country music. When I came from Africa, I only listened to reggae and country. I didn’t know what hip-hop was. I was introduced to hip-hop when I got here. If you listen to a lot of my songwriting, it’s all been storytelling. And that’s all country music ever been. When I wrote songs, I wrote from the mindset of country (music)”.

Given the significant influx of artists from genres such as Hip Hop, Pop and R&B into the country arena in recent years, including Beyoncé, Post Malone, Lana Del Rey, BigXthaPlug and more, Akon's new revelation will no doubt be met with a mix of excitement and skepticism. Traditionalists may fear that the ‘Locked Up‘ crooner is simply jumping on the bandwagon, now that the genre is booming in popularity.

However, given the Senegalese-American singer-songwriter's proven ability to write an infectious anthem while infusing a positive, uplifting message into his music, along with the fact that he's previously joined forces with Gary LeVox and Josh Ross, we're looking forward to seeing what he can bring to the country music world.