According to The Smoking Gun, hip-hop artist Akon has made up most of his criminal history as the leader of a car-theft ring.He has been telling the media that he spent four and a half years in prison, but it was really only a few months in an Atlanta jail for stealing one car.

My first thought: What a phony, what a liar. But then, the real crux of this news story hit me: Why did Akon feel compelled to do this? Was he worried that his rap sheet was not long enough? Apparently so. Akon’s first two albums are called Trouble and Konvicted. His first single? “Locked Up.”

Akon has a reputation to uphold. What that has to do with music, I’m not sure.