Ashanti (album)

When Ashanti was 14, she was discovered by P. Diddy's Bad Boy Records. Initially, she went to Bad Boy Records and sang one of Mary J. Blige's songs in front of P. Diddy and Biggie Smalls. After being impressed by her singing ability, Diddy later signed her to a development deal, but, due to a bad contract, Ashanti did not sign with Diddy. This ultimately led to a record deal with Jive Records in 1994. This relationship soured when Jive tried to make Ashanti into a pop singer. Ashanti subsequently involved herself in schoolwork, cheerleading, and running on her school's track team. She was an honor student in English and belonged to the English club where she began writing poetry. She was also in the Drama club and performed in a few plays. She put college pursuits aside when Epic Records approached her with a contract in 1998. However, the label's management changes quickly made Ashanti a low priority. She continued to perform at local New York clubs and began hanging out at the Murder Inc. recording studio, hoping for another big break. Ashanti was first noticed by Irv Gotti because of her vocal skills. Ashanti initially asked him to produce a few demo songs for her to record so she could say she had some strong tracks by the big time producer but Gotti had a different idea. He asked her to pen hooks for his rap artists and to perform with them in duets. Ashanti provided the melodic response to their call. Ashanti was first featured as a background vocalist on rapper Big Pun's song "How We Roll". In the same year, Ashanti was featured on fellow labelmate Cadillac Tah's singles "Pov City Anthem" and "Just Like a Thug". She also appeared on the 2001 The Fast and the Furious soundtrack as a featured artist on rapper Vita's 2001 hip hop remake of Madonna's "Justify My Love" and on the solo track "When a Man Does Wrong". She appeared as a background vocalist on "I'm Real (Murder Remix)", a collaboration by labelmate Ja Rule and Jennifer Lopez (she also appeared in the music video for "Aint It Funny (Murder Remix)", the second duet between Lopez and Rule, for which she wrote and also sang background vocals on), and was featured on Fat Joe's "What's Luv?" and Ja Rule's "Always on Time". "What's Luv?" and "Always on Time" were released simultaneously and became two of the biggest hit songs of 2002. Ashanti became the first female artist to occupy the top two positions on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart simultaneously when "Always on Time" and "What's Luv?" were at numbers one and two, respectively. ==Promotion==

The album's lead single, titled "Foolish" was released on February 11, 2002. The song became Ashanti's biggest solo successes to date, spending ten consecutive weeks on top of the US Billboard Hot 100, and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks charts. It was eventually first ranked on the US Billboard Hot 100, and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles 2002 year-end charts for eleven straight weeks (Tying with Nelly's single "Dilemma", but not for eleven straights weeks). It was a breakthrough hit internationally entering the top five in the United Kingdom, the top ten in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Germany and Japan, and the top twenty in Switzerland and the Netherlands. "Foolish" was later officially remixed, titled "Unfoolish", with guest appearances from a decease rapper The Notorious B.I.G., was released only just for radio ads. The album's second single, "Happy" was released on June 17, 2002. The song peaked at number 8 on US Billboard Hot 100, and number 6 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts. The single became Ashanti's second top ten hit as a solo artist. It was a moderate success internationally, reaching the top ten in the Netherlands, the top twenty in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and the top forty in Australia, Ireland, Switzerland and France. The album's third single, "Baby" was released on September 9, 2002. The song peaked at number 15 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and number 7 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts. The single became Ashanti's third top-twenty hit as a solo artist in her career. "Dreams" was released as a promotional single, with a live-performance music video with clips from Ashanti's career. ==Critical reception==

Ashanti earned generally mixed reviews from music critics. AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave it a three-out-of-five-star rating and praised the "modern, post-hip-hop soul" sound, stating the album has "fairly fresh beats and lightly insistent hooks, and is just naughty enough". However, he felt it lacked distinctive material: "It's not bad by any means, and it has its moments, but at 17 tracks, including skits, it all becomes a blur. A pleasing blur, one that shows promise, but a blur all the same." ==Legacy==

Her debut album earned Ashanti three Grammy nominations for Best New Artist, Best Contemporary R&B Album and Best Female R&B Vocal Performance at the 45th Annual Grammy Awards. The same year, she also received two additional Grammy nominations for other projects, both in the category of Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. Ashanti took home a record 8 Billboard Music Awards, winning all the categories she was nominated for. Billboard magazine ranked Ashanti at number 100 on magazine's Top 200 Albums of the Decade. As of June 2012, it is the third best selling physical single of the 21st century. ==Commercial performance==

On April 20, 2002, Ashanti debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart with first-week sales of 502,500 copies sold. In total, the album remained on the Billboard 200 albums chart for 55 consecutive weeks. In addition, it reached the top position on the Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums chart, where it stayed at the top spot for four consecutive weeks; it remained on the chart for 64 weeks. On December 17, 2002, the album was certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). As of June 2022, Ashanti has sold 3.7 million copies in the United States according to Nielsen SoundScan. In Canada, it peaked at number 5 on the chart and was certified two times platinum for shipments of 200,000 copies. As of March 2005, the album had sold six million copies worldwide. ==Track listing==

• 7 • Chink Santana • Irv Gotti }} • Douglas • 7 Aurelius • Lorenzo • Etterlene Jordan • Mark DeBarge }} • 7 • Irv Gotti }} • Raymond Calhoun • Douglas • Parker • Lorenzo }} • Chink Santana • Irv Gotti }} • Douglas • 7 Aurelius • Lorenzo • Atkins }} • 7 • Irv Gotti }} • Douglas • 7 Aurelius • Lorenzo }} • 7 • Irv Gotti }} • Douglas • Parker • Lorenzo }} • Chink Santana • Irv Gotti }} • Douglas • 7 Aurelius • Lorenzo }} • 7 • Irv Gotti }} • Douglas • Parker • Lorenzo • 7 Aurelius • Mike Dean • Brad Jordan }} • Chink Santana • Irv Gotti • 7 }} • Douglas • 7 Aurelius • Lorenzo }} • 7 • Irv Gotti }} • Douglas • 7 Aurelius • Lorenzo • Reggie Wiggins • Gerard Thomas }} • 7 • Irv Gotti • Wiggins • Thomas }} • Douglas • Parker • Lorenzo }} • Chink Santana • Irv Gotti }} • Douglas • 7 Aurelius • Lorenzo • Jordan • M. DeBarge • Sean Combs • Daron Jones • Robert Kelly • Christopher Wallace }} • 7 • Irv Gotti }} • Douglas • 7 Aurelius • Lorenzo • El DeBarge }} • 7 • Irv Gotti }} }} Notes • signifies a co-producer Sample credits • "Intro" contains elements of "Always on Time" (with Ja Rule), "What's Luv?" (with Fat Joe & Ja Rule), "Just Like a Thug" & "POV City Anthem" (both with Cadillac Tah), "The I.N.C." (with Ja Rule, Cadillac Tah and Black Child), "How We Roll" (with Big Pun) and "When a Man Does Wrong" which are all previous Ashanti songs and features. • "Foolish" and "Unfoolish" contains a sample from "Stay with Me" by DeBarge. • "Happy" contains an interpolation of "Outstanding" by the Gap Band. • "Baby" contains an interpolation of "Mary Jane" by Scarface. • "Unfoolish" contains samples from "F*** You Tonight" by the Notorious B.I.G. • "Dreams" contains a portion of "Love Me in a Special Way" by DeBarge. ==Personnel==

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Ashanti. • Ashanti – lead vocals (1–4, 6–11, 13–14, 16–17), background vocals (1–4, 6–11, 13–14, 16,17) • Irv Gotti – vocals (7, additional on 8), audio mixing (2–4, 6–11, 13–14, 16–17) • Ja Rule – vocals (1, 4, additional on 3) • Robert Bacon – guitar (4, 8, acoustic on 16), bass guitar (16) • Courtnie Cox – additional vocals (16) • Steven Cox – additional vocals (16) • Kenneth Crouch – grand piano (16) • Free – additional vocals (1) • Kevin T. Green – additional vocals (16) • Janae Huff – additional vocals (16) • Darwin Johnson – bass (3) • Trevor Lawrence Jr. – drums (16) • Jasmine L. Morris – additional vocals (16) • Chink Santana – live drums (13), instruments (7, 9, 13, additional on 3) • 7 Aurelius – grand piano, electric guitar (16), instruments (6, 10–11, additional on 2, 4, 8, 14, 16), additional music programming (9), audio mixing (4, 6, 8, 10–11, 14, 16) • Shia – vocals (15) • Butch Small – percussion (14) • Asif Ali – recording engineer (4, 17) • Chris Dela Pena – assistant engineer (16), assistant mixing (4, 8, 10–11, 13–14, 17) • Tony Duran – photography • (Supa Engineer) Duro – audio mixing (2, 9) • Brian "Big Bass" Gardener – mastering • Deidre Graham – marketing • Charles "Chee" Heath – assistant engineer (3, 7, 9, 13) • Terry "Murda Mac" Herbert – assistant engineer (2, 6, 8, 10–11, 14) • Jeremy Makenzie – assistant engineer (4, 17) • Milwaukee Buck – recording engineer (2–3, 6–11, 13–14) • Brian Springer – recording engineer (16), audio mixing (1, 3–4, 6–8, 10–11, 13–14, 16–17) • David Tan – marketing • Tony Vanias – recording coordinator ==Charts==

Weekly charts Year-end charts Decade-end charts ==Certifications and sales==