Ashanti

With hitmaker Irv Gotti at the helm, Ashanti blasted into the urban music scene in 2002, topping
the charts with multiple singles at once. She quickly became a sensation, gracing the covers of
magazines and dominating urban radio. Ashanti built her reputation with duets, where she would
complement an already popular rapper -- Ja Rule ("Always on Time"), Fat Joe ("What's Luv?"), the
Notorious B.I.G. ("Unfoolish") -- contrasting the tough-guy male perspective with her own. It didn't
take the young vocalist long to make a name for herself though: her debut album topped the Billboard
album chart just as her debut solo single, "Foolish," was topping the Hot 100 chart. Her presence
was inescapable.
Ashanti's overnight jump to superstardom followed that of Ja Rule, a similar urban music sensation
helmed by Gotti. The New York producer took notice of Ashanti initially because of her beauty,
dancing, and acting. She trained as a dancer at the Bernice Johnson Cultural Arts Center, learning
a number of dance styles. She danced most notably in Disney's Polly, which starred Phylicia
Rashad, and also appeared in a number of big-name music videos, in addition to other dance work.
As an actress, she made a name for herself with roles in Spike Lee's Malcolm X and Who's da Man
before that. The multi-talented vocalist was causing quite a stir, and Gotti did what he could to bring
her into his Murder Inc. fold. After showcasing her swooning voice on Big Pun's "How We Roll" and
the Fast and Furious soundtrack -- both in 2001 -- Gotti put Ashanti to work on her debut album,
which he produced.

Success came quickly. A duet with Ja Rule, "Always on Time," hit number one on Billboard's Hot
100 chart in early 2002 just as a duet with Fat Joe, "What's Luv?," was creeping toward the same
number one position. These two airplay-heavy singles, of course, set the stage perfectly for Ashanti's
self-titled debut release. The album's lead single, "Foolish," raced up the Hot 100 chart, entering the
Top Ten in March alongside "Always on Time" and "What's Luv?," giving her three Top Ten songs in
the same week, including the number one and two positions -- a quite spectacular feat. And then
Ashanti's album debuted at number one on the album chart, selling an astounding 500,000-plus
copies in its first week. With all this chart-topping, Ashanti set some sales records and her success
continued. Gotti readied a remix of "Foolish," titled "Unfoolish," that featured the Notorious B.I.G.
and again overtook urban radio, where no artist was more omnipresent throughout 2002 than Ashanti.
She returned the following year with Chapter II, which likewise topped the Billboard album chart on
the heals of its hot lead single, "Rock Wit U (Awww Baby)." The album's success was somewhat
eclipsed, however, by all the negative drama surrounding the Murder Inc. camp at the time (i.e., the
FBI investigation and the G-Unit feuding). Later that year a Christmas album followed.