Ashanti (album)

Ashanti is the self-titled debut studio album by American singer and songwriter Ashanti. Released on April 2, 2002, via Murder Inc. and Island Def Jam, the album was recorded in New York City and Los Angeles between 2001 and 2002, during the period of time where Ashanti was writing for other artists. Its music has the sound of R&B and hip hop soul. The album features guest vocals from Gotti, Ja Rule, and the late The Notorious B.I.G.. Contributions to the album's production came from a wide range of producers, including Irv Gotti, 7 Aurelius, Chink Santana, Jared Thomas and Reggie Wright.

Ashanti
Studio album by Ashanti
Released	April 2, 2002 (2002-04-02)
Recorded	2001–2002
Studio	Crackhouse (New York City, New York) SoundCastle (Los Angeles, California)
Genre	R&B[1] hip hop soul[2]
Length	61:08
Label	Murder Inc. Island Def Jam
Producer	Irv Gotti (exec.) 7 Aurelius Ashanti Chink Santana Jared Thomas Reggie Wright
Ashanti chronology
Ashanti (2002) 7 Series Sampler: Ashanti (2003)
Singles from Ashanti
"Foolish" Released: January 29, 2002 "Happy" Released: May 21, 2002 "Baby" Released: August 17, 2002

Ashanti debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 and the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart with first-week sales of 503,000 units, the biggest first-week sales for a debut female artist up to then. The album was certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipments of three million copies on December 17, 2002. It earned Ashanti three Grammy Award nominations for Best New Artist, Best Female R&B Vocal Performance and Best Contemporary R&B Album, winning in the latter category. Billboard magazine ranked Ashanti at number 100 on its Top 200 Albums of the Decade.[3] The album has sold ten million copies worldwide.

The album was promoted by four singles. "Foolish" was released as the lead single from the project and peaked atop the record charts of 15 nations, including the US Billboard Hot 100. Two subsequent singles additionally became top ten charting hits: "Happy", "Baby". She also performed on several television shows and award ceremonies. Furthermore, Ashanti later opened for the North American leg for Mariah Carey's worldwide concert tour Charmbracelet World Tour.[4]

Background

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.[5] 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.[6]

Ashanti was first noticed by Irv Gotti because of her vocal skills.[7] 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 January 29, 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 May 21, 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 August 17, 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

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
Entertainment Weekly	B−[8]
Los Angeles Times	[9]
Q	[10]
Robert Christgau	[11]
Rolling Stone	[1]
Slant Magazine	[12]

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."[2] Entertainment Weekly commended the album's "coy hooks" and "jagged-edged rappers", continuing to say "her voice is supple and pretty but rarely rises above a whisper, making it a background instrument even when it's Ashanti's turn to shine".[8] The Los Angeles Times had a mixed view of the album, writing "Ashanti's breathy, cooing vocals are well suited to the mellow mood of this collection", however was unimpressed because it was not "substantial".[9]

In another mixed review, Slant critic Sal Cinqueman found that "the songs are infectious and fine-tuned and most of the album is underscored with bristling live instrumentation [...] But tracks like the flute-infused "Happy" are admittedly — and perhaps too obviously — influenced by other R&B divas like Mary J. Blige and rarely give way to anything fresh or new. Ultimately, Ashanti fails to carve a unique niche for the budding singer."[12] Rolling Stone's Kris Ex complimented the album's overall production with its "bass-heavy, slow-burning R&B grooves that sound like everything else on R&B radio" and noted that Ashanti's "voice is the perfect radio-ready R&B; instrument: strong enough to ride over street-savvy beats but unassuming enough to be open to interpretation; better than Britney but less distinctive than Mary J. Blige."[1] Alluding to her previous collaborations, People magazine wrote that "it’s one thing to sing a hook on someone else’s record, quite another to carry your own album, as Ashanti fails to do on this desultory debut [...] Ashanti, with her sweet but slight soprano, doesn’t have the grit and power of [other] divas. It doesn’t help that, despite sporadic sampling [...] lack memorable melodies."[13]

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 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.[3] In April 2002, Ashanti sold 503,000 copies in its first week of release in the United States, becoming a record-breaking feat. It was the highest first week sales for a female artist's debut ever. The album stayed atop the Billboard 200 for three consecutive weeks. In the same week, she became the first female performer to simultaneously hold the top two places on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart with "Foolish" and "What's Luv" (with Fat Joe).

She broke records again by having three top ten songs (Foolish, What's Luv, and Always on Time (with Ja Rule)) on the Billboard Hot 100 charts in the same week. Otherwise, only The Beatles have achieved this. In 2009, Billboard.com reported that Ashanti has had the most top 10 songs (16 to date) on the R&B/Hip-hop charts by a female for that respective decade. The album's lead single was named the 19th most successful song of the 2000s (decade) on the Billboard Hot 100 Songs of the Decade.[14] 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 and Billboards Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums chart at number one with first-week sales of 503,000 copies in the United States. On December 17, 2002, the album was certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and remained on the Billboard 200 chart for 55 weeks. Ashanti had sold 3.6 million copies in the United States as of October 2008, according to Nielsen SoundScan.[15] In Canada, it peaked at number 15 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.[16]

Track listing

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Ashanti.[17]

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
1.	"Intro"	Ashanti Douglas Marcus Vest Irving Lorenzo Andre Parker Jeffrey Atkins Joseph Cartagena Ramel Gill Christopher Rios Takwon Green Taheem "Caddillac Tah" Crocker Paul Walcott	7 Aurelius Chink Santana Irv Gotti	1:25
2.	"Foolish"	Douglas Vest Lorenzo Etterlene Jordan Mark DeBarge	7 Aurelius Irv Gotti	3:47
3.	"Happy"	Douglas Parker Lorenzo Raymond Calhoun	Chink Santana Irv Gotti	4:22
4.	"Leaving (Always on Time Part II)" (featuring Ja Rule)	Douglas Vest Lorenzo Atkins	7 Aurelius Irv Gotti	3:55
5.	"Narrative Call (Skit)"			0:36
6.	"Call"	Douglas Vest Lorenzo Atkins	7 Aurelius Irv Gotti	5:05
7.	"Scared" (featuring Irv Gotti)	Douglas Parker Lorenzo	Chink Santana Irv Gotti	4:43
8.	"Rescue"	Douglas Vest Lorenzo	7 Aurelius Irv Gotti	7:25
9.	"Baby"	Douglas Vest Lorenzo Mike Dean Brad Jordan	Chink Santana Irv Gotti 7 Aurelius*	4:25
10.	"VooDoo"	Douglas Vest Lorenzo	7 Aurelius Irv Gotti	4:42
11.	"Movies"	Douglas Vest Lorenzo Reggie Wright Jared Thomas	7 Aurelius Irv Gotti Reggie Wright* Jared Thomas*	4:09
12.	"Fight (Over Skit)"			1:18
13.	"Over"	Douglas Vest Parker Lorenzo	Chink Santana Irv Gotti	5:34
14.	"Unfoolish" (featuring The Notorious B.I.G.)	Douglas Vest Lorenzo Jordan M. DeBarge Sean Combs Daron Jones Robert Kelly Christopher Wallace	7 Aurelius Irv Gotti	3:14
15.	"Shi Shi (Skit)"			0:14
16.	"Dreams"	Douglas Vest Lorenzo El DeBarge	7 Aurelius Irv Gotti	4:18
17.	"Thank You"	Douglas	Ashanti	1:47

Notes

• (*) denotes co-producer.

Sample credits

• the Ashanti tracks "When a Man Does Wrong", "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 & Black Child) and "How We Roll" (with Big Pun)
• "Foolish" and "Unfoolish" contains a sample of DeBarge's "Stay with Me"
• "Happy" contains a sample of The Gap Band's "Outstanding".
• "Baby" contains a sample of Scarface's "Mary Jane".
• "Unfoolish" contains the entire first verse of The Notorious B.I.G.'s "F*** You Tonight" and an interpolation of the chorus.
• "Rescue" contains a sample of Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal" and Sade's "Cherish the Day"
• "Dreams" contains a sample of DeBarge's "Love Me in a Special Way"

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Ashanti.[17]

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 played by (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) Rosie Michel – stylist 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 Chart (2002) Peak position Australian Albums (ARIA)[18] 10 Australian Urban Albums (ARIA)[19] 2 Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[20] 36 Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[21] 24 Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[22] 29 Canadian Albums (Billboard)[23] 5 Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[24] 12 European Albums (Music & Media)[25] 7 French Albums (SNEP)[26] 29 German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[27] 10 New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[28] 15 Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[29] 15 UK Albums (OCC)[30] 3 UK R&B Albums (OCC)[31] 1 US Billboard 200[32] 1 US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard)[33] 1

Year-end charts Chart (2002) Position Australian Albums (ARIA)[34] 94 Australian Urban Albums (ARIA)[35] 9 Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[36] 90 Dutch Albums (MegaCharts)[37] 55 European Albums (Music & Media)[38] 60 German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[39] 74 Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[40] 61 UK Albums (OCC)[41] 38 US Billboard 200[42] 12 US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard)[43] 4 Chart (2003) Position US Billboard 200[44] 160 Decade-end charts Chart (2000–09) Position US Billboard 200[45] 101

Certifications and sales

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
Australia (ARIA)[46]	Gold	35,000^^
Canada (Music Canada)[47]	2× Platinum	200,000^^
Japan (RIAJ)[48]	Platinum	200,000^^
Switzerland (IFPI Switzerland)[49]	Gold	20,000^^
United Kingdom (BPI)[50]	Platinum	300,000^^
United States (RIAA)[51]	3× Platinum	3,000,000^^
Summaries
Worldwide	N/A	10,000,000[16]
^^shipments figures based on certification alone

Release history

Country	Date	Format	Catalogue no.	Label
United States[52]	April 2, 2002	CD	5868302	Murder Inc.
		Cassette	586830
		LP	AA3145868301
United Kingdom[53]		CD-R	N/A

References

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2. "Allmusic review". Retrieved August 2011
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4. "Ashanti To Open Mariah Tour". Billboard. Retrieved 2019-04-28.
5. Daniels, Mark. "Nobody's Fool" Archived February 7, 2008, at the Wayback Machine. Amazon.com. Retrieved April 12, 2007.
6. OnTV Shows | myLifetime.com Archived July 3, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
7. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2009-01-14. Retrieved 2008-09-14.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
8. Caramanica, Jon (2002-04-26). "Ashanti Review". Entertainment Weekly: 148. Retrieved 2012-04-09.
9. Hilburn, Robert (2002-04-21). "Many Happy Returns to Form – Page 2 – Los Angeles Times". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2011-08-10.
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11. Robert Christgau: Album: Ashanti: Ashanti
12. Ashanti, slantmagazine.com. Retrieved August 2011
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14. Hot 100 Decade Songs
15. http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/1043619/ask-billboard-ashanti-nelly-chate-moore-donna-summer-aretha-franklin-blackgirl
16. "Ashanti Answers Critics & Doubters". Ebony. March 2005. Retrieved December 21, 2018.
17. Ashanti (Media notes). Ashanti. Murder Inc., Island Def Jam. 2002.CS1 maint: others (link)
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25. "European Top 100 Albums" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 20 no. 33. August 10, 2002. p. 8. OCLC 29800226. Retrieved April 28, 2019 – via American Radio History.
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30. "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved April 28, 2019.
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32. "Ashanti Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved April 22, 2017.
33. "Ashanti Chart History (Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved April 22, 2017.
34. "ARIA Charts – End Of Year Charts – Top 100 Albums 2002". Australian Recording Industry Association. Retrieved April 29, 2019.
35. "ARIA Charts – End Of Year Charts – Urban Albums 2002". Australian Recording Industry Association. Retrieved April 29, 2019.
36. "Jaaroverzichten 2002 – Albums" (in Dutch). Ultratop. Retrieved April 29, 2019.
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53. "Ashanti - Ashanti". Discogs. Retrieved 2014-04-28.