American singer-songwriter Ashanti became a star when she released her self-titled debut album in 2002. Ashanti, who was named after the Ashanti Empire by her mother, grew up taking dance lessons and singing in the church choir. Having noticed her vocal talents, her parents eventually began to send out demo tapes to various recording companies.
By the time Ashanti was in her teen years, she had begun to write and compose her own songs. Singing throughout the years, she soon caught the attention of P. Diddy, the founder of Bad Boy Records. However, despite a planned record deal signing, the plans would ultimately fall through. After a few failed attempts, the aspiring singer secured a recording contract with Murder Inc. towards the end of the 1990s. Her first studio album, Ashanti was later released in 2002; a chart-topper, it would play a significant part in jumpstarting her music career.
Throughout the years, Ashanti has released eight albums and over twenty singlesーmany of which proved to be successful hits. Having grown immensely in popularity since her debut, the artist is considered by many to be one of the best pop singers in the country.
As a professional singer, Ashanti has earned over thirty industry awards, including eight Billboard Music Awards, two American Music Awards, four Soul Train Music Awards and a Grammy Award. With the release of her debut album in 2002, she also set a world record for being the female artist with the greatest amount of first-week album sales, in the history of the US. In 2009, Ashanti was also included in E! Magazine’s list of “25 Sexiest Pop Stars.”
Besides being a recording artist, Ashanti is also an actress; in fact, she landed her first acting role on television at the tender age of twelve in the 1992 biographical film, Malcolm X. Some of her other early works include American Dreams (2002), Buffy the Vampire Slayers (2003), The Proud Family (2003), Coach Carter (2005), The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz (2005) and John Tucker Must Die (2005). In 2013, she even had a recurring supporting role in the romance series, Army Wives playing the part of Latasha Monclair. On top of appearing on the small screen as an actress, the dark skinned beauty has also graced many talk shows with her presence such as Live! with Kelly (2012), The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (2008), Good Day L.A. (2013) and The Dr. Oz Show (2015).
So what has the Grammy Award-winning musician been doing these past few years? Has she been recording or acting recently? What happened to Ashanti? Where is she now in 2018?
Ashanti’s Upbringing and Early Life
When Ashanti was twelve years old, her mother noticed her musical talents when she overheard her singing a rendition of Reminisce by Mary J. Blige. Not long after that, she asked her daughter to record several demo tapes (at home since they couldn’t afford to go to the studio at the time) and eventually sent them out to various labels. As a teen, Ashanti was a student at Glen Clove High School; it was during that time that she first began to write her own songs. Carrying on with her singing, she participated in many talent shows held at local clubs and cafes over the next few years. At the age of sixteen, she crossed paths with P.Diddy, the founder of Bad Boy Records; impressed by her singing, plans were made for Ashanti to sign a recording deal with the company, however it ultimately fell through. After the failed record signing, other offers followed from Jive Records and Epic Records, but similar to what had happened earlier, both would also not work out for the aspiring singer. It wasn’t until she successfully signed with Murder Inc., that she came a recording artist officially.
Ashanti’s Early Music Career during the 2000’s
Following the sensation that was Ashanti, the artist released her second studio album, Chapter II in July 2003. Another chart-topper, the album debuted at the top of the Billboard 200 Chart and quickly made over 326,000 sales within the first week. Boasting a track list of twenty songs, Chapter II later spawned three singles: Rock With U (Awww Baby), Breakup 2 Makeup and Rain on Me, all of which charted amongst the top ten. While it settled in at the number one on the American Charts, the album also peaked at number five on the UK Albums Chart, number five on the Canadian Chart and number nine on the Swiss Top Albums Chart. Having remained on the Billboard 200 for a stunning 30 weeks in a row, Chapter II has since sold 3 million copies across the world.
After a holiday record release later that year, Ashanti released her third studio album, Concrete Rose in December of 2004ーit was also the artist’s third Platinum certified album. Produced by her usual production crew, Concrete Rose consisted of seventeen tracks, including Take Me Tonight, Turn It Up, Don’t Leave Me Alone and Wonderful which featured Lloyd, Ja Rule, 7 Aurelius and R. Kelly respectively. Entering the charts at number seven, the album saw over 254,000 sales during the first week of releaseーan amount that while still impressive, was lower than what she’d achieved previously with her earlier efforts. Although Concrete Rose was met with mixed reviews from critics, it has since sold an excess of 1 million copies in the US.
The artist released her fourth full-length album entitled, The Declaration in June 2008. According to a statement by Ashanti herself, the singer had recorded fifty-two tracks for the album but had only ended up using fifteen on its track list in the end. Her last record with Murder Inc., it garnered mediocre reviews from critics, having been described as being “lukewarm” by critics. The Declaration settled in at number six on the Billboard 200 Chart shortly after its release and sold close to 86,000 copies during the first week; it eventually also peaked at number two on the US Top R&B and Hip Hop Albums Chart. It later went on to spawn four singles (e.g. Hey Baby (After the Club), The Way That I Love You, Body on Me and Good Good), the second of which later reached number two on the Hot Hip-Hop Songs Chart; the album has since sold over 297,000 copies in the country as of 2014. Ultimately lukewarm in success, it was Ashanti’s first album to not receive certification from the RIAA.
After forming her own independent label, Ashanti released her fifth studio album, BraveHeart in March 2014. Her first record since her departure from Murder Inc., the album was distributed globally by eOne Music.
Upon being made available in stores, the album garnered much positive reception from critics, having been given a four out of five-star rating from critics at AllMusic. Showcasing thirteen songs (a handful that featured various music artists such as French Montana, Jeremith, Rick Ross and Beenie Man), BraveHeart entered the US Billboard 200 at number ten and eventually sold over 28,000 copies throughout the countryーAshanti’s lowest to date.
Despite its mediocre debut, however, it later did manage to climb to the top of the US Independent Albums Chart and to the number fourth position on the Top R&B and Hip Hop Charts; in the UK, it also ranked at number twenty-nine and number forty on the R&B and Indie Albums Chart respectively. BraveHeart later spawned three singlesーNever Should Have, I Got It and Early in the Morning.
What’s Ashanti Doing Now In 2024 – Recent Updates
In 2015, she announced that she was working on new music for her seventh studio album. That same year, she released a song titled, “Let’s Go”, in support of Michelle Obama’s #Letsmove campaign, which helped raise awareness of drinking water.
Then in 2016, she collaborated with Canadian singer Belly on the song “Seven Day Love”, which was included in his album Inzombia.
The following year, she announced that her seventh album will be released sometime in 2018. Interestingly enough, she later denied this in the summer of 2018. However, she confirmed that she will be releasing a joint album with rapper Ja Rule. During that period, she also did a number of collaborations; some of these include Ty Dolla Sign’s “Say Less”, Machel Montano’s “The Road”, and Mack Maine’s “Start This Shit Off Right.”
In 2019, she also worked with Afro B on the song “Pretty Little Thing” and was featured on the soundtrack of Stuck, a musical drama film that she worked on as a producer.
Fast forward to 2021 and there’s still no sign of her joint album with Ja Rule, However, she did release a new single titled, “2:35 (I Want You)”. As of 2024, the accompanying music video has been streamed more than 6 million times on YouTube.
In March 2022, her 2003 hit song “Rock wit U (Awww Baby), was also heavily sampled for Aitch’s single “Baby.” That same year, she made an appearance on Diddy’s “Gotta Move On” remix, which also featured Yung Miami and Bryson Tiller. She also released a new single titled, “Falling For You”, which has since been streamed more than 3.4 million times on her official YouTube channel.
In addition to her music career, she has also appeared in a number of films and television series over the past few years. Some of her recent film credits include A Christmas Winter Song, A New Diva’s Christmas Carol, and Honey Girls. She has also appeared in the TV film Murder and has made a couple of guest appearances as herself in The CW Dynasty reboot.
For those who’d like to know what else Ashanti is up to, you can follow her on Instagram at @ashanti. She’s also active on Twitter under the same username (@ashanti).
