Actors - Ashanti

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	Actors - Ashanti

Ashanti Shequoyia Douglas (born October 13, 1980), known professionally as Ashanti, is an American R&B singer who rose to fame during the early 2000s.

Biography

Early life

Ashanti was born in Glen Cove, New York to Ken Kaide and Tina Douglas, a dance instructor. She was accepted into Hampton University & Princeton University, but turned down a Track & Field Scholarship to pursue her singing career.

Early career

Ashanti was first brought into the public eye as a featured background vocalist on Vita's 2001 hip-hop remake of Madonna's "Justify My Love", which appeared on the soundtrack to the movie The Fast and the Furious, along with "When A Man Does Wrong." That same year, she caught the attention of Fat Joe, and he invited her to sing background on Big Pun's unsuccessful posthumous single "How We Roll".

Ashanti also sang background vocals on the 2001 Collaboration between Jennifer Lopez and Ja Rule, I'm Real (Murder Remix).

Ashanti's big break, however, did not come until early 2002, when, almost simultaneously, Ja Rule released "Always On Time" and Fat Joe released "What's Luv?". They were two of the biggest pop and urban hits of the year, and both featured Ashanti. At one point, her hit with Ja Rule sat at #1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 singles chart while her Fat Joe collaboration was at #2. She was the first female to occupy the top 2 positions on the Billboard 100 as a featured female artist.

Debut album: Ashanti

Shortly after the success of her collaborations, Ashanti released her self-titled debut album, Ashanti, on Irv Gotti's Murder Inc. record label in 2002. The album debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 album chart and is Ashanti's most successful album to date (selling over 504,000 copies in its first week the second most successful first week sales for a debut female R&B artist after Mary J Bildge 2005 Album The Breakthrough).The album sold well over 2 million copies a month after it's release. Her debut single, "Foolish", contained a sample of the 1983 song "Stay With Me" by DeBarge (also utilized by The Notorious B.I.G. in his 1995 #2 hit "One More Chance"). The song entered the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 in March while her two collaborations were still there, making Ashanti the only artist, other than The Beatles, to have their first three chart entries in the top 10 simultaneously. "Foolish" also became 2002's biggest hit according to Billboard, spending ten weeks at #1, due in part to a remix titled "Unfoolish", which featured a rap by The Notorious B.I.G. and received heavy pop, rhythmic, and urban radio airplay.

Ashanti's follow-up singles, "Happy" and Baby, although not as huge as "Foolish" reached the top 10 and top 20 respectively. During the summer of 2002, Ashanti also appeared on a Ja Rule's "Down 4 U," along with labelmates, female rappers Vita and Charli Baltimore. The song appeared on a Murder Inc compilation titled Irv Gotti Presents The Inc. There is no doubt that Ashanti was the biggest debut artist of 2002. Earning her self a rack of awards including 8 Billboard Music Awards, 2 American Music Awards, 2 MOBO awards, Soul Train: Aretha Franklin Enterainer of the Year Award, and her prized possession Grammy Award. From 2002-2005 Ashanti has already been awarded many music awards for her achievements. She also had the 7th biggest album of the year selling more than 3 million copies of Ashanti. Also being in the top 5 for best selling female artist of 2002. Reaching all of this success after just a few months in the business.

In early 2003, Ja Rule and Ashanti teamed up again and scored a massive pop hit with "Mesmerize", the music video for which parodied the plot of the movie Grease
. 50 Cent would later mock Ja Rule
as being soft and "not a true gangsta", citing the "Mesmerize" video and its pop-culture appeal as an example. Ashanti was not spared from 50 Cent's criticism of the entire Murder Inc. family. Early that year Ashanti also teamed up with Fabolous on the track Into You, the track reached #4 on U.S. Billboard. Ashanti was replaced by singer -Tamia in the video, due mostly to schedule problems.

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Actors - Ashanti

Biography

Early life

Early career

Debut album: Ashanti

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