Hip-Hop princess lives the dream
Knight Ridder Tribune
Issue date: 3/3/03 Section: Features
Whatever Ashanti did, she did with flair. At Glen Cove High, she hung with a group of girls who called themselves "the Magnificent Seven." She won contests for her writing. She was bright and athletic, a track star who caught the attention of Princeton and Hampton universities.
Though she sang in her church choir, Ashanti was discovered at 13 by, of all people, her nagging mother.
"I was downstairs vacuuming and my mom said, `No television or radio until your chores are done. Turn the radio off!'" Ashanti recalls. "I said, `Ma, that's not the radio. That's me.'"
"She was singing `Reminisce' by Mary J. Blige," Tina says.
Tina summoned her husband, the singer, for a second opinion. "Oh, my god," said Ken-Kaide Douglas of Ashanti's vacuuming performance.
"That's when I started shopping for record deals," Tina says.
Ashanti got a manager who hooked her up first with Jive, then with Sony. But neither label knew quite what to do with the high schooler, and the deals fell apart. Ashanti was 19 when she finally landed at Irv Gotti's door.
"I met with him. He was all thugged out, a typical guy," Ashanti says of the Murder, Incorporated CEO. "He told me he didn't do R&B." She asked him just to produce a few demo songs for her to record, "so I could say I have these blazing tracks by Irv Gotti."
But Gotti had a different idea. He asked her to pen hooks for his rap artists and to perform with them in duets, Ashanti providing the melodic response to their streetwise call. "Pretty soon," Ashanti says, "I was writing hooks for everybody's records."
She wrote one for the late Big Pun's "How We Roll," which rolled to Number two on Billboard's Hot 100, and she sang backup and co-wrote Jennifer Lopez's "Ain't It Funny" remix, which reached Number one. She did all of that before Gotti signed her.
Top 10 duets with Ja Rule and Fat Joe followed. Then, finally, came "Foolish," a Number one hit from her own album that got a second life, with a from-the-grave assist by Notorious B.I.G., as the remix "Unfoolish."
Though she sang in her church choir, Ashanti was discovered at 13 by, of all people, her nagging mother.
"I was downstairs vacuuming and my mom said, `No television or radio until your chores are done. Turn the radio off!'" Ashanti recalls. "I said, `Ma, that's not the radio. That's me.'"
"She was singing `Reminisce' by Mary J. Blige," Tina says.
Tina summoned her husband, the singer, for a second opinion. "Oh, my god," said Ken-Kaide Douglas of Ashanti's vacuuming performance.
"That's when I started shopping for record deals," Tina says.
Ashanti got a manager who hooked her up first with Jive, then with Sony. But neither label knew quite what to do with the high schooler, and the deals fell apart. Ashanti was 19 when she finally landed at Irv Gotti's door.
"I met with him. He was all thugged out, a typical guy," Ashanti says of the Murder, Incorporated CEO. "He told me he didn't do R&B." She asked him just to produce a few demo songs for her to record, "so I could say I have these blazing tracks by Irv Gotti."
But Gotti had a different idea. He asked her to pen hooks for his rap artists and to perform with them in duets, Ashanti providing the melodic response to their streetwise call. "Pretty soon," Ashanti says, "I was writing hooks for everybody's records."
She wrote one for the late Big Pun's "How We Roll," which rolled to Number two on Billboard's Hot 100, and she sang backup and co-wrote Jennifer Lopez's "Ain't It Funny" remix, which reached Number one. She did all of that before Gotti signed her.
Top 10 duets with Ja Rule and Fat Joe followed. Then, finally, came "Foolish," a Number one hit from her own album that got a second life, with a from-the-grave assist by Notorious B.I.G., as the remix "Unfoolish."