Ashanti – The Way That I Love You

Celebrated mainly for her longing love songs and hooks, but just as capable of using her silky, sweet, meringue-like voice to deliver agonized cinematic ballads, Ashanti became an almost omnipresent pop-R&B force in 2002. The week of March 30 that year, the singer and songwriter followed the Beatles as only the second artist to simultaneously occupy slots in the Top Ten of the Billboard Hot 100 with her first three charting singles. She was featured on Murder Inc. labelmate Ja Rule’s “Always on Time” and Fat Joe’s “What’s Luv?,” smashes that took the fourth and fifth spots, while “Foolish,” her debut solo single, moved up to number nine. Upon arriving the next month, her self-titled album topped the Billboard 200 on its way to triple-platinum, Grammy-winning fame. After Chapter II (2003), Concrete Rose (2004), and The Declaration (2008) continued her commercial popularity, Ashanti severed ties with Murder Inc. (aka The Inc.), only to earn her fifth Top Ten studio album with the independently released Braveheart (2014). These triumphs were followed by a variety of singles and high-profile contributions to titles ranging from The Hamilton Mixtape (2016) to DaBaby’s “Nasty” (2020).

The Fast and the Furious [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]
Born and reared on Long Island, Ashanti Douglas started performing, singing, and writing music throughout her teens. She launched her lengthy acting career with roles in advertisements and uncredited performances in Malcolm X and Who’s the Man?, and danced in music videos. A track star, she established the record for the triple jump at Glen Cove High School, and was granted an athletic scholarship to attend Hampton University. Ashanti elected to pursue music, and after some possible label deals fell through, she ingratiated herself with Irv Gotti of Murder Inc. Records. She arrived in 2001 with featured appearances on Big Pun’s “How We Roll,” Ja Rule’s “The Inc.” and “Always on Time,” and Fat Joe’s “What’s Luv?,” and contributed “When a Man Does Wrong” to the soundtrack of The Fast and the Furious. “Always on Time” topped the Hot 100 and “What’s Luv?” reached number two before Ashanti made her solo breakthrough with “Foolish.” The song went to number one immediately after the April 2002 release of the self-titled parent album. Ashanti, the entirety of which the singer co-wrote, raced straight to the top of the Billboard 200 and contained two more hits with “Happy” and “Baby,” singles that respectively topped out at number eight and 15. During this frenzy of activity, Ashanti appeared on yet another Top Ten hit, Irv Gotti’s “Down 4 U.” By the end of the year, the album was triple platinum, and Ashanti garnered Grammy nominations in four categories: Best New Artist and Best Contemporary R&B Album, along with Best Rap/Sung Collaboration (for “Always on Time” and “What’s Luv?”) and Best Female R&B Vocal Performance (for “Foolish”). Ashanti received the Best Contemporary R&B Album award at the ceremony the following February.

Ashanti’s Christmas
Ashanti’s hot streak was far from done. Her follow-up, Chapter II, was released in July 2003 and topped the Billboard 200. It yielded Top Ten hits with the deeply contrasting “Rock wit U (Aww Baby)” and “Rain on Me,” the latter a marked shift into filmic soul with a sample from Isaac Hayes’ version of the Burt Bacharach/Hal David classic “The Look of Love” (whereas her previous singles exuded sunnier nostalgia with servings of reheated DeBarge and the Gap Band). Ashanti was nominated again for Best Contemporary R&B Album, Best R&B Song (“Rock wit U”), and Best Female R&B Vocal Performance (“Rain on Me”). Ashanti’s Christmas, mostly a covers album, was issued in time for that year’s holiday season. Preceded by featured performances on singles by Ja Rule “Wonderful” and Lloyd (“Southside”), and preceded by the gritty number 13 smash “Only U,” Concrete Rose arrived in December 2004, landed at number seven, and earned her third platinum album. Remixes and previously unreleased tunes were picked together for Collectables by Ashanti, launched in December 2005. By then, Ashanti had devoted more effort to acting. Roles in Coach Carter and The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz led to further between-album work with John Tucker Must Die and Resident Evil: Extinction.

The Declaration was Ashanti’s last album with Murder Inc., or The Inc. — as it had been known by the set’s June 2008 release date — although it was far from an in-house production. Unlike Ashanti’s prior LPs, Irv Gotti was hands off, and Channel 7 (aka 7 Aurelius) was the only Inc. regular to contribute in a substantial way. Ashanti enlisted a vast cast of producers and fellow writers that included Babyface, Diane Warren, Rodney Jerkins, Robin Thicke, and Akon. It was one of a few L.T. Hutton collaborations, “The Way That I Love You,” that became the album’s biggest song, a number 37 mainstream success. Around the same period, she was heard on Nelly’s “Body on Me.” A handful of supporting vocals, coupled with the single “The Woman You Love” and a Christmas EP — the first releases on Ashanti’s own Written Entertainment label — were distributed throughout the next several years. Braveheart, the artist’s fifth proper album, arrived in March 2014. Including guests Beenie Man, Rick Ross, Jeremih, and French Montana, it debuted at number ten on the Billboard 200. Over the next several years, Ashanti alternated between making featured appearances and launching interim singles. She was opposite Ja Rule again on The Hamilton Mixtape and assisted on tracks by Lil Wayne (“Start This Shit Off Right”) and DaBaby (“Nasty”). Among her different singles around this time were the DJ Mustard and Ty Dolla $ign collaboration “Say Less” and the Afro B-assisted “Pretty Little Thing.” She reappeared with 2021’s “235 (2:35 I Want You),” a lean slow jam made with Jerome “J Roc” Harmon, then in 2022 with the Aitch collaboration “Baby” and the solo track “Falling for You.