Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Ashanti is ‘trying to be a mogulette’
In my 60 years in celebrity journalism, I’ve met an incredible number of stars but very few as fun and down to earth as singersongwriter Ashanti. We’re sitting backstage at Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas in The Linq Promenade on her dressing room couch, and she’s in a showgirl red sequined bra and panties with one false eyelash applied. The other awaits on her makeup table. It’s an hour before her concert with Ja Rule, and she’s as comfortable and at ease as if we were headed out for one of her “Celebrity Food Adventures” episodes.
Ashanti is in total control of her life and career, yet with no sign of the diva devils that emerge from other singers. She has all the credits that would justify that state of mind. Her debut album, which featured the hit “Foolish” in April 2002, sold more than 500,000 copies in its first week of release. One year later, it won her a Grammy for Best Contemporary R&B album, her first. Her second release achieved platinum status. She became the second artist after The Beatles to have the first three chart entries in the Top 10 simultaneously.
More incredible is that she had a song in the Top 10 every week for 11 consecutive months, January through November, in 2002. Ashanti went on to win eight Billboard Awards and two American Music Awards and was crowned royalty as “the princess of hip hop and R&B.” Oprah Winfrey honored her at the Legends Ball as one of the most influential and legendary black women in 20th century entertainment ...