Ashanti was the first woman to hold the top two Hot 100 spots at once
Before her own album came out, Ashanti was singing the hooks on other people's rap hits. In 2002 her voice was on the number one song in America and she held the number two slot too, a double no woman had managed before. Her debut then went triple platinum and won a Grammy.
Glen Cove, on Long Island in New York, is where Ashanti Shequoiya Douglas arrived on October 13, 1980. Her mother, a former dance teacher, named her after the Ashanti Empire of Ghana, where women held power and influence, and her grandfather James had been a civil rights activist connected with Martin Luther King Jr. Her mother realised how well she could sing after hearing her, aged 12, perform a Mary J. Blige song. As a child she worked as an extra in Spike Lee's Malcolm X and wrote songs through high school.
Early interest from labels such as Bad Boy and Jive led nowhere, so she kept performing around New York and hung around the Murder Inc. studio waiting for a break. Producer Irv Gotti noticed her voice and had her write and sing melodic hooks answering his rappers' verses. Features on the Fast and the Furious soundtrack were followed by Ja Rule's Always on Time, which reached number one, while another song she sang on held number two at the same time.
Signed to Murder Inc., a Def Jam imprint, she released her self-titled debut in 2002. It opened at the top of the Billboard 200, went triple platinum and won Best Contemporary R&B Album at the 45th Grammys. Chapter II in 2003 also reached number one and drew three Grammy nominations, but a Christmas album that same year slumped. Concrete Rose in 2004 produced Only U, her biggest British hit at number two, though Def Jam's legal troubles with Gotti hurt the follow-up single.
The Declaration in 2008 was her last album with a major label; Braveheart came out independently in 2014. She has sold nearly 30 million records. Acting began with Coach Carter in 2005, and the same year she led The Muppets' Wizard of Oz, watched by close to eight million people, before roles in John Tucker Must Die and Resident Evil: Extinction.
Source: Ashanti (singer)
