Ashanti Shequoiya Douglas or better known as Ashanti is an American singer, record producer, and actress. She was born on October 13, 1980 in Glen Cove, New York. Her parents were Tina Douglas and Ken-Kaide Thomas Douglas. Ashanti took various dance lessons and joined their church choir. As early as 12 years old, Ashanti’s potential in singing was noticed by her mother when she sang “Reminisce” by Mary J. Blige.
Murder Inc. gave Ashanti the chance to collaborate with various rap artists. Irv Gotti asked Ashanti to first collaborate with his artists before recording her demos. She was first featured as a background vocalist to the song “How We Roll” by Big Pun. Ashanti was also seen in the 2001 Fast and the Furious soundtrack as a featured artist on the hip hop remake of “Justify My Love”. She also appeared in the collaboration of Ja Rule and Jennifer Lopez in the song “I’m Real” and “Ain’t it Funny”. Ashanti also got the chance to collaborate with Fat Joe’s “What’s Luv?” and “Always on Time” by Ja Rule. These songs by Fat Joe and Ja Rule became the hit songs in 2002.
Ashanti’s self-titled album, “Ashanti”, was released in April 2002 by Murder Inc. It became number one in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. It was certified triple platinum in the United States since it sold six million copies worldwide. Her debut single “Foolish” is the biggest song of Ashanti which spent ten weeks in the Billboard Hot 100. Ashanti was involved in a controversy when she will receive the Soul Train Aretha rankling Award for the “Entertainer of the Year”. A high school student complained to “The Seattle Times” stating that Ashanti is too new to receive the award. She added that there are deserving artists like Mary J. Blige and Missy Elliott, Alicia Keys and India Arie. Her self-titled album won a Grammy Award for the Best Contemporary R&B album.
Her second album was entitled “Chapter II” which was released on July 2003. It reached the top spot in the Billboard 200 since it got 326,000 copies in the United States for a span of one week. It became certified platinum when it sold 1.5 million copies in the U.S. The first single was entitled “Rock wit U (Awww Baby). The song reached the number two spot on the Billboard Hot 100. The second single was entitled “Rain on Me” which reached the seventh spot in the Hot 100 as well as number two on the Hot 100 R&B songs chart.
Ashanti released a Christmas album which was entitled “Ashanti’s Christmas” in November 2003. The third studio album of Ashanti was “Concrete Rose”. The first single ‘Only U’ became her biggest hit in the United Kingdom which peaked at number two. The fourth studio album was entitled “The Declaration” which was released on June 3, 2008.
Ashanti also tried doing movies. She had a cameo appearance in the film “Bride and Prejudice”. She sang “My Lips are Waiting” as well as “Touch my Body”. She had her feature film acting debut in the film “Coach Carter” with Samuel Jackson. She also appeared In “John Tucker Must Die” which grossed $68,818,076 worldwide. Ashanti was also seen in the “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” season 7 and to “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” season 7.
Ashanti Photo Gallery
