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''Ashanti'' is the self-titled debut studio album by American R&B recording artist Ashanti; it was released on April 2, 2002, by Murder Inc. Records and Def Jam Records. The album was recorded between 2001 and 2002 in Crackhouse Studios (New York) and SoundCastle Studios (Los Angeles), during the period of time where Ashanti was writing for other artists. Ashanti worked with a variety of producers including Irv Gotti, Chink Santana, 7 Aurelius, Jared Thomas, Reggie Wright as well as Ashanti co-writing all the songs on the album. Its music incorporates R&B, hip hop, hip hop soul and urban. The album features guest vocals from The Notorious B.I.G., Irv Gotti and Ja Rule. ''Ashanti'' debuted at number one on the US ''Billboard'' 200 and Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart with first-week sales of an impressive 503,000 units, the biggest first-week sales for a debut female artist. The album was certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipments of 3,000,000 copies on December 17, 2002. It earned Ashanti three Grammy nominations for Best New Artist, Best Contemporary R&B Album, and Best Female R&B Vocal Performance. Ashanti also received two additional Grammy nominations in the same year for other projects, both in the category of Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. ''Billboard'' magazine ranked ''Ashanti'' at number 100 on its Top 200 Albums of the Decade. Ashanti mentioned on Ustream that she planned to re-release the album for its 10th anniversary in 2012. She planned on adding tracks such as "Down 4 U" and "The Pledge" to the album which were huge hits in 2002 the same time "Foolish", "Happy" and "Baby" were on the charts. ==Background== When Ashanti was 14, she was discovered by P. Diddy's Bad Boy Records. Initially, she went to Bad Boy Records and sang one of Mary J. Blige's songs in front of P. Diddy and Biggie Smalls. After being impressed by her singing ability, Diddy had her sign to a development deal. In the end, due to a bad contract, Ashanti did not sign with Diddy. This ultimately led to a record deal with Jive Records in 1994. This relationship soured when Jive tried to make Ashanti into a pop singer.〔Daniels, Mark. ("Nobody's Fool" ). Amazon.com. Retrieved April 12, 2007.〕 Ashanti subsequently involved herself in schoolwork, cheerleading, and running on her school's track team. She was an honor student in English and belonged to the English club where she began writing poetry. She was also in the Drama club and performed in a few plays. She put college pursuits aside when Epic Records approached her with a contract in 1998. However, the label's management changes quickly made Ashanti a low priority. She continued to perform at local New York clubs and began hanging out at the Murder Inc. recording studio, hoping for another big break.〔(OnTV Shows | myLifetime.com )〕 Ashanti was first noticed by Irv Gotti because of her vocal skills.〔http://music.yahoo.com/ar-252802-bio--Ashanti〕 Ashanti initially asked him to produce a few demo songs for her to record so she could say she had some strong tracks by the big time producer but Gotti had a different idea. He asked her to pen hooks for his rap artists and to perform with them in duets. Ashanti provided the melodic response to their call. Ashanti was first featured as a background vocalist on rapper Big Pun's song "How We Roll". In the same year, Ashanti was featured on fellow labelmate Cadillac Tah's singles "Pov City Anthem" and "Just Like a Thug". She also appeared on the 2001 ''The Fast and the Furious'' soundtrack as a featured artist on rapper Vita's 2001 hip hop remake of Madonna's "Justify My Love" and on the solo track "When a Man Does Wrong". She appeared as a background vocalist on "I'm Real (Murder Remix)", a collaboration by labelmate Ja Rule and Jennifer Lopez (she also appeared in the music video for "Aint It Funny (Murder Remix)", the second duet between Lopez and Rule, for which she wrote and also sang background vocals on), and was featured on Fat Joe's "What's Luv?" and Ja Rule's "Always on Time". "What's Luv?" and "Always on Time" were released simultaneously and became two of the biggest hit songs of 2002. Ashanti became the first female artist to occupy the top two positions on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart simultaneously when "Always on Time" and "What's Luv?" were at numbers one and two, respectively. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ashanti (album)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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