[2/1/2012
Steppers Song Of The Day]
Foolish By Ashanti #stepperssongoftheday With
hitmaker Irv Gotti at the helm, Ashanti blasted into the
urban music scene in 2002, topping the charts with multiple singles at
once.
She quickly became a sensation, gracing the covers of magazines and
dominating urban radio.
Ashanti built her reputation with duets, where she would
complement an already popular rapper - Ja Rule ("Always on
Time"), Fat Joe ("What's Luv?"), the Notorious
B.I.G. ("Unfoolish") - contrasting the tough-guy male
perspective with her own.
It didn't take the young vocalist long to make a name for herself
though: her debut album topped the Billboard album chart just as her
debut solo single, "Foolish," was topping the Hot 100 chart. Her
presence was inescapable.
Ashanti's overnight jump to superstardom followed that of Ja Rule, a
similar urban music sensation helmed by Gotti. The New York producer
took notice of Ashanti initially because of her beauty, dancing, and
acting.
She trained as a dancer at the Bernice Johnson Cultural Arts Center,
learning a number of dance styles. She danced most notably in Disney's
Polly, which starred Phylicia Rashad, and also appeared in a
number of big-name music videos, in addition to other dance work.
As an actress, she made a name for herself with roles in Spike Lee's
Malcolm X and Who's da Man before that. The multi-talented
vocalist was causing quite a stir, and Gotti did what he could to bring
her into his Murder Inc. fold.
After showcasing her swooning voice on Big Pun's "How We Roll" and the
Fast and Furious soundtrack -- both in 2001 -- Gotti put Ashanti to work
on her debut album, which he produced.
Success came quickly. A duet with Ja Rule, "Always on Time," hit
number one on Billboard's Hot 100 chart in early 2002 just as a duet
with Fat Joe, "What's Luv?," was creeping toward the same number
one position. These two airplay-heavy singles set the stage perfectly
for Ashanti's self-titled debut release.
The album's lead single, "Foolish," raced up the Hot 100 chart,
entering the Top Ten in March alongside "Always on Time" and "What's
Luv?," giving her three Top Ten songs in the same week,
including the number one and two positions - a quite spectacular feat.
Then Ashanti's album debuted at number one on the album chart, selling
an astounding 500,000-plus copies in its first week. With all this
chart-topping, Ashanti set some sales records and her success continued.
Gotti readied a remix of "Foolish," titled "Unfoolish,"
that featured the Notorious B.I.G. and again overtook urban
radio, where no artist was more omnipresent throughout 2002 than
Ashanti.
She returned the following year with Chapter II, which likewise
topped the Billboard album chart on the heels of its hot lead single, "Rock
Wit U (Awww Baby)." The album's success was somewhat eclipsed,
however, by all the negative drama surrounding the Murder Inc. camp at
the time (i.e., the FBI investigation and the G-Unit feuding).
A Christmas album followed late that year, and Concrete Rose appeared in
December 2004. Though she remained with The Inc. for 2008's The
Declaration, she sought out a number of producers outside the label's
in-house team.
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With
hitmaker Irv Gotti at the helm, Ashanti blasted into the
urban music scene in 2002, topping the charts with multiple singles at
once.
