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That deal went nowhere, in part because Ashanti wanted to write her own songs, something the record company did not like. Once I found out she could sing, it was a wrap." Less than two years later Ashanti signed her first record contract with Jive Records. I put her in a couple of talent shows and she came in first place. Blige's 'Reminisce' and I'll never forget it. I was just singing.'" Her mother continued, telling MTV, "She sang Mary J. " comes storming down the steps: 'Didn't I tell you to turn the radio off?' I'm like, 'Yeah, that wasn't the radio. Twelve year old Ashanti obeyed and went to work, singing to herself. Her mother had told her to do some chores and turn off the radio. "Singing was kind of accidental," Ashanti told MTV. She performed in famed venues like Carnegie Hall and the Apollo Theater and danced in the Disney television film Polly.Īshanti seemed destined for a career in dance until it was discovered she could sing. "I did tap, jazz, modern, ballet, African, everything," she told Music & Media. We said, 'Dancing to the boogie woogie beats of the lyrics written by her dad.'" She studied dance at the Bernice Johnson Cultural Arts Center and began dancing at the age of three. "It had all kinds of musical notes on it, and it said that she was gonna be a dancer. "I couldn't find a birth announcement that was sufficient for the way I felt about my child, so I made my own up," Ashanti's mother told MTV. From the beginning her parents groomed Ashanti to follow in their footsteps. Both of her parents worked as computer specialists though their backgrounds were in entertain-ment -her mother, Tina, danced and her father, Kincaid, sang. She told MTV, "From the moment she was born … I just had the feeling she was gonna be a star."Īshanti Douglas was born on October 13, 1980, and grew up in Glen Cove, a neighborhood on Long Island, New York. It's never happened to me, where I thought we could do something and it went beyond my expectations." Her mother, Ashanti's self-described "momager," seemed to expect Ashanti's scorching success all along. Irv Gotti, CEO of Murder Inc., Ashanti's record label, and a man known as a visionary in the rap and hip-hop realms, told MTV of the debut, "I always say we can go beyond our expectations, but she went beyond my expectations. Within a week it had sold half a million copies -a record for first week sales by a female artist. Of this unprecedented success, she said in an online interview with the night before her album hit, "Oh my gosh, it feels crazy, and overwhelming! It's a blessing!" More blessings were soon to follow. Meanwhile, a song she wrote for another artist was sitting in the number three spot. Two of those songs went on to grab the number one and two spots, a feat no other woman in U.S. That week she had already become the first artist since The Beatles to have three songs in the Billboard top ten. April Fool's Day 2002 found R&B songstress Ashanti awaiting the midnight release of her self-titled debut album.