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[Vonc2002]

yea Shan has you guys shaking in your uggs

!!!!!!!!!!!
Can't speak for everyone else but the thought of an impending Ashanti vocal has me terrified

[🦚]

Looking forward to more iconic dance moves...like that rub the coochie across the floor dance. 

[Eternal Bell]

yea Shan has you guys shaking in your uggs

!!!!!!!!!!!
Can't speak for everyone else but the thought of an impending Ashanti vocal has me terrified

[Eternal Bell]

shans dnt fckin age

[leftout]

ccccccxxxxxxcxxccccvvvcvvvvc;

the cooch crouch is legend

[Lazarus]

ASHANTI'S NEW MUSIC IS GOING TO SOUND SO DIFFERENT?BUT JA RULE APPROVES
"I would have never thought back when I was 19 that I would be in Berlin, Germany performing and having girls cry about how these records touched them," Ashanti says earnestly. Fifteen years after dropping her eponymous debut album?which earned her a Grammy for Best Contemporary R&B Album and a Guinness World Record as the fastest selling debut female artist?the success is still hitting the R&B queen, and she's still "very, very grateful."

Now, at 36, the artist is working on her sixth album with a new single "Lose Yourself" and promising to release it "very soon." She reunited with frequent collaborator Ja Rule for a track on The Hamilton Mixtape that channels "Always on Time" for 2017, and the duo just finished a joint tour last summer. She's not giving up her onscreen appearances either, with a recent cameo in Crashed, a new go90 series where celebrities surprise their fans. She also has a hand in the music for All Eyez on Me, the highly-anticipated 2pac biopic.

During a brief but much-needed break on her recent European tour, the singer opened up to BAZAAR.com, looking back at her beginnings and teasing the projects coming in the near future.

On her debut album, Ashanti, turning 15 years old:

"It's crazy. It's an awesome feeling to know through it all?all my trials and tribulations, the obstacles, and the ups and the downs, the growing pains of the music industry?to still be here and being on tour and having people scream out your records and crying and standing on line and doing meet and greets and buying your T-shirt... it's an incredible, humbling feeling. I'm super blessed to have an amazing team with my momager, my attorney?a team of people that I've known since I was 14. It's really a blessing."

On how that album helped shape her career:

"I think it definitely set the tone for who I am and what music resonates with females?and males too. My album as a debut artist is still in the Guinness Book of World Records. It's an amazing feeling. It gave me the ability to grow and become more and more vulnerable as each album came out. It's funny because last night I was in Berlin and there were so many females that were like, 'This record saved my life,' and 'I've been following you since I was six' or 'since I was nine.' To see how records really penetrate, it's such a filling feeling. Like, I don't even know this person and to be able to perform a record that touches them like that is really cool. I would have never thought back when I was 19 that I would be in Berlin, Germany performing and having girls cry about how these records touched them."

On singing for The Hamilton Mixtape:

"It was so cool! People asked, 'How did you get involved?' and I put up a clip of an interview Lin-Manuel Miranda did with Conan. He was just like, 'I was so inspired by Ashanti and Ja Rule and when I wrote this I had them in my head and them performing this would be awesome.' I was just like, 'Oh my gosh, so cool!' So when we met him and went back stage?the show obviously is phenomenal?I didn't know what to expect. I didn't know if it was going to be borderline corny 'cause I was like, 'They're rhyming?' But it was so awesome. He's so brilliant at how he put it together. When Lin reached out to us and told us that we inspired that, I was super humbled. He came to the studio to listen to the record and he was just like, 'Oh my gosh, this is crazy.' It was just a really, really good feeling because the project is so amazing on it's own.

The one thing I thought was over the top was Lin in London and we had just done the launch. It was something that we streamed [and] Lin was in tears when he was watching me and Ja perform. He was just so excited and so happy. So that made me and Ja feel amazing."

On reuniting with Ja Rule for "Helpless":

"It was great, it was like old times. We recorded with one session in NY and one session in LA. At at first we were fighting about who was going to go first. He was like, 'No you're going to take longer than me, let me go first' and I was like, 'No, you wait, you got to stay as long as I do,' and he was like, 'No, I'm out!' He ended up going first because his part was a lot quicker and easier."

On her musical relationship with Ja Rule:

"I think that we have a very unique relationship. I think it's the fact that we are extremely genuine and our chemistry is so authentic. It's real, it's always been since day one. It just happens. We get on stage together and sometimes if we don't see each other for a few months or a few years or whatever it is, we get back onstage and it feels like we've been hanging out all day. It's been like that from the first time we ever worked together. It's weird because it's always been like that.

We've gotten so much closer after what happened with Ja. [Editor's note: the rapper was sentenced to a two-year prison sentence in 2011 for a gun-related charge. He was released in 2013.] When he went, we had a three-hour conversation and I wrote him while he was in and sent cards and all of that. And when he came out, it was like we became way more close than we were. We were over in Australia together. We were going to these other shows and the zoo?crazy stuff together as a family. He's really like my brother. It's great to really care about and love someone that you work with and made history with. I bounce ideas off of him and he does the same. It's great to see people that love us individually and they love us together."

On her new single, "Lose Yourself":

"My new single will be coming out very, very soon. I'm trying to get the video shot as soon as I get back. The song is incredible. I played it in one of the venues during soundcheck out here and the whole venue was like, 'Holy sh*t, is that Ashanti's new record?! No way!' I'm just really excited about it. And obviously, being able to release my single on my own record label, called Written Entertainment, and having done everything independently, is such an awesome feeling. I'm stoked about that."

On her new sound:

"This new song is completely different. Let's just say, with me and Ja knowing each other for over 15 years, when I played him the record, he was like, 'Who's that? Yo thats you?' He made me start the record over! He was like, 'Oh my gosh, you gotta put that out tonight.' It's safe to say that it's very different and so dope. It's really a nice change. It's current, it's urgent. When you do put the two together, you're like, 'Damn it does sound like Ashanti, but something new, something 2017."

On whether she'll be trying any acting roles any time soon:

"We are simultaneously working on projects?television and film?doing some things behind the scenes. I just want to expand my palette. I've been fortunate to touch on so many different areas, so I feel like I want to push further inti that. There are a couple of things we've been talking about, just trying to balance everything and strategically line things up when the record drops. Hopefully everything pans out."

On working on the upcoming Tupac Shakur biopic:

"I'm also going to be working a little bit on the music side for the All Eyez on Me project with Benny Boom and L.T. Hutton. I'm excited about that. I think it's coming on the 16th of June. I saw it and it is phenomenal. It is amazing. It's one of the best biopics that I've ever seen."

On how social media helps her keep a close relationship with her fans, some of whom have been devoted since 2002:

"The world of social media is a good thing as long as you know how to use it. I'm on Snapchat, Instagram, Instagram Live, Twitter and all that stuff, so I keep it very personable with my fans. I reach out for meet-and-greets and I snap and I talk and I do the live streams because nowadays, if people are going to invest in you and support you, they want to know about you. They want to know about what's going on, they want to know why they're going to spend money and time and invest in you if they don't know you. It's important to be yourself and show them who you are. Not all the time, not everything, but a good amount."

On her Crashed cameo:

"I love the concept. To be able to do something different and to reach out to a fan, someone that admires you, and do something positive in their life and give them motivation is always a good thing."

Full interview.

[Marilyn]

Ashanti always looked good.

[Brit Brat]

BOOOOOOOOK!!!!!

[Real]

She's been done for over 10 years. Why won't she go away

[Marilyn]

Why are yall going in like this

[Vonc2002]

I heard a snippet of her new song somewhere and i didn't get "different"
Lemme go see if i can find it

[Eternal Bell]

She's been done for over 10 years. Why won't she go away

how bout i make u go 'way

[Eternal Bell]

4 pages fulla fumes!


u niggers a never get ridda queens

[FlowerBomb]

Jjjjjjijjj Ashanti is So sweet
She doesn't give the gorls hell

[Real]

Bad Trans Tink', can it