In 2002, there were a lot of female artists out that either released a single or/and an album.
Brandy released Full Moon a month prior to Ashanti's debut. Tweet released her album. Amerie released an album in the summer of 2002. Kelly had Dilemma. Initally, Monica and Beyonce was set to release in 2002. However Monica single All Eyes On Me flopped and her album was scrapped/released in another territory. Work It Out was intended to be Beyonce's debut single but it didn't go nowhere and she also planned to release Naughty Girl as the first single but went back into studio to record more after the success of Kelly's single with Nelly.