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Early Life

Ashanti Shequoyia Douglas was born October 13th, 1980 in Glen Cove, New York, United States. She was born into a family of performers with her father, Ken-Kaide, working as a singer and her mother, Tina, a dance instructor. At the age of six Ashanti received dance lessons and sang with her local church choir. Ashanti also attended Bernice Johnson Cultural Arts Center, where she was taut many different dance styles, including tap, jazz, ballet, African, modern, and hip hop. At school Ashanti was involved in many activities including English and Drama club, appearing in plays, playing baseball, soccer, and badminton and cheerleading. She was also a member of the track and field team specialising in the100 and 200 meter dash as well as the triple jump for which she was later considered for Olympic selection. Throughout her teens her mother would send homemade demo tapes out in the hope her daughter could succeed as a singer. While Ashanti was still at school she was invited to a audition at P.Diddy's Bad Boy Records. Although Diddy was impressed by her performance they could not agree a contract and she signed her first record deal with Jive Records in 1994.

Ashanti got her big break in 2001 when she was noticed by prominent producer Irv Gotti. He signed her to his The Inc.(Formerly Murder Inc.) record label which led to a successful appearance on backing vocals for Ja Rule and Jennifer Lopez‘s "I'm Real". Following this success Ashanti's self-titled debut album, Ashanti, was released in April 2002. It debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 albums chart, and stayed there for three weeks, selling over 500,000 copies in its first week. The album has been certified 4x platinum in the U.S, platinum (300,000 copies) in the UK, and has sold over five million copies worldwide. The album also won Best Contemporary R&B Album at the 2003 Grammy Awards and produced her debut single "Foolish" spent ten weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 from 20 April 2002.

In July 2003, Ashanti released her second album, Chapter II, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with first week sales of 325000 copies in the U.S.. The album remained at number one for two weeks. The album went 2x Platinum in the United Sates, and over three million worldwide. The album spawned two Billboard Hot 100 top ten singles "Rock wit U (Awww Baby)", which reached number two and "Rain on Me" which peaked at number seven.

In December 2004 Ashanti released her third album Concrete Rose which debuted at number seven on the Billboard 200. Although selling over 254,000 copies in its first week of release the album failed to reach number one becoming her first album to miss out on the top spot. The album was certified Platinum by the RIAA, but only sold 871,000 copies in the U.S. The first single from the album, "Only U", did well, peaking just outside the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 (number thirteen), while the follow-up singles "Don't Leave Me Alone" and "Don't Let Them" failed to chart. Ashanti’s fourth studio album, The Declaration, was released in June 2008. The album debuted at number six on the Billboard 200.

2002 Ashanti

2003 7 Series Sampler (EP)

2003 Chapter II

2003 Ashanti's Christmas

2004 Concrete Rose

2004 Can't Stop (Early Recordings)

2005 Collectables by Ashanti

2008 The Declaration

2008 The Vault

2002 "Foolish"

2002 "Happy"

2002 "Baby"

2003 "Rock wit U" (Awww Baby)

2003 "Rain on Me"

2003 "Breakup 2 Makeup" (Remix)

2004 "Wonderful" (Ja Rule featuring R. Kelly and Ashanti)

2004 "Only U"

2005 "Don't Let Them"

2005 "Still on It" (featuring Paul Wall and Method Man)

2008 "The Way That I Love You"

2008 "Body On Me" (with Nelly feat. Akon)

2008 "Good Good"

• Ashanti cites Mary J. Blige, Ella Fitzgerald, Yolanda Adams, the Clark Sisters, and Blue Magic as her musical influences.
• Her uncle, Laranzo Landford, was the mayor of Atlantic City, New Jersey.
• Her parents named her after the Empire of Ashanti in Ghana.
• In January 2005, she made her feature film acting debut in the film Coach Carter alongside Samuel L. Jackson.
• She was named #13 on the Maxim magazine Hot 100 of 2005 list.
• In 2005 she released her own fragrance line called "Precious Jewel".

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