I got this jones forming in my bones (Ashanti - Ashanti)

Member Name: aylawarner

Product:	Ashanti - Ashanti
Date:	19/08/09 (82 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Beautiful R&B singer with a great voice and some brilliant songs

Disadvantages: Where's she gone??

Ashanti Shequoiya Douglas is an American singer who has also dabbled in song writing, record producing, acting, dancing and modelling. She is a very pretty and sexy girl and looks very at home in the US R&B scene. However, she also appears very cute and friendly and always has a sweet smile on her face which makes her stand out from and be more likeable than other female R&B artists, such as Miss Dynamite and Mary J. Blige, who appear more arrogant and show-offy. She was first noticed by Irv Gotti from Murder Inc. records (the label company for this album) in 2000 and she began out by writing songs and featuring as the background vocalist on other artists' songs including Ja Rule, Fat Joe and Jennifer Lopez.

Following the success of the tracks she had featured in, Ashanti released this self-titled debut album in April 2002. For the first time, Ashanti sings solo with the majority of the songs being written by herself. The album received five Grammy nominations including Best New Artist, Best Contemporary R&B Album, Best Rap/Sung Collaboration and Best R&B Female Vocal Performance and she managed to receive a massive 22 awards for it. It contains many huge singles from the star including the most popular, Foolish, which received number 1 status in the US charts as well as in many other countries all over the world, number 1 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop songs chart and lasted for 10 weeks at number 1 on Billboard Hot 100. Her other more popular songs on the album include Happy and Baby which came in a numbers 8 and 15 respectively on Billboard Hot 100.

The main focus and style of the music is R&B, however some pop and hip-hop is thrown in which makes the songs more likeable to those who aren't too keen on the heavy R&B beat and rapping. Her voice matches perfectly with her cute persona and is sweet, gentle and girly and she has a very soft and melodic voice. Every song on the album, even if they did not come out as a separate single, are all very catchy tunes and all are thoroughly enjoyable to listen to. There is a mixture of slow beats and faster beats on here and a few of the songs include easy rapping lyrics from the likes of Ja Rule.

~ Song list ~

1. Intro
2. Foolish
3. Happy
4. Leaving (Always On Time Part II) (feat. Ja Rule)
5. Narrative Call (Skit)
6. Call
7. Scared (feat. Irv Gotti)
8. Rescue
9. Baby
10. VooDoo
11. Movies
12. Fight (Over Skit)
13. Over
14. Unfoolish (feat. Notorious B.I.G)
15. Shi Shi (Skit)
16. Dreams
17. Thank you

Parental advisory - many songs do contain swearing and sexual innuendos.

Although Ashanti is not as well-known now as she was in the early 2000s, at her peak she was one of the top R&B female singers and every teenager and young adult would have known her songs. I happened to be one of these teenagers when she shot to fame and she was by far one of my favourite singers of the time. I'm not the sort of person who buys many albums but this one was a must for me and I remember listening to it repeatedly and it never got boring. Now, she is one of those artists whose songs are classics as, for me, they are something to remember from my teenage years, and I still love every single song from her most popular album whenever I hear one.

Summary: You're like the blood flowing through my vein