Ashanti's big break, however, did not come until early 2002, when, almost simultaneously, Ja Rule released "Always On Time" and Fat Joe released "What's Luv?". They were two of the biggest pop and urban hits of the year, and both featured Ashanti. At one point, her hit with Ja Rule sat at #1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 singles chart while her Fat Joe collaboration was at #2. She was the first female to ocuppy the top 2 positions on the Billboard 100 as a featured female artist.
Shortly after the success of her collaborations, Ashanti released her self-titled debut album, Ashanti, on Irv Gotti's Murder Inc. record label in 2002. The album debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 album chart and is Ashanti's most successful album to date. Her debut single, "Foolish", contained a sample of the 1983 song "Stay With Me" by DeBarge (also utilized by The Notorious B.I.G. in his 1995 #2 hit "One More Chance"). The song entered the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 in March while her two collaborations were still there, making Ashanti the only artist, other than The Beatles, to have their first three chart entries in the top 10 simultaneously. "Foolish" also became 2002's biggest hit according to Billboard, spending ten weeks at #1, due in part to a remix titled "Unfoolish", which featured a rap by The Notorious B.I.G. and received heavy urban radio airplay. Ashanti's follow-up singles, "Happy" and "Baby", although not as huge as "Foolish" reached the top 10 and top 20 respectively. During the summer of 2002, Ashanti also appeared on a Ja Rule's "Down 4 U," along with labelmates, female rappers Vita and Charli Baltimore. The song appeared on a Murder Inc compilation titled Irv Gotti Presents The Inc.
In early 2003, Ja Rule and Ashanti teamed up again and scored a massive pop hit with "Mesmerize", the music video for which parodied the plot of the movie Grease. 50 Cent would later mock Ja Rule as being soft and "not a true gangsta", citing the "Mesmerize" video and its pop-culture appeal as an example. Ashanti was not spared from 50 Cent's criticism of the entire Murder Inc. family. ...more
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