Ashanti shocked fans when she first mentioned some of the things she had gone through on her journey to stardom. In particular, she dealt with at least two cases of harassment from people she worked with.
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One incident involving a producer that Madame Noire reports she has never called out by name was brought back into the spotlight when she recalled what happened.
Just how out of line was this producer and what happened to Ashanti? Here’s what she has revealed so far.
A Producer Tried To Coerce Her
When Ashanti sought help from an unnamed producer, he initially assured her that he’d work on her records for free. This ended up being a bait and switch once they had finished the two records they had been working on.
According to Rolling Stone, Ashanti described his inappropriate demands as follows: “We did two records together, he was like, ‘Okay, I’m not gonna charge you, you know you my homie.’
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When it came time to put it on the album, he was like, ‘Well, let’s take a shower together.’ I thought he was joking, and then he was like, ‘Nah, I’m dead serious. Let’s go out, or let’s take a shower together, and I’ll give you the records. If not, I need 40 racks per record.’ “
Obviously, Ashanti wasn’t having any of that and, thankfully, she got out of there without anything else happening. When pressed on her feelings about the incident, she told Rolling Stone: “It felt disrespectful, obviously. […] It’s really creepy, it’s really, really sad.”
Ashanti Fought Back
Instead of this story ending abruptly or going someplace dark, what happened next was surprisingly positive for Ashanti. She had called up some of her friends and family members to confront the shameless producer who was holding her records hostage.
As an apology, they didn’t charge her for anything and threw in another record too. According to Rolling Stone, she had this to say about how things played out: “The way that apology came in, I actually got three records for free. And I got two of them mixed and mastered for free also.”
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When Ashanti chose to bring this story back into the spotlight, she had good reason to. Her point was to help other women in the industry and raise awareness of harassment issues in society.
Yahoo reported her saying: “Unfortunately, these things definitely happen. […] At some point, you just have to speak up. And that’s what I did.”
Her account of this crazy incident has certainly helped people recognize the issues many other women in the industry have faced.
Ashanti told Rolling Stone: “I’ve been through a lot of interviews – and sometimes I speak, but most of the time I don’t. I feel like at this point, at 20 years being in, and where we are in social media and what we’re doing to progressively grow in this industry, I feel like just for a woman I had to come out and just say my peace.”
