what happened to ashanti (awww baby!!)....

it was almost four years ago that we first heard the voice of ashanti. fresh faced and full of spunk, she graced us with the woman's anthem of heartbroken love, foolish. her first, self-titled cd, ashanti sold over 500,000 copies its first week, and went on to rack up 4 million sales. she was the princess of hip-hop soul (i don't care what you say, y'all was rocking her cd no matter how many times she hit the wrong note). it was like 2002 was the year of ashanti....

...then a little birdie named beyonce came with a little cd called dangerously in love, and we all somehow forgot about ashanti. her second cd, chapter ii, though it had rock wit u (aww baby) and rain on me (still my favorite), it didn't do as well. and her next album, concrete rose, fell with a hard thud; hardly anybody bought it...well, except me.

now i'll be the first to admit that ashanti is not the best sounding female voice out there. she ain't no mariah...or mary...or monica...or keisha cole...or toni braxton...okay, i should stop while i'm ahead.

but one thing she did have was a passionate voice, and she was confident. even after people petitioned for her not to win the lady of soul entertainer of the year award in 2002, she took the criticism with grace, and kept on steppin. even when she got dissed for her sideburns, she didn't let it bother her. even when murder, inc. took some hard hits (thanks to the hilarious ja rule vs. 50 cent beef), she stuck by her label.

and where did it get her? making a damn remix album, ie. collectables by ashanti. i haven't rushed out to buy it yet, and i don't know if i will. i was hoping for a greatest hits, but this ain't it. i'll give it to her, though; i do love still on it. the beat is sick.

my money's on mary right now. her new cd, the breakthrough, comes out tuesday. mary's lookin the best she's ever looked in a while, and i'm loving be without you, the greatest single i've heard from her since my life and missing you. but mary had her fall-off days too, like ashanti. anybody remember her last album love & life? i do, but after the jammin first single, love at first sight, everybody turned blind to the rest of her cd. i don't even remember if there was second single released.

and if ever there was a poster child for fall-offs, mariah carey would be crowned america's next top model. after sinking to the depths of despair with glitter, she redeemed herself with the emancipation of mimi. (but i still love the glitter cd. stop hating!) she rode her comeback to success and has deservedly grabbed enough award nominations to choke a horse. but i'm proud of her though. people said she was knocked down for the count, and she managed to prove everybody wrong.

other fall-off mentionables: toni braxton. now, i love me some toni. she's classy and got that deep voice that'll probably make you cum if she sang in your ear. but i don't know what was going on with homegirl on libra. my friend butta played it for me one night and i was not impressed. toni has a great voice, but damn if i could make out a word she says. take for instance her last single, breathe (oops, i meant, please). i like the beat, i like her smooth vocals, but if you asked me what the hell the song was about, i damn sure couldn't tell you. her breathy voice is nice, but she sings with the enunciation of a garbage disposal. and take this ring, (or should i say, 1 thing) was the last straw. maybe if it had come out before amerie's chart-topping single, toni could have had a hit on her hands. now it's like she's picking up the leftovers from people who are trying to take her throne. i don't know what the solution for toni is, but i hope she finds it. maybe she needs to hook up with jermaine dupri...look what he did for mariah.

faith evans tried with the first lady. my anthem is again, even though i can't relate to the "catching a case" part. we saw faith get slimmer, but then we discovered it wasn't kanye's work-out plan that made her so small, more like the whitney houston diet (take five hits a day, berate your husband, and you too could look like me!). but i did love her cd. i don't know how well everyone else did, though. she has a christmas cd out now, a faithful christmas (okay, when is she gonna stop with the endless use of her name in album titles?); go cop it so she can give her kids a good xmas.

who else has fallen off? j-lo of course, but i never really cared for her in the first place. she can't sing worth a damn, but i really had to put my foot down when she sampled shirley murdock's as we lay for that horrid hold u down. how could shirley sink so low? damn, i know times are hard, but selling your sample to j-ho, a classic r&b slow jam (okay, forget it's about sleeping with a married man)? not acceptable.

other people i wonder about:
sunshine anderson: we had never heard it all before until she came. then she disappeared.
keke wyatt: there was nothing in this world she wanted to do but stab her husband. and she disappeared. i heard she's making a comeback, but i haven't heard anything yet.
blu cantrell: apparently hit em up style was her only hit. sad.
112: has anybody heard the current 112 single??
brian mcknight: what we do here stays in the store, too, huh?

falling off can be a hard thing to take, especially when you've been on top for a hot minute. i just know ashanti can find her way back. cause based on what i saw in beyonce's new video, check up on it, it's only a matter of time before jigga's girl falls off, too. hope she don't fall on her ass!!