Ashanti has an A.M. booty call on her mind with her new single, “Early In The Morning,” and she tells us all about the “sexy vibe,” the video featuring French Montana will have. “It”s about how sometimes you wake up in that morning and you have that mmmm on your mind,” she coyly says. The track is from her recently released set, “Braveheart,” her first album on her own label.
The singer was in town for the BET Awards and had a few thoughts on Nicki Minaj”s alleged take down of Iggy Azalea in her acceptance speech: Ashanti felt was fairly typical hip hop behavior. “It”s tough in hip hop, but for females, you have to have a little bit of swag. You have to have that, I don”t want to say, ‘rivalry.””
Azalea just matched Ashanti”s 12-year record for being the only female to have the No. 1 and No. 2 spots on the Billboard Hot 100 for multiple weeks. She praises Azalea”s success, but jokes, “Hey, I did it first!
She has plenty of other activity on her plate. She is part of First Lady Michelle Obama”s “Let”s Move” campaign, an effort to fight childhood obesity. She contributed a new song, “Just Believe,” to the cause and serves as a spokeswoman.
Ashanti is also still on board to write the music for John Singleton”s Tupac biopic. “It”s still very early in the development stage,” she says. “They have to move forward to casting and music comes further into it.”
While that happens, she heads back to New York to start filming “Stuck,” with Amy Madigan, a movie that takes place in a subway car in New York City. “It”s a very relatable character. Kind of different for me,” says Ashanti, who has also appeared in such films as “The Muppets” Wizard of Oz” and “John Tucker Must Die.” “Some of the stereotypes she had in her head were able to be changed.”