Ashanti: hit singer returns with new CD 'Chapter II' and reveals: what she wants in a man how her family keeps her grounded the secret to her sexy look

Jet, August 11, 2003 by Allissa Hosten

"Awww, baby," Ashanti coos as she performs a private dance for a mahogany, corn-rowed suitor in her latest video Rock Wit U (Awww Baby). She swivels her hips in seductive figure-eight patterns, then drops low only to slink back up, rear-end first.

Could this bronze, svelte beauty be the same girl-next-door cutie who stole our hearts with the lovesick anthem Foolish only a year ago?

Judging by her unmistakable grin and golden pipes, it's the same Ashanti Douglas. Only this Ashanti is at a different chapter in her life--Chapter II to be exact.

"I definitely have learned a lot and grown a lot since the first album," Ashanti says.

With a new CD that has survived the Sophomore jinx by debuting at No. 1, it's no surprise the 22-year-old ingenue can say convincingly about her album release: "I wasn't nervous. I was more like, Wow, I can't wait for people to hear it!"'

In a recent telephone interview with JET, Ashanti revealed what she wants in a man, how her family keeps her grounded despite her overwhelming fame and how she maintains her sexy looks.

Like her debut self-titled album, Ashanti penned all the songs using real-life experiences as her muses.

She has a confession to make about one song called Breakup 2 Makeup though. "I didn't actually go through seeing him with another female, but you know, you know ...," she breaks off before she becomes tongue-tied. "You break up with him and it's a day later and you're like, I wonder what he's doing now. Let me call him.'" She laughs.

As for dating today, she admits,

"I'm not going to front. It's very hard to have a personal life in the industry."

But if a man could somehow infiltrate the throng of burly rappers and family members who perpetually surround her, Ashanti says that's the first step to winning her heart.

"It would all be in the way he approaches me," she says. "You know if he's like, Yo, ma, you know I want to talk to you. Let me give you my number if you want to call ... [but] don't be all up in my grill."

Another prerequisite: "He's got to be funny," she says. "He's got to make me laugh. [He has to be] someone with goals, ambition, a strong person, got to be family-oriented."

Ashanti's soft spot for family probably comes from strong ties to her own. Her mother accompanies her on the road as her "momager," while her father serves as road manager. The rest of the princess' clan packs into a trailer and drives to see her performances in New York.

"The most important thing is to have a family, and not just your blood family, but [at] Murder, Inc. [we're] like a family. We all help one another. We all have one another's back," she says.

Ashanti's dream team of a support system even includes her personal trainer, Pit, who helps her maintain her sexy shape.

"If I'm lazy and I don't feel like [exercising], he's banging on my door like, Yo, get up! Let's go! Let's go!" she says, imitating Pit with her best attempt at a Ja Rule-like growl.

Ashanti chuckles as she recalls the intense workouts she endured two months prior to the filming of Rock Wit U.

The regimen became less grueling after she gained the muscle tone she wanted.

Now, as Ashanti writhes sultrily in her latest video, gone is the teeny-bopper-hairbrush-in-hand feel of last year's Happy video.

"I've learned that I'm a lot stronger than I thought I was," she says. "I'm really going to just try to work hard."

Recalling the two failed record deals that left her unemployed in Atlanta at age 17, she says she once questioned whether music was where she belonged.

"It was very hard living in Atlanta because I was living on my own," she says. "I was paying my own bills, my own car and everything."

But things soon changed when Ashanti met Irv "Gotti" Lorenzo, the CEO of the Murder Inc. rap label.

Gotti, as she affectionately calls him, introduced Ashanti to the roughneck world of hip hop and R&B with an experimental formula. He matched Ja Rule's gravelly, guttural growls with her timid, tender timbre. The result was the stuff of legend. They teamed up hits such as Always on Time and What's Love, which also featured rapper Fat Joe.

Ashanti's self-titled debut album sold than half a million copies in the of sales--more than any female artist debut ever. That same week she also became the first female and only artist since the Beatles to have three singles in the top 10 on Billboard's Hot 100 Chart, at the same time. If those numbers still didn't convince the masses about Ashanti's staying power, Foolish was No. 1 for 10 weeks straight. Last year, she won eight Billboard Awards and two American Music Awards.

Ashanti divulges that regular church attendance helps her cope with her newfound fame and deal with critics who tried to label her as a one-hit wonder.

A worship service at her neighborhood church in Glen Cove, Long Island, recently struck a chord with her.

"In the Reverend's sermon, he [said] you have to use your enemies and your haters as your footstools," she says resolutely. "You use them to bring you closer to God, to pray for them because they're not right."