The daughter of a singer and a dance teacher and the grand-daughter of a civil
rights activist who campaigned with Martin Luther King, Ashanti seemed destined
for fame from an early age. As a child she had dance lessons and sang with the
local church choir and by the time she was in her early teens she was already
performing R&B in New York clubs. She sang backing vocals on records by a
variety of artists (including Big Pun, Vita, Ja Rule, Jennifer Lopez and Fat
Joe), and in 2002 she released her debut album Ashanti which she'd written
entirely herself; the album included the sma...