“Ashanti should be ashamed of herself. Her participation in the glorification of violence in her music video sends a horrible message to thousands of impressionable youths worldwide who are accessing the unedited video that is being promoted by Universal Music/Motown on their website.”

Paul Porter, co-founder of Industry Ears, writes:

“Universal Music and Motown continue to promote black violence and stereotypes without corporate responsibility. Ashanti’s senseless promotion is evidence that commercial hip hop is dying. Instead of producing and promoting a quality project, Ashanti and Universal have decided to deliver another typical ho hum project that the corporate blue suits have signed off on. Weak sales projections of less then 75k for first week sales have prompted this mess. Even BET had to edit some of Ashanti’s video content. Hopefully Doug Morris at Universal will explain why his company is insensitive to urban violence.”

Ashanti:The Declaration (Universal Motown)(2 out of 4)
The idea here is that for her fourth disc R&B singer Ashanti has thrown off the shackles of her mentor Irv Gotti and The Inc.’s in-house production team in favour of hitmakers such as Babyface, Jermaine Dupri and Rodney Jerkins. But this album still doesn’t justify the 27-year-old New York native’s million-selling career. Her vocals are pleasant, but distinctive for only that they lack – Beyoncé’s power, Rihanna’s novelty, Keyshia Cole’s sass.
Halfway through the disc she morphs into Janet Jackson, cooing Prince-like eroticisms on “Girlfriend” and “Things You Make Me Do.”
There are only two songs worth downloading: “Body On Me” which features Nelly and Akon, reinforcing the notion that Ashanti succeeds best as a hook singer who came to fore on duets with Fat Joe and Ja Rule; and the bouncy, attitude-laden Dupri-produced “Good Good” which contains elements of Michael Jackson’s “The Girl Is Mine” and should’ve been the lead single