Ashanti noticed these formative setbacks as preparation for the boot camp that was Homicide, Inc., the place Gotti would have his artists battle one another for beats and recognition, like a rap model of ROTC. Whoever wrote the most well liked lyrics received to say the beat. At one level, Ashanti recorded a reference observe for Jennifer Lopez’s “I’m Actual” remix, written by Ja. (In an epically petty transfer, Sony Music’s head, Tommy Mottola, had apparently tasked Gotti with crafting a success tune for J. Lo to maintain Mottola’s ex-wife, Mariah Carey, from the No. 1 spot.) Unbeknownst to Ashanti, Gotti stored her background vocals within the tune’s ultimate combine, fueling the notorious delusion that Lopez had tried to cross Ashanti’s voice off as her personal. Ashanti co-wrote one other J. Lo report, “Ain’t It Humorous (Remix)” and lobbied to maintain the tune for herself. She may’ve been caught stunting as a cameo queen whereas her work helped legitimize J. Lo’s “Jenny from the Block” persona, however these information quietly set the stage for Ashanti’s string of hits.
Nonetheless, it wasn’t till Ashanti delivered one other chart-topper that Gotti totally dedicated to signing her to Homicide, Inc. Her breakthrough solo single, “Silly,” was a cleaning soap opera and not using a plot, an engrossing story of self-destruction about craving the consolation of a nasty relationship. Gotti successfully took the HOV lane to the highest of the charts, utilizing a loop from producer 7 Aurelius that was initially created for Brandy and featured the identical DeBarge pattern because the Infamous B.I.G.’s hit “One Extra Likelihood.” Whereas this fusion of previous and new sounds easy on “Silly,” the execution is clunky all through Ashanti’s debut. Her intro blends snippets of her star collabs into an EPK-like medley with a screwed male voice asserting, “And now, for our featured presentation…”
Regardless of their typically fascinating sense of ease and ease, the album cuts by no means fairly match the pomp and circumstance of her debut single. “Silly” bleeds into its counterpart, “Glad,” a sparse, sunlit ode to Ashanti discovering the love she’d been trying to find all her teenage life, with ethereal flutes that sound like she’s kicking her toes up on a swing. On “Leaving (At all times On Time Half II),” the sequel to her and Ja’s breakout hit, he reprises his position because the dishonest lover trying reconciliation. “Name” finds Ashanti rephrasing the sentiment a 3rd time: “Once you name, I’ll be proper there,” a slipshod try and squeeze the final little bit of juice from a single concept.
Gotti’s blatant try and model Ashanti as Blige’s inheritor obvious plagues tracks like “Scared” and “Rescue.” The previous is a dismal groove the place his voice lurks within the background like a satan on the shoulder whereas Ashanti debates letting go of a tumultuous relationship. The latter observe repurposes the creeping keys from “Leaving” into a dismal plea for escape. Gotti reappears as a bruised ex in a subsequent skit, main into the moody breakup report “Over,” which follows all of the back-and-forth contemplations from the earlier songs to its logical conclusion. On “Child,” Ashanti drops her voice to a compelling decrease register, a craving tone that cuts by the album’s imprecise narratives. Gotti shamelessly ripped the precise rhythm and “Mary, Mary, Mary…” melody from Scarface’s 1997 single “Mary Jane,” laced over producers 7 Aurelius and Chink Santana’s keys to create an operatic ballad about being sucked right into a love jones. In recalling his personal ingenious transfer in BET’s 2022 Homicide Inc. documentary, Gotti says with a smirk: “Not solely did we take the beat, I had Ashanti take Scarface’s circulate.”
