Ashanti Teams Up With Busta Rhymes for First Single and Launches New Record Label

December 16th, 2011 | By

Ashanti’s been out of the game for a minute and word has it that she is ready to reclaim her presence in the industry. The R&B princess has reached out to Busta Rhymes and Jerry Wonder (a producer), to help get her career back on track. She is starting a record label called Written Entertainment, which she used to drop her newest single “The Woman You Love”. It is being marketed and distributed by eOne Music.

The singer was previously with Murder Inc., but she was released from the label in 2009 after turmoil arose after Irv Gotti’s money laundering trial. Back then, she was a sensation, reaching the top of the music charts with tracks like “Foolish” and “Baby”. Her debut album sold 504,000 copies within the first week.

“I’m so excited to have my own record label, Written Entertainment. With eOne as my distributor, I feel that their innovative and ambitious approach to the music industry, really gives my label a worldwide presence,” Ashanti told AllHipHop.com. “They have the top radio people in the business and are hungry to win! The more I learned the business the more I knew this is what I wanted. Ownership is so important. As a business woman this was a great move for me!”

Looks like Ashanti is ready to get on the business side of the music industry – hopefully she is able to prove her business smarts and keep her music sounding great at the same time.

“eOne is proud to have a partnership with Ashanti and her label Written Entertainment,” eOne’s President Alan Grunblatt said. “Ashanti truly has the independent entrepreneurial attitude that eOne was built on, and we’re thrilled to be working with her.”

Ashanti’s Stalker, Devar Hurd, Goes to Prison

December 25th, 2009 | By

Starting in May, Devar Hurd, a 31 year old man from Indiana, started sending celebrity Ashanti and her mother Tina Douglas crude text messages and x-rates photos. He sent over 30 texts to the two, exposing himself and making graphic comments — supposedly, he was doing this to win Ashanti over (what a way to do so). He claimed that women liked sexting (sexual texting) and that Ashanti never asked him to stop and that many of his female friends enjoy it. Ashanti only cussed at him one time, he says.

He is a wanna-be hip hop singer/rapper and was given Tina Douglas’ number (who is also a Ashanti’s manager) by Irv Gotti, after he got in touch with them and sang for them. Back in 2003, Devar went to Chicago concert and saw Ashanti there — they made eye contact and from that point he “had to meet her”. He began sending text images of his genitals and him pleasuring himself while watching one of her concert videos. Devar even went as far as to send naked girl pictures to Ashanti’s father. His main defense in court is that Ashanti never protested against receiving the texts from him. So basically, she welcomed the texts he claims. Devar says that Tina hardly resisted his calls to her. He sang for her and asked if she liked him.

Well, the jury wasn’t buying any of this — and who would? He was convicted of aggravated harassment and is set to serve up to 2 years in prison. He is has been locked up at the Riker’s Island prison since July.

Nelly and Ashanti Break-up

August 23rd, 2009 | By

After three years of secret dating, Ashanti and Nelly are rumored to have broken up. Neither of the two have confirmed or denied the rumor. The N.Y. Daily News reports that the two allegedly broke up because of a disagreement about their future. Supposedly, pop princess Ashanti was ready to settle down (of course) and hip hop rapper Nelly still wanted to play the field a bit longer. There have also been reports that Nelly was hanging around model-actress Melyssa Ford in Miami and spending time with Melody Thornton, lead singer of the Pussycat Dolls, in Las Vegas. So there is speculation that the two women could have played a role in the breakup.

Rumors of Ashanti and Nelly dating began in 2003 and wasn’t confirmed until 2008. The two have been dating on the low for three years and when Nelly came out to confirm that they were dating, he stated that they were in a “serious” relationship. I don’t know about everyone else, but it seems like he used the wrong word to describe their relationship. After all, serious in today’s world means there’s a marriage in the future. There was supposed talk about an engagement and wedding some time ago…wonder what happened. Well within the next couple of days or weeks, we may get a confirmation and, if we’re lucky, an explanation about the breakup.

Other breakups that have been reported are Omarion and Young Money Records and Kim Kardashian and Reggie Bush. More to come on those topics.