Ashanti saw these formative failures as preparation for the boot camp that was Murder, Inc., where Gotti would pit his artists against each other for beats and recognition, like a rap version of ROTC. Whoever wrote the hottest lyrics had to claim the beat. At one point, Ashanti recorded a reference track for Jennifer Lopez's “I'm Real” remix, which was written by Ja. (In an epic understatement, Sony Music head Tommy Mottola apparently commissioned Gotti to make a hit song for J. Lo to keep Mottola's ex-wife Mariah Carey out of the No. 1 spot. ) Unbeknownst to Ashanti, Gotti kept the background vocals in the final mix of the song, fueling the infamous myth that Lopez had tried to pass off Ashanti's voice as her own. Ashanti co-wrote another J. Lo record, “Ain't It Funny (Remix),” and lobbied to keep the song to herself. She might have stuck as a cameo queen while her work helped legitimize J. Lo's “Jenny from the Block” persona, but those records quietly set the stage for Ashanti's string of hits.
However, it wasn't until Ashanti delivered another chart-topper and Gotti fully committed to signing her to Murder, Inc. Her breakthrough solo single, “Foolish,” was a plotless soap opera, a gripping tale of self-destruction for yearning for the comfort of a bad relationship. Gotti essentially took the HOV lane to the top of the charts, using a loop from producer 7 Aurelius that was originally created for Brandy and featured the same DeBarge sample as Notorious BIG's hit “One More Chance.” While this fusion of old and new sounds effortless on “Foolish,” the execution is awkward throughout Ashanti's debut. Her intro mixes clips from her stellar collaborations into an EPK-like mix with a raspy male voice announcing, “And now, for our featured presentation…”
Despite a sometimes seductive sense of ease and simplicity, the album's cuts never quite match the grandeur and status of her debut single. “Foolish” bleeds into its counterpart, “Happy,” a sparse, sunny ode to Ashanti discovering the love she's been searching for her entire teenage life, with airy flutes that sound like she's kicking her feet in a swing. In “Leaving (Always On Time Part II),” the sequel to her and Ja's hit, he reprises his role as the betrayed lover trying to reconcile. “Call” finds Ashanti restating the sentiment a third time: “When you call, I'll be right there,” a clumsy attempt to squeeze the last bit of juice out of an idea.
Gotti's blatant attempt to brand Ashanti as Blige's heir apparent plagues tracks like “Scared” and “Rescue.” The former is a somber groove where his voice lurks in the background like a devil on the shoulder while Ashanti discusses leaving a tumultuous relationship. The final track repurposes the creeping keys from “Leaving” into a somber plea for escape. Gotti reappears as a bruised ex in a follow-up skit, leading into the moody 'Over', which follows all the thoughts from the previous songs to their logical conclusion. On “Baby,” Ashanti drops her voice into a haunting lower register, a luscious tone that cuts through the album's vague narratives. Gotti unashamedly rips off the precise beat and melody of “Mary, Mary, Mary…” from Scarface's 1997 single “Mary Jane,” laced over the keys of producer 7 Aurelius and Chink Santana to create an operatic ballad about with the puff in a love jones. Recalling his own smart move in the 2022 BET documentary Murder Inc., Gotti says with a smile, “Not only did we get the beat, but I had Ashanti get the Scarface flow.”
