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Ashanti on Being The Queen of Verzuz, New Music and Upcoming Movie ‘Honey Girls’ | SWAY’S UNIVERSE
Oct 1, 2021
Ashanti on Sway In The Morning.
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0:00
tracy g tracy g you're there check with
0:02
me rock with me tracy yeah
0:04
i'm right here
0:05
let's go hb
0:07
all right citizens are swaying in the
0:09
morning now
0:10
some things we always try to make our
0:12
guests feel welcome here sway in the
0:14
morning you guys know that but some
0:16
folks
0:17
their history and their resumes are so
0:21
extensive and so unbelievable that we
0:23
have to give you some background to give
0:26
this person their proper flowers it's
0:28
not everything because we ain't even got
0:30
enough time in this four-hour show or
0:33
sway in the morning to list every single
0:36
accolade that this woman has but i'm
0:38
just going to give you a brief citizens
0:40
of swaying morning singer songwriter
0:42
record producer back in 2002
0:46
she released her debut album which sold
0:48
on over
0:49
505 000 copies throughout the us and i'm
0:52
talking about this is in the first week
0:55
of her release the album her earned her
0:57
many awards including eight billboard
1:00
awards two american music awards and the
1:03
grammy in 2003 for best contemporary r b
1:06
album the album has since been certified
1:09
as triple platinum in the us and then
1:11
went on to sell six million copies
1:14
worldwide by the end of 2003 all in one
1:18
year that's in one year also in 2003 she
1:21
released the second album chapter two
1:24
which debuted at number one on the
1:26
billboard 200 with first week of sales
1:28
over 300 000 in the us and album went
1:32
platinum selling over 1.5 million copies
1:34
in the u.s since his release
1:36
let's go on in 2004. she released the
1:39
third studio album concrete rose
1:42
that album debuted at number seven in
1:45
the us selling over a quarter of a
1:46
million copies and became her third
1:48
platinum certified album
1:51
in 2005 she made a feature film debut
1:54
coach carter alongside another citizen
1:56
in the morning samuel l jackson starring
1:59
as dorothy gail and made for television
2:01
film the muffets wizard of oz
2:04
that pulled nearly 8 million viewers
2:06
when it premiered she has since go on to
2:09
star in other films
2:11
when i sit here and try to do the math
2:13
tracy g what you want me to tell you i
2:14
did spend some time in public school and
2:17
had a public school education a lot of
2:18
times the catholic school paid off but
2:21
i'm looking at about 25 million or so
2:24
albums sold worldwide it give or take
2:27
let's say 30 million albums worldwide
2:30
now let me just go on and add to her
2:32
resume she is the absolute queen of
2:35
verses
2:38
citizens welcome to the show our friend
2:41
our sister our beloved ashanti
2:45
hey
2:47
hey
2:48
i have to say oh my gosh that has been
2:52
the absolute best intro ever i love
2:56
y'all thank you thank you thank you so
2:58
so much y'all and my sisters i love it
3:01
thank you
3:02
ashanti we love you too this is heather
3:04
tracy is on the line we are
3:07
and
3:09
here's the thing what i love about you
3:12
the most because obviously
3:14
um all the accolades and like i said
3:16
some of the things tracy and i got an
3:18
opportunity to talk about um or just on
3:21
a personal side i know just because you
3:24
worked with another sister of mine for
3:26
quite some time jj makeup artist she's
3:29
my sister
3:30
yes yes yes and she has always always
3:34
raved about how beautiful you are
3:37
off camera and behind the scenes and to
3:40
me that's a true testimony of a person
3:43
you know we all have a job to do and
3:45
sometimes if you will for lack of a
3:47
better word we got to put on and gear up
3:49
for interviews and different things but
3:52
who a person is off camera behind the
3:54
scenes says so much about them and jj
3:57
who i've known for 30 years now has
3:59
always spoken highly of you so much love
4:01
to you sis and i just wanted to make
4:03
sure the world heard that about you as
4:05
well how you been
4:06
thank you so much i've been amazing jj
4:10
is amazing she's like family you know
4:11
we've been together for so long so i
4:13
really i genuinely appreciate that but
4:16
yeah i've been i've been great you know
4:18
i've been super blessed a lot of amazing
4:20
things happened i'm happy to be talking
4:22
to y'all this morning
4:24
good good good good now we we kicked off
4:26
this show playing a clip of the film
4:28
honey girls um that will be available on
4:32
october 19th tell us all about that
4:34
because ashanti you figure it out i
4:36
don't care what's going on people
4:38
hollering pandemic people hollering this
4:40
and that uh shanti like well guess what
4:43
i'm working so yeah i'm figuring it out
4:46
how did honey girls come about tell us
4:48
all about it
4:50
um it's it's kind of crazy i don't want
4:52
to you know you know the hollywood term
4:54
and they say oh your people call my
4:56
people right how it happened you know my
4:59
agent reached out and it was a very
5:01
quick turnaround um
5:04
one of my uh producers read the scripts
5:08
and i actually got a letter from the
5:10
director asking me to be a part of it
5:13
and explaining why she really wanted me
5:15
um so much love to trey fan joy um and
5:18
when i read it and i i i kind of took it
5:21
in and it feel it felt like something
5:23
that could be
5:25
um on my how do i say it on my table of
5:28
women empowerment you know what i mean
5:31
i said you know what i want to be a part
5:33
of this and i was so happy because like
5:35
you said we were right in the middle of
5:37
a pandemic you know i had to quarantine
5:39
in canada for 14 days
5:42
you know it was worth it because it's
5:43
such a positive message you know and i
5:46
feel like it's so important to continue
5:48
to inspire young women you know 14 15
5:51
year old girls and to be able to be a
5:53
part of that movement you know i was
5:55
super blessed i'm very very happy and
5:57
excited about it
5:58
yeah congratulations for that you
6:00
mentioned hollywood i'm also and correct
6:02
me if i'm wrong but it's also been word
6:04
that you will receive your start on the
6:06
hollywood walk of fame in 2022 is that
6:09
true
6:12
[Applause]
6:15
let's go
6:16
that is so
6:18
dope do you know where it's going to be
6:20
yet did you did they give you the
6:22
location
6:23
they haven't i haven't found out yet um
6:27
i listen i'm just happy i'm getting
6:30
that's right that's right phil's son i i
6:33
i'm still like i can't even believe it
6:35
you know when i found out i was like are
6:38
you sure
6:40
right
6:42
i was so stunned and just so excited to
6:45
be able to share the moment with my mom
6:47
and my family and and my pr my publicist
6:50
so it it's such a surreal surreal
6:53
feeling just as a young black female you
6:55
know in this very male dominated
6:56
industry yeah
6:58
something like that so super humbled
7:01
yeah that's dope man 888-742-3345
7:05
ashanti is here if you have any
7:06
questions for her just want to pay her a
7:09
beautiful compliment and give her her
7:10
flower she's here tracy go ahead yeah
7:13
shanti i'm so happy whenever we get the
7:15
opportunity to talk to you and my girls
7:16
sincerely and it has been such a yes a
7:20
pleasure to be with you every step of
7:22
the way because it's like it's crazy
7:24
when you get to the point where you and
7:25
your fans are really growing up together
7:28
you know what i'm saying and it's like
7:30
you have not outgrown each other and
7:32
when you had mentioned um female
7:34
camaraderie with this film i was just
7:37
thinking about one of my favorite
7:39
moments at the vmas although it wasn't
7:41
captured at the stage of the vmas but it
7:42
was when he was doing an interview with
7:44
ja i think it was for um entertainment
7:46
tonight
7:47
and then sizza just had to burst in
7:50
because her love
7:52
was just like bursting at the seams for
7:55
you and she was just speaking about how
7:57
when she was younger she was waiting
7:58
online to meet you and how you were so
8:00
great etc etc and it just made me
8:02
curious shy like
8:03
prior to verses
8:06
this entire time um did you
8:09
feel like you were getting your flower
8:12
still was there ever a time where you
8:14
felt like
8:15
dang maybe you were the underdog again
8:18
and people have forgotten how much you
8:21
actually gifted them in terms of talent
8:23
with your own tracks with other things
8:25
that you've you've written
8:28
um i definitely felt like the underdog
8:31
you know um at
8:33
certain points of my career you know
8:35
with everything that had happened i
8:37
think people sometimes forgot about you
8:40
know the hard parts you know what i mean
8:42
i feel like um
8:45
going through the indictment and you
8:47
know those things people forgot you know
8:50
the whole record label was the tapped
8:51
and gone you know and people forget
8:54
that um
8:56
with all of that
8:58
i still had to do what i had to do you
9:00
know what i mean and i was still
9:01
fortunate enough to have an amazing team
9:03
and go into broadway you know and go
9:06
independent and continue to move my ball
9:10
forward and build my brand and empire
9:12
you know what i mean so
9:14
i think that is very important you know
9:16
we all go through pizza valley but it's
9:18
all about how you handle it and and and
9:20
how you um um
9:23
continue like i said to push your ball
9:25
forward and and be positive you know
9:27
what i mean and and inspire women to do
9:29
the same you know i think it's like
9:31
women camaraderie and women empowerment
9:33
and and
9:35
all of that makes a difference you know
9:37
all of it makes a difference in your
9:38
outcome and in your success amen ashanti
9:41
is here
9:43
888-742-3345 the new film honey girls it
9:46
will be available on october
9:49
19th make sure you guys uh get that and
9:52
support that we have lefreeda on the
9:54
line calling them from illinois lafrida
9:56
what's up say what up to ashanti hey
9:59
hey
10:01
how you doing just wanted to tell you
10:03
that i've been a fan since day one
10:06
back in arizona when i was staying there
10:08
but i just wanted to let you know that
10:10
you've been rocking out since day one so
10:12
i appreciate you
10:13
thank you so much i appreciate you mommy
10:16
beautiful thank you lefreda for the kind
10:18
word you're a citizen
10:20
i'm on it we got alicia on the line
10:21
calling in from san diego what's up
10:23
alicia hey
10:25
hey good morning crew good morning
10:27
heather b um hey
10:29
i just want to let you know that you
10:31
inspire so many people i listen to
10:34
movies almost every single day
10:37
it makes me feel so good it makes me
10:39
believe in love and i just wanted to let
10:42
you know that i really appreciate you
10:44
thank you i appreciate you thank you so
10:48
much that's really nice to say that
10:50
you too alicia you're a citizen that's
10:52
way in the morning we got jay on the
10:54
line calling in from tennessee j-a-y all
10:57
the letters in your name what's up jay
10:59
hey jay
11:00
hey what's up what's up ladies how you
11:03
doing what's up with your deep voice how
11:04
you doing right
11:08
all right
11:09
i'm good
11:12
hey how you doing jay
11:15
hey i'm good man you know no i'm a long
11:17
time fan right
11:20
hey
11:21
hey jay you trying to shoot your shot
11:23
what you doing right now shanti's busy
11:25
what's your question
11:28
hey i don't want to say um are you
11:30
coming down to uh tennessee anytime soon
11:33
i would love to see
11:35
cool
11:36
um i think we are coming to memphis um
11:41
what day is it
11:42
i think it's the 21st of november if you
11:45
check the website um my tour dates are
11:47
on there and um if we come down maybe we
11:50
get you some tickets jay if we come down
11:52
there we'll hook you up
11:54
oh that's what's up for sunset hey i'm
11:56
in shadow but i will come to
11:57
milford to see you
11:59
hey hey
12:01
jay going at it boy he ain't playing no
12:03
games jay follow her on the grab and try
12:06
to make it down to her show and don't
12:07
forget to go to her website to check out
12:09
her dates now i guess ashanti was just
12:12
in west virginia because we got a long
12:14
time listening here swain and more than
12:16
a citizen dj ej did you see her perform
12:18
recently ej yo what's going on what's
12:21
going on family how we doing so i
12:23
actually had an event that day but i did
12:25
not see the performance but through
12:27
social media a lot of my friends a lot
12:29
of good folks were there and i wanted to
12:31
reach out to ashanti and just thank you
12:33
for
12:33
coming to west virginia coming to the
12:35
mountains man and hanging out you and
12:37
jobs it was a big deal
12:39
oh thank you we had so much fun the
12:41
crowd was
12:42
crazy the crowd was crazy you know and
12:46
it just felt so good just after dealing
12:48
you know going through the pandemic and
12:50
i was doing a lot of online concerts but
12:52
there's nothing like that energy from
12:54
from being live and having people you
12:56
know what i mean show you love and
12:58
seeing you it's like so it was amazing
13:00
that's dope
13:03
yeah definitely i'm sorry heather um i
13:05
want to just give a shot to her flowers
13:07
i'm 33 and you know i've been listening
13:10
i grew up with ashanti and ja and the
13:11
whole
13:12
movement and just to be able to call in
13:14
and just tell her thank you for coming
13:16
to our big town small city and doing
13:19
what they did it was an impact because
13:20
the city was a buzz as soon as i saw the
13:22
flyer i thought it was fake because
13:24
where we live it was like
13:27
you know but what they did and then came
13:29
here and then the time that they had and
13:31
the entertainment they brought to our
13:32
people i just want to send love flowers
13:34
to the whole family for coming out and
13:36
thank you for coming absolutely that's
13:38
uh thank you so much i appreciate you
13:41
thank you yeah y'all call up
13:43
888-742-3345
13:45
and do exactly that because this is what
13:48
we love to do as you know here shanti
13:50
you've been to the show uh several times
13:53
but i think with everything and we
13:55
touched on it briefly that's been
13:56
happening in the past year and a half
13:58
two years as we start to uh you know
14:01
rolling in 2022 people have gone through
14:04
so much and nothing is promised and so
14:07
to hear people just call up and just
14:09
give you your flowers and tell you that
14:11
they love you and thank you for all the
14:13
different things we have no idea even as
14:16
folks in the spotlight what people are
14:19
going through so i'm glad that the
14:20
citizens are calling you up showing you
14:22
love we got danny on the line calling in
14:24
from california thank you for waking up
14:26
early with us danny what's your uh
14:28
comment to ashanti hey danny i want to
14:30
give hey how you all doing good morning
14:33
ladies i want to give you all roses for
14:35
everything you know careers
14:38
uplifting the pandemic being a beautiful
14:41
show
14:42
thank you but uh ashanti you're a big
14:44
icon like all the way through my wife is
14:47
blessed she loves you
14:49
um she went to breast cancer about two
14:50
years ago survived and you were a big
14:53
uplifting with your music everything in
14:55
your movies everything so beautiful i
14:58
just wanna you know thank you i'm caller
15:00
getting through and i love you all
15:03
love you too danny what's your wife's
15:04
name
15:05
uh kim kim lee
15:08
shout out to kim lynch as well shout out
15:10
to kim thank you thank you danny i
15:12
really appreciate that you know it means
15:14
a lot and and
15:16
it's different when it's sincere you
15:17
know what i mean so i i truly do
15:19
appreciate it thank you guys
15:21
that's yeah thank you you know i'm glad
15:23
i was able to get through to talk to you
15:24
about that because it was a really
15:25
uplifting moment when we were going
15:27
through chemo and stuff and um yeah it
15:29
was a blessing you know
15:31
getting through this morning i'm like
15:32
you know i'm glad i got to say good
15:33
morning to y'all
15:36
no it's all love it's all love it's all
15:39
love thank you danny god bless you and
15:41
your wife rita i see that you have a
15:43
message here and anytime i see the youth
15:45
or somebody wants to um you know just
15:48
talk about the youth and ashanti and her
15:50
work with them i want to give them an
15:51
opportunity what's your comment rita
15:56
rita
15:57
i feel like can you hear me yep now i
15:59
can loud and clear
16:01
okay cool so
16:02
like i said i grew up with you ashanti i
16:04
just listened to your music and you know
16:06
learning how to dance it was a happy
16:08
video that got me um so i really feel
16:10
like i grew up with you and i just
16:12
wanted to touch on that and here we are
16:14
15 years later i've got kids we still
16:16
have our dance party in the living room
16:17
so i what is your message of you know
16:20
the 14 15 16 year olds anything that you
16:23
can let these young ladies know um i i
16:26
know they would love to hear a message
16:27
from you
16:29
well first thank you so much it means a
16:31
lot i'm glad that you are having fun
16:33
with your girls um i think it's just so
16:36
important as women that we love each
16:37
other we support each other continue to
16:39
inspire
16:40
dream big you know and and whatever it
16:42
is you want to do in life you can do it
16:44
you can accomplish it no matter what you
16:46
know and never let anybody tell you you
16:48
can't you know um
16:51
i just feel like it's important whatever
16:53
you're passionate about
16:54
go after it you know what i mean even if
16:56
it may seem scary you know you may get
16:59
rejected but you keep going i've been
17:01
rejected a lot you know i had three
17:03
record deals that i lost you know and
17:05
i'm still i'm i'm here now you know so
17:08
thank you to the love and the support
17:10
from people like you um you gotta just
17:13
keep keep keep going and and go after
17:15
what you believe in with your heart with
17:17
everything you have amen thank you
17:19
beautiful amen thank you rita thank you
17:22
so much listen you guys um honey girls
17:25
rita and and dee and brittany and andrea
17:28
ellen carolyn and the miracle and
17:30
roberta all of you guys and i mean the
17:33
phone lines are lit up like a christmas
17:35
tree that's calling it don't forget you
17:37
know um october 19th make sure you
17:40
support honey girls um
17:42
also
17:43
man she's producing now she got a
17:45
rom-com coming uh it's called the plus
17:48
one tell us about that can you talk
17:50
about that
17:51
yeah i could talk a little bit about it
17:53
um super funny script very very excited
17:56
about it it's kind of like a destination
17:59
wedding vibe and basically i'm getting
18:01
married
18:02
and there's just one person that i do
18:04
not want at my wedding and that person
18:07
shows up
18:10
[Laughter]
18:13
a little uh-oh
18:16
it's really funny though i'm i'm really
18:19
looking forward to it it's a really cool
18:21
people in in the film that i'm working
18:23
with we can't talk about that yet but
18:25
i'm very very excited about it enough
18:27
and i believe we're going to be shooting
18:29
or starting in december if i'm not
18:32
mistaken so right after the tour
18:34
um i'll be going into shooting
18:36
man that's amazing ashanti we love you
18:39
we are super happy for you
18:40
congratulations times a million god
18:43
bless you your family everybody that's
18:45
involved and just keeping you grounded
18:48
and keeping you positive and keeping you
18:50
on the right path as we all know it
18:51
takes a team of people this is not easy
18:54
you know to navigate life and navigating
18:56
through this industry you know and
18:58
staying grounded so much love to
19:00
everybody that's around you that don't
19:02
get the everyday you know recognition
19:04
love to them as well and you guys follow
19:05
her she's added shanti on twitter and
19:08
instagram love your shots you can't wait
19:10
when you're back in the studios with us
19:12
and we can just show you more and more
19:14
love congratulations oh thank you so
19:16
much heather and tracy you guys are
19:18
amazing i appreciate y'all so much and
19:22
uh we'll be speaking to you very soon
19:25
we got your shanty citizens to sway in
19:27
the morning
19:39
you
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