Ashanti has claimed a producer she once worked with held their music to ransom in exchange for shower sex.
The “Foolish” singer recounted the incident during an appearance on The Breakfast Club on Thursday (December 1), where she alleged the unnamed producer attempted to coax her into taking a shower with him by offering her the songs — which were recorded for one of her albums — free of charge.
Ashanti was taken aback by the producer’s request and initially thought he was joking, until he explained he was “dead serious” and threatened to charge her $40,000 a piece for the records unless she complied.
“I’ve been in a crazy situation with one producer — I think I might have talked about this once,” she said. “We did two records together. He was like, ‘OK, I’m not gonna charge you, you my homie.’ And then when it came time to put it on the album, he was like, ‘Well, let’s take a shower together.’
And I thought he was joking! And then he was like, ‘Nah, I’m dead serious. Let’s take a shower together and I’ll give you the records. If not, I need 40 racks per record.’ And again, I thought he was joking because we had been working with each other for like, I don’t know, a couple of weeks.”
Despite her shock, Ashanti implied that the situation was later “handled” after she made “some phone calls,” although she didn’t get into specifics
Ashanti’s comments come after a turbulent few months for the singer, whose personal life has been in the headlines thanks to salacious claims made by her former Murder Inc. label boss, Irv Gotti.
During his interview with Drink Champs in August, the former Def Jam executive claimed Ashanti’s 2002 hit “Happy” was conceived after they had finished having sex together.
He also admitted to being heartbroken after discovering the R&B songbird was dating Nelly by watching an NBA game that they attended together on TV at home. “At the time, when it happens, any man, it hurts [when] the chick you fucking are in love with is with this n-gga,” he said.
But in a candid interview with Angie Martinez in October, Ashanti shut down Gotti’s claims about their alleged fling and the origins of “Happy,” while accusing him of “manipulating” her and intentionally hurting her career out of spite.
I definitely feel like manipulation played a heavy part into me and Irv’s situation,” she reflected. “He would say stuff like, ‘No one wants to record with you, nobody fucks with you like that.’ On one hand, he would make it feel like family-family-family, and on the other hand, he would tell me, ‘Nobody even likes you.’”
She even accused Irv Gotti of making death threats against people around her, and believes the executive “wishes death” on her to this day.
