It gets crazy and I felt like, as an artist that has been in that game that long and with the accomplishments and things, I felt like I already built that. When you’re touring, merchandising, they take 70 percent.
If you already had a book deal in place, they want their percentage. So, doing shows or if you get a deal with Coke for X amount of dollars, the label’s gonna demand X amount of dollars. I walked away from them because I couldn’t swallow the 360 and that’s what really motivated me to create my own label.Īshanti: A 360 deal is basically when a label is able to get a large percentage of everything you do for the rest of your life. It was fear of the unknown and I had a deal with a major for my entire career, so it was kind of like a push and choice decision and you go into survival mode and you just do it. Between 20, I had walked away from seven offers from major and that’s why I felt like, ‘Oh my gosh, what did I do?’ and it was hard. HB: Tell me a little bit about your decision to create your own independent label.Īshanti: It was definitely one of the hardest decisions I had to make in my career. I grew up a little bit spoiled, so it’s important that, going in, you’re honest and communication. You have to understand who that person is. It’s really important to sacrifice and have patience. You can’t try to change someone into who you want them to be.
HB: What advice do you have for people in relationships who may have been going through what you and Nelly went through?Īshanti: Always remember that if you’re not happy, you can’t make someone else happy and you have to respect a person for who they are. There’s times that involve you going outside of your comfort zone and I’m being true to myself in that particular moment and that’s exactly how I felt when I wrote the record.
HB: How nervous were you to let Nelly hear the record?Īshanti: Honestly, the whole movement that I’m about now is just about being free and being honest and being vulnerable. If I had to choose only one record on this album, I would go with “Nowhere” and “Scars.”Īshanti: I mean, definitely inspired the record.
HB: What’s your favorite song on “BraveHeart” so far?Īshanti: That’s a tough one. It was kind of hypnotizing and they wanted to sell that record to J.Lo. I think because just the sound was really different and when I wrote that record, I wrote it like a freestyle. From my first album, “Rescue” was one of my favorite songs. HelloBeautiful: What is your favorite classic Ashanti song?Īshanti: I’ve got 5 albums.
“BraveHeart” has already given the established singer her fifth top 10 debut album, proving that she’s still the “Princess of R&B.” Not only did it thrust her - and her relationship - back into the spotlight, the album marks the first project to be released under her newly created independent record label, Written Entertainment (and what an appropriate name for a label since Ashanti’s penned classic songs - and laid vocals - for artists like Christina Milian and Jennifer Lopez).Ĭatch up with the “Foolish” singer to get more details on what it’s been like for her to be her own boss, how she’s turned her relationship experiences into new songs, her best relationship advice, and more: