After making a name for herself guesting on tracks by Ja Rule and Fat Joe, Ashanti Douglas burst straight out of the Murder Inc. camp and to the to of the charts with "Foolish." The song, notable for its guest-spot-from-beyond by the Notorious B.I.G., hit the top of the Hot 100 and R&B singles chart, and drove Ashanti's self-tilted debut to the top of the charts upon its release.

In fact, Ashanti was so hot that she became the first artist since the Beatles to have three singles simultaneously in the top 10, after "Foolish" followed her duet with Ja Rule, "Always On Time," and her pairing with Fat Joe, "What's Luv?," into the upper reaches of the Hot 100.

Ashanti wasn't exactly an overnight sensation. She had a number of false starts on her road to success. At age 14 she landed a deal with Jive Records that went nowhere. She had a similar experience three years later with Noontime/Epic. Finally, things started to go her way toward the end of her teen years when she met Irv Gotti through a friend of a friend of her co-manager. Gotti was initially hesitant to showcase an R&B artist, but gave the budding singer a guest shot on Big Pun's "How We Roll," the first in a series of pairings with hip-hop artists, which gave Ashanti credibility in the urban music world.

Subsequent hit singles from Ashanti, "Baby" and "Happy," further cemented her stardom, as did several high-profile nominations and awards. Although she failed to win best new artist, her debut album was named best contemporary R&B album at the Grammys in 2003. Similar triumphs followed at the Soul Train Awards and the NAACP Awards.

With the release of Chapter II in July 2003, Ashanti set out to prove that her earlier success was no fluke.