Ashanti Opens Up About The Rampant Sexual Harassment That Is Real In The Music Industry
After sharing her story, Ashanti is hopeful that people will become more aware of sexual harassment in the music industry. The 42-year-old came out with her experience earlier in December.
In her interview with People Magazine on Tuesday, Ashanti Shequoiya Douglas discussed most of the challenges she had to endure and overcome while working in the music business. She has been making beautiful music for two decades now.
She opened her story by saying that she doesn’t think any other artist could have dealt with what she went through. She then revealed that there was once a close-knit male producer who offered her two songs for free. But yes, there was a catch.
This music producer gave her the ultimatum that her songs were all good if Ashanti would shower with him. It was that, or each piece of music would cost her $40,000. At first, the younger Ashanti thought the proposition was a joke and that this music producer was laughing at her expense.
This music producer was cool on the outside, but it turned out he had an ulterior motive. And this was a massive awakening for the American singer because, if it happened to her, it could happen to anybody.
The producer’s proposal was serious, even after folks introduced him to her as a homie and told Ashanti that he wouldn’t charge her for anything. But everything changed when the album was ready to be released. And when it finally dawned on the singer that the producer was serious, she had to make urgent phone calls to gain control of the situation.
When she said no to the producer’s proposal, who appeared to have a crush on her, the cost of one track soared to a whopping $45,000.
Sadly, Ashanti can attest that she has heard stories much worse than hers. The shower proposition was not the only one the Grammy Award-winning singer had.
The songwriter plans to share more details about this shower proposal in the upcoming documentary she’s working on.
Recall that in 2018, when the #MeToo movement was at its peak, Ashanti opened up about the sexual harassment incident but never dropped the producer’s name. After her family got involved and started looking out for her welfare, the producer unexpectedly apologized and offered to produce three of Ashanti’s records for free.
Ashanti stated that she got two of the three songs mixed and mastered entirely free of charge. The actress, born in Glen Cove, New York, has many hit songs, including Foolish, Happy, Rain On Me, and The Way I Love You. She also received her Hollywood Walk of Fame star in April after securing 16 top 40 hits in the last 20 years.
So far, Ashanti has released six albums, with her self-titled debut album selling 503,000 copies in its first week. Due to this, Ashanti was also included in the Guinness World Record for Fastest Selling Debut Artist (Female) for her album in 2002.
