I Guess I Won't Be Spendin' My Money On This One!

[CarolinaCutie]

No, Ashanti can’t sing. Her second album, Chapter II, begins with not one, but two intros, including the annoying “Shany’s World,” in which Chink Santana boasts not-so-cleverly for over four minutes about his hostess while she coos in the background, showing off her not-so-spectacular pipes. Shany’s voice, in fact, ranks up there with some of pop music’s finest vocal talents, including powerhouses like Paula Abdul, Jennifer Lopez and Kevin Aviance. The album’s got some great tunes (“Rain On Me,” “Carry On”), but they’d be better suited for someone like Mary J. Blige, whom Shany & Co. bite off of on “Breakup 2 Makeup” (the track uses the loop from Blige’s version of “Sweet Thing”). With vocal talent out of the picture, surely Shany must possess some other redeeming quality, right? Charisma? Songwriting prowess? Some sort of social or cultural relevance? “Then Ya Gone” does purport to be a life-affirming jam (“One day you’re here, baby/And then ya gone,” goes the chorus), but I don’t think that counts. Shany fares better with less ambitious tunes like “Ohhh Ahhh” and “I Don’t Mind,” where she can just, well, ohhh and ahhh. Of course, none of this is Ashanti’s responsibility. It’s not her fault that our standards are so freakin’ low. It’s not her fault her record company has inexplicably coined her “the princess of hip-hop and R&B.” The new track “Living My Life” even makes multiple references to songs from Ashanti’s enormous, life-long canon of hits! It’s no surprise that the singer all but gives credit to Murder Inc. head Irv Gotti on the old-school R&B track “The Story Of 2”: “I got a dreammaker…Dreams are made not by one, by two.” At least her dreams--like her album--are consistently a-s***ty.
Alexa Camp
© slant magazine, 2003.

Well dang--lol! But that's aight...Mary will show this youngsta how it's really done in another month (yeah, I know I hang off of her bra strap like a mug, but Mary's the isht! ;D)!

[Drulady03]

Wow that was rather harsh ...not!, Homegurl spoke the truth.

Well dang--lol! But that's aight...Mary will show this youngsta how it's really done in another month (yeah, I know I hang off of her bra strap like a mug, but Mary's the isht!

Girl ain't nothing wrong with dat. Shoot I love me some Mary J. too.lol I heard her new joint on the radio the other day. It's hott!

[aDRUfan4LiFe]

Ooops!!! Well I guess alot of folks won't be buying it!
But he was telling the truth about how peoples standards are so low, that's why Dru ain't that successful as they were back in the days!

[DruDiamond]

adrufan4life said:

Ooops!!! Well I guess alot of folks won't be buying it!
But he was telling the truth about how peoples standards are so low, that's why Dru ain't that successful as they were back in the days!

And guess what, I'm one of em' ;D

I dunno what folks problem is with Dru this time around. I guess they gotta walk around half azz naked like a lot of these artists to sell records NOT....wrong answer. My boys have class

[Chris]

Dru wasn't selling all that hot back in the past... 2 million copies is great, but they didn't snag that anywhere near the ammount of time DWO has been on shelves... If I'm not mistaken the debut album was selling at about the same rate as DWO is now. Everyone knew who they were and they loved the singles, and that's the only difference between now and then