Ashanti Recalls First Album, First GRAMMY & More

In the latest episode of Fuse's digital series Backatcha, we sat down with Ashanti and asked her to take a trip down memory lane... from her first album to her first GRAMMY.

The R&B star is nothing but smiles when recalling her early days struggling in the music industry. "I remember everything about that day, my first album, April 2, 2002," Ashanti says. "I remember popping bottles on Z100 because we found out we made history, which I am still in the Guinness Book of World Records for [being the first female to have 3 Top 10 singles within the same week]. That was a big, big deal for me."

It was a long time coming. "I had released 'Always on Time,' 'What's Luv?' and I wrote 'Ain't It Funny' for J.Lo," she says. "But we were shooting the video for 'Foolish' and I still didn't have a record deal."

Obviously, that changed soon after the "Foolish" video was finished.