In a recently released segment of an interview with Complex, R&B singer Ashanti explained showing portions of her album Braveheartto Ja Rule prior to its release and spoke about their plans to link up in the studio in the future.
Referencing an Instagram post from August of 2013 in which the frequent collaborators were pictured together following his release from prison, Ashanti explained giving Ja Rule a chance to hear the music she had been working on. “Either that night or a few weeks later,” she said, “I played him records from the album, he was super excited for me. We’re definitely gonna do something. Right now, we’re kind of like on our paths of—you know we haven’t put music out in a long time, so we kind of want to reestablish our own lanes first and then do something amazing together. Because the thing about it is, our chemistry is just so organic, it really doesn’t take a lot. If we get in the studio, we’re good, you know what I mean? So, we’re both really, really excited and happy for each other.”
Ja Rule and Ashanti worked together extensively as labelmates over the years including their 2001 collaboration “Always on Time,” 2002’s “Mesmerize,” and 2004’s “Wonderful.”
Ashanti released her first album in nearly six years earlier this month in Braveheart. HipHopDX’s review gave the album three out of five stars, calling it “concise and cohesive.” “This is her way of declaring a comeback,” DX wrote. “It’s been six years since Ashanti’s fourth album, The Declaration, 12 years since her debut, and 11 years since her last Top 10 hit. There’s really no other way to listen to Braveheart.” Braveheart featured appearances from Rick Ross and French Montana.
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The singer/actress also recently spoke with Complex about her possible involvement in the making of a soundtrack to an upcoming Tupac biopic. “I have an amazing opportunity,” she said, “L.T. Hutton, who actually produced the ‘I Got It’ record and ‘Scars’ and a bunch of other records on my album, he’s one of the CEO’s over at Morgan Creek [Pictures]. And him and I are gonna be doing like a musical score, or a lot of music, for the Tupac film coming in 2015. So I’m super excited about that, I’ve known about this for like two [or] three years now. He’s very, very excited about it. [It’s] very premature, early in stages—oh, and John Singleton is gonna be directing. So that’s gonna be sick, so I’m really, really excited about that.”
