Stars At The Shore: Ashanti
By Veronica Dudo
ATLANTIC CITY (CBS) - Grammy Award winner Ashanti recently hosted a pool party at Harrah's Resort in Atlantic City. The singer and songwriter performed a live mini set for fans inside the Pool After Dark. Before heading into the nightclub, the artist posed on the red carpet for photographers and dished about her new album, record label, upcoming film and her recent trip to Philadelphia.
Welcome to the Pool After Dark.
Thank-you.
You have a connection to Atlantic City, can you talk about your special family ties?
Yes, my Godfather is Mayor Langford so I'm super excited he's here my Godmom my Nelly's here and I haven't seen them in quite some time so it's a good night.
Will you be performing tonight?
Yeah-it's like a little impromptu kind-of get the crowd rocking. I'm really hosting the party but when you feel the energy you have to get up there and do a little something (laughs).
When will your new album, Braveheart be released?
The album will be out this summer; very, very very excited. I actually got a mix while we were traveling on the way here—I got the mix emailed to me about one of the records that I'm going to be releasing very soon so I'm really excited about that.
How would you describe this upcoming album?
This album is very drum heavy and melodic. I'm talking about a couple of things that are very drastic and paints a very vivid picture so I'm excited.
Are there any music artists today that you want to collaborate with in the future?
You know what, I never really sit and think about oh I want to work with this one or that one I feel like when it's organic and you have two talented artists in the studio you're bound to get something hot.
What other projects are you working on?
A lot of things going on: there are a couple of businesses that I'm working on which I'm really excited about; can't talk too much about it because you don't want to jinx things! I have a film project that I'm working on which I'm really, really excited about I think we're going to start shooting in August so a lot of good things and obviously owning my own record label, Written Entertainment which is something that I've wanted to do for a long time. It's exciting and it's hard but it's all worth it.
Do you ever get the opportunity to visit Philadelphia?
I just did something with the Hot Boyz; they're hilarious! We did like an Ustream live big interview thing in the studio and that was a lot of fun.
Veronica Dudo is an award-winning journalist covering everything from breaking news to red carpet celebrity interviews. Follow her on Twitter @VeronicaDudo and Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Veronica-Dudo/193258274047563
