Ashanti

An overnight sensation with the hits to prove it — the beat-splitting bounce of "What's Luv?" and the thug-taming hooks of "Always On Time" vied for the same #1 spot in 2002, eventually ending up back-to-back at the top of the singles heap — Ashanti is largely responsible for some of the greatest rap/R&B duets of the past decade. Not to mention a string of impeccable solo songs, from her chart-conquering debut, "Foolish" (featuring the same shimmering sample as the Notorious B.I.G.'s "One More Chance") to the horn-blasted, funk-infused "Rain On Me." That's just a taste of what she's achieved in five short, hit-packed years, too, as we reveal again and again in our Next Steps.

The fact that Ashanti named her third album (the critically-acclaimed Concrete Rose) after 2Pac's popular poetry collection says a lot about the two worlds she occupies on a regular basis — a gray area between the real-deal realm of the streets and the floor-filling crates of club DJs. No wonder why she fits in right alongside the buzzing synths and gruff rhymes of "Pac's Life," the spare electro beats and squelching basslines of "Still On It," the punchy drum programming of "Focus," and the clicks and cuts of the stiletto strut that is "Switch." All of which feature a seamless mix of Ashanti's admitted influences, the jazz enchantress Ella Fitzgerald and reigning R&B queen Mary J. Blige.

Irv Gotti was definitely onto something when he discovered Ashanti in the early '00s. A success story well beyond the Murder Inc. don's wildest dreams, she broke record after record in her first year, beginning with the breakout sales of her self-titled debut. A gold platter straight out the gate — and eventually a GRAMMY® winner for Best Contemporary R&B Album — it boasted the highest first-week sales of any female R&B artist ever, surpassing such artists as Lauryn Hill and Alicia Keys. If that's not impressive enough, she also became the first female to have three Top 10 songs ("What's Luv," "Foolish," and "Always On Time") on Billboard's Hot 100 chart in the same week — a feat topped only by the Beatles. Did we mention she's sold more than 20 million albums worldwide in the years since?