Comparisons between Beyoncé and Ashanti ran rampant during the early days of their solo careers. One of the most public instances occurred back in 2003 when The New York Times published an opinion piece titled, “The Solo Beyoncé: She’s No Ashanti.” The piece placed Ashanti’s star power ahead of Beyoncé’s. In recent years, publications like HuffPost and Vox have periodically pointed back to it when discussing the irony of Beyoncé’s dominating presence within the music industry today.
Fortunately, these comparisons never amounted to a personal feud between the stars. “Every female artist, we all have something different to offer,” said Beyoncé while speaking to MTV News in 2003. “I love Monica’s record. I like Ashanti’s record. I respect all of those people. There’s room for all of us.” Ashanti, too, was of the same accord in 2017, when discussing her reaction to the “infamous” New York Times article. “I was just like wow, you know, it was … super flattering,” shared Ashanti, per Entertainment Tonight. “What I didn’t like so much is that the media has a way of pitting people against each other.” She continued, “[Beyoncé] and I had always had a very cool camaraderie. It was always like ‘Hey, what’s up, how you doing? Oh, I like your sneakers.'” She concluded her thoughts with: “I’m too happy with myself to just be an envious kind of a person.”
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Nicki
