Ashanti on her pen game.


Ashanti, who now owns all of her masters, discusses her songwriting contributions to J.Lo's hit song 'Aint It Funny' and makes it very clear she received financial compensation. Ashanti says it was nice being apart of that success before giving some advice to aspiring artists. 

"Please write as much as you can, get as much percent of the record as you can," she says "Because when you have a classic, timeless hit record, it is the gift that continues to give forever." Ashanti makes note that long after you're gone, not only will your children compensate from it but the children after that too. 

Mariah Carey is still reaping the colossal financial benefits from a Christmas song she wrote almost 30 years ago. Her Grandchildren will be eating off that song for life. You love to see it. Of course it makes sense why BeyoncĂ© (and as much as she was criticised for it) use to add two words to a song that was already written and produced just so that she can get a songwriting credit. 

People would be like, "well that's not real songwriting!" but if you can get away with it because your name holds so much weight, power and respect... hate the game they say, not the player. Though it's kind of sh*tty for the original songwriter but at least having their song on a massive BeyoncĂ© record increases their earning potential and opens them up to further opportunities. 

Ashanti discusses her songwriting during a recent chat with Hot 97's Ebro in the Morning:

2 Comments:

Scoopz said...

It wasnt just as simple as changing a word or two. Beyonce creates her own vocal arrangements for tracks. No one tells her how to perform a track, therefore she gets a songwriting credit on that basis primarily. The composition is the instrumentation, the lyrics and the vocal arrangement. Beyonce handles her own arrangements whilst she has a hand in adjusting pre-written lyrics to suit herself. Therefore altogether she quite rightly gets a songwriting credit. Its time this misinformed narrative gets squashed.

nil said...

Is it just me or is the tick she has fixing her hair the whole time in this interview and during verzus just annoying??