Taken from Ashanti's "Braveheart" Review:
By 2004, established female R&B artists were suffering. Mya, Brandy, Ashanti, and even Janet Jackson werent breaking any records with sales or radio play. There was a shift. Female R&B artists were expected to be voracious vocalists with ranges that would give those listening goose bumps. That shift was Beyoncé. No matter the differentiations and nuances among the pool of singers, after her 2003 solo debut, the paradigm shifted. The successes were the exception. Alicia Keys was a virtuoso; a singer-songwriter with the ability to play an instrument. Later that year, Keyshia Cole would be the newbie on the block with a voice that was rough as it was melismatic. The angelic vocal thinness that was predominant in contemporary R&B for the decade before had waned.
http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/album-...nti-braveheart
Earlier this week, Ashanti spoke on this:
“Everyone wants to be the best right? Who doesn’t? It’s a competitive business, but I was rooting for her,” Ashanti recalled. “I just think we did two different types of music. It was a friendly competition, from my end.”
http://writtenbyashanti.com/2014/02/...st-murder-inc/