Ashanti Says a Music Producer Asked Her to Shower with Him — or Pay $80K for Songs They Created

Ashanti opened up about an unnamed producer who tried to take advantage of her.

In the latest episode of The Breakfast Club, the singer shared a story she first spoke out about in 2018 — a time when the #MeToo Movement was beginning to shed light on power imbalances, misogyny and sexual harassment as well as assault in the entertainment industry.

The "Foolish" singer told the hosts that a producer she collaborated with briefly once presented her with two options: take a shower with him or pay $80,000 — "40 racks per record" — for two songs they created together.

Ashanti said the producer originally said she wouldn't have to pay for the tracks, telling her: "You know you my homie." Then, when it came time to put the songs on a record, he asked her to shower with him.

"I thought he was joking," she recalled. "Then he was like, 'Nah, I'm dead serious.'"

Four years ago, Ashanti first told the story of this incident on SiriusXM's Conversations with Maria Menounos. She was asked about #MeToo in the music industry, to which she replied: "Unfortunately, these things definitely happen."

"I've come across a situation where there was a certain producer that, you know, he had his little crush or whatever, but it wasn't anything new, you know?" she continued. "Going into the session and recording, it was all good, and once I said 'No,' all of the sudden the track became $45,000."

The "What's Luv?" singer told Menounos that she ultimately got both the two records and an additional one for free, thanks to her "really cool, scary big brothers," who she said she's "blessed" to have, noting: "I had to call in the reinforcements."

When Breakfast Club host Charlamagne tha God said that he didn't want to ask Ashanti "any questions about that" in the episode, referring to the #MeToo story she shared with Menounos in 2018, the singer said she feels like she has to talk about it.

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Ashanti said that "at this point" — "20 years" in the industry — and given "where we are in social media and what we're doing to progressively grow in this industry," she can't hold her tongue anymore: "I feel like just for a woman, I had to come out and just say my piece."

"At some point, you have just to speak up," she said. "And that's what I did."