'Coach': Ashanti's Film Debut

Ashanti is best known as a multi-platinum Grammy-winning singer/songwriter. She made history in 2002 when her debut album sold more copies in its first week than any first-time female solo artist.

Now, Ashanti is making her big-screen debut as the girlfriend of a high school basketball star in the new film "Coach Carter."

"When I found out it was a true story, I thought, 'I definitely want to be a part of it, to make my debut,' " Ashanti tells The Early Show co-anchor Julie Chen. "I wanted to take my time and ease on into it, and I didn't want to be the star of a film and have the whole film on my shoulders."

Set in Richmond, Calif., the film is an account of controversial high school basketball coach Ken Carter (Samuel L. Jackson), who received both high praise and staunch criticism when he made national news for benching his entire undefeated team for poor academic performance.

With the film, Ashanti hopes viewers understand that teenagers are dealing with the same problems adults do.
It's just a reality," she says. "It's very motivational and very powerful, and I think that people will be able to relate."

Ashanti plays Kyra, the pregnant girlfriend of Kenyon Stone (Rob Brown). He is a star player who is torn when he has to decide whether or not to remain in Richmond to help raise the child, knowing that if he does stay, it could derail his future.

"Coach Carter" is being released by Paramount Pictures, which is owned by the same parent company as CBS.

About Ashanti:

• Born on Oct. 13, 1980, raised in Glen Cove, a neighborhood on Long Island, N.Y. Both of her parents worked as computer specialists though their backgrounds were in entertainment; her mother danced and her father sang.
• She studied dance at the Bernice Johnson Cultural Arts Center and began dancing at the age of 3.
• She performed in famed venues like Carnegie Hall and the Apollo Theater and danced in the Disney TV film, "Polly," directed by actress and choreographer Debbie Allen.
• It was by accident that Ashanti stumbled upon singing, she tells Chen. "I was vacuuming the living room; my mom said, 'No television and no radio because it takes you too long.' She's, like, 'I thought I told you no radio.' I was just sitting; the radio wasn't on. I was just singing and she was, like, 'What?' "
• Less than two years later, Ashanti signed her first record contract with Jive Records. That deal went nowhere, in part because Ashanti wanted to write her own songs, something the record company did not like.
• At 17, Ashanti moved to Atlanta to work with Noontime, a subsidiary of mega-label Epic. That partnership fizzled out as well and she was soon back in New York, finishing up high school and starting to plan for her future.
• After a successful meeting with Irv Gotti, the man behind the hardcore rap label Murder, Inc., she went into the label's Greenwich Village studio and began to work on her debut album, "Ashanti." She wrote the lyrics for all 12 songs, penning many of them right in the studio.
• While finishing up her album, she appeared on rapper Ja Rule's "Always on Time." In the song, she plays the smooth-voiced girlfriend to Ja Rule's hard-edged man. The song scorched through the charts, landing at No. 1. At about the same time, she appeared alongside another rapper, Fat Joe, on his "What's Luv?" single. Again, her sultry cooing played perfectly off the gansta-fueled rap and the song also tore up the charts. Meanwhile, a song she wrote for Jennifer Lopez, "Ain't It Funny," also began climbing toward the top 10. Murder Inc. promptly released "Foolish," the first single off of "Ashanti," and it also soared.
• By April of 2002, "Foolish" was holding the No. 1 spot,"What's Luv?" was at No. 2, and "Ain't It Funny" was No. 3. She became the first new female artist to hold both the one and two spots, and only the second artist since the Beatles to have three songs in the top 10 at the same time.
• With the videos for "Always on Time" and "Foolish" receiving heavy airtime, the public also took notice of her beauty. She was splashed across magazine spreads. Ashanti was hot and Gotti and crew decided to take advantage of it, pushing up the release of her album. It was a smart move. Ashanti shot straight to No.1 and sold an unprecedented 504,000 units during the first week.
• "Foolish" made headway in the urban radio format--home to rap and hip-hop--as well as the more mainstream pop format.

• Led Soul Train's Lady of Soul Awards with the most nominations, five in all including "Best New Artist" which she won.
• At MTV she grabbed four nominations at the Video Music Awards and performed live at the event. She also scored "Breakout Artist of the Year" from the 2002 Teen Choice Awards.
• In November of 2002, she found out she was up for five awards at the 30th annual American Music Awards.
• Also in 2002, she won the prestigious Soul Train Aretha Franklin Award for "Entertainer of the Year." However, it became controversial when a high school boy in California took offense and started an on-line petition against her saying she was too new to win such an award and nearly 30,000 people agreed with him, signing the petition. Critics pointed to the fact that Ashanti's phenomenal first week sales were propelled along by Island Def Jam Music Group, the parent company of Murder Inc. The company offered retailers a $2 rebate for each album sold in the first two weeks. While it is true that Ashanti was hot, Lyor Cohen, CEO of Island Def Jam, confessed to the New York Times, "We put gasoline in the carburetor."
• In November of 2002, Hyperion released a collection of her poems -"Foolish/ Unfoolish: Reflections On Love." Ashanti will have a second book published by Hyperion in spring of 2005. Also in the spring, she stars as Dorothy in "The Muppets Wonderful World of Oz" on ABC. Ashanti's third album, "Concrete Rose," hit stores on Dec. 14, 2004.