Ashanti Opens Up About How the Music Industry Has Changed

Ashanti is on the latest digital cover of Paper, out now.

Here’s what the 37-year-old “Foolish” music superstar had to say…

On a sense of community in the music industry: “I feel like we’ve definitely moved away from the community aspect of things. There are not a lot of labels that are a crew that really celebrate together. If I was doing something, Ja [Rule] and everybody came. If Ja was doing something, me and everybody came. I don’t know where we are right now, it’s a weird space. But I do see a lot of rappers — men and women — making up instead of tearing each other down, and I’m really happy about that. It’s a ray of hope for me.”

On her relationship with social media: “When Twitter was born, even back then I definitely had the motto of ‘elephants don’t swat flies.’”

On connecting with fans online: “To have that dialogue and that important connection [with fans] where a fan feels special if you comment back when it matters most and they feel like, ‘Oh, she got love!’ — that outweighs a lot of the negative.”

For more from Ashanti, head to PaperMag.com.