Ashanti talked about the #MeToo movement in regards to the music business and her incident while on SiriusXM’s Conversations with Maria Menounos.
The singer said “unfortunately, these things definitely happen,” when speaking on sexual harassment before sharing her example while working on a previous album.
“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 said. “Going into the session and recording it was all good. And once I said no all of a sudden the track became $45,000.”
In recalling the ask for a sexual favor, she said, “It’s funny because he said something like, ‘Well just take a shower with me and let me do this.'”
Without revealing who it was, Ashanti said that her “scary” big brothers approached the producer and got him to apologize and work on three of her songs for free.
The “Rain on Me” singer said that she was lucky at the moment to have people to defend her and that many women are not afforded that benefit. “Does it happen? It does, and it is unfortunate. I feel like the #MeToo [movement] is encouraging women to be able to say, ‘No, I don’t want to do this. Don’t put me in this position.'”
