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       *Say what you want about Ashanti’s singing skills – enough people are buying her records to make her a bona fide, platinum-selling recording artist, and that’s all that counts these days, right?  …Anyone?

        As her latest album “Concrete Rose” settles in stores this week, the set’s first single “Only U” is climbing the charts, plus she’s already in the top 10 via Ja Rule’s “Wonderful.” The Glen Cove, NY native is also about to hit theaters in January starring opposite Samuel L. Jackson in “Coach Carter,” and Herbal Essences has just signed her on as a spokesperson. And don’t forget about her Muppet movie due out next month.  

       But with all of the advancements in her career comes the mountain of criticism over her singing, which at one point resulted in a petition to stop her from receiving Soul Train’s Aretha Franklin Entertainer of the Year award.  In an interview with Associated Press, Ashanti said the question of her singing talent, and her rampant use of “baby” in her lyrics make up the bulk of her “unfair” criticism.

      “What I've heard is, ‘Oh, she can't sing. Oh, she can't dance.’ And then I'll hear, ‘She sings good in the studio, she's a studio singer but she can't do it live,’” Ashanti says. “The baby thing — I think that's kind of new for me. I think I heard it a few months ago, and it made me laugh because it was funny. 'Cause I do use the word baby a lot, but so what? So, and — what is your point? That's like the bulk of what I get.

       “There's definitely been growth, in every aspect — lyrically, vocally, performances,” she says of her new album. “With the first album, although I had a lot of input, it was always up to [Murder Inc’s] Irv Gotti. And with this one, we both have to compromise (laughs).”