ASHANTI SHOULD BE A WRECK. TWO NIGHTS AGO, SHE WAS IN L.A to perform at the BET Awards. She took a red-eye to New York to play Hot 97's Summer Jam. She taped a segment for Today. She's about to sing on BET's 106 & Park, then she'll head to Baltimore. Somehow, amid a storm of hair, makeup, and wardrobe wizards, she's calm. 

     Everyone wants a piece of the 21-year-old ingenue who shocked the industry in April, when Ashanti sold 502,000 copies its first week and set the record for a female artist's debut. Her first three singles ranked in the top 10 at the same time - she's the first to do that since the Beatles - and now her album has gone double platinum. The heat is on. 
 
     "It gets ridiculous when I'm doing three states in one day with the travel and the entourage and the change and the security checks and the radio and the autographs and the smiling in the airport -it's bananas!" Her cool fades for an instant, then returns. "But I remember when I was on the couch watching everyone go to college while I'm watching Ricki Lake. And it's worth it." 

     The couch sits in Glen Cove, Long Island, just 10 minutes from Nassau Coliseum, site of Summer Jam. Ashanti attended the concert as a fan, but now she's on the bill with Missy Elliott and Busta Rhymes. Early in her set, Fat Joe joins her for "What's Luv?" They cut a striking contrast: Ashanti looks gorgeous, slinking around in strategically placed shoelaces. Fat Joe looks...fat, stomping around in baggy shorts and a jersey. He barks lewd verses while she sweetly coos "it should be about trust, babe," her gentle succor turning his thuggish gravitas to gravy. This formula drove Ashanti to runaway success on duets with Big Pun and Ja Rule. On stage, only she can make "I'll be your down-ass bitch" sound tender. 

     Perfecting her act took time: At 14 Ashanti signed a deal with Jive, home to Britney Spears. When her abnormal tendencies - like writing her own songs - didn't jive with the label, the deal fizzled. At 17, she signed with Epic. When it too fell apart, she hit the couch, turned on the tube, and considered giving up. Then Murder Inc. called.

     Founded by producer Irv Gotti in 1997, Murder Inc. made its grisly name with gangsta grooves, earning street cred but little crossover cash. In Ashanti, Gotti saw an opportunity. "I wanted to be a little different than the rest," he says. "I'm a dreamer, but she shocked the s --- out of me when she came out with 500,000." Which led to the media frenzy, a book deal (with Hyperion), and an ad contract (with Candie's). As for her music, Gotti's convinced Ashanti's got an offer we can't refuse: "She just knows how to make hit records."