SHE IS A SINGER, A SONGwriter, a diva-in-training from Glen Cove, Long Island, and, with her first album, a genuine chart-topping phenomenon. Ja Rule calls her "our new princess of hip-hop and R&B." You may call her Ashanti (Miss Ashanti, if you're nasty). In addition to singing the hooks on TWO Top Ten singles -Ja's "Always On Time" and Fat Joe's "What's Luv" -she entered the charts at Number One with her debut, Ashanti, (The 500,000 copies it sold its first week set a record for a debut by a female artist.) Her single -the breathily irresistible, DeBarge-sampling, breakin'-up-is-hard-to-do ballad "Foolish" -is also perched comfortably in the Top Ten. We caught up with Ashanti in Chicago, where she was getting some last-minute hairstyling in a hotel room before a late-night performance. 

After so many cameos on other people's hits, were you tired of being known as "Ashanti the hook girl"?
 Actually, no, I liked the exposure, because the records were successful. But because I was all on everybody else's joint, I had to smack it up with "Foolish" and show that I can write.

There is a rumor that you've "ghost-sung" some vocals for J. Lo.
You are bad! You're a bad guy!

Well, did you or did you not?
I demo-ed the vocals for her so she could hear it, not so they would be on the record. So I've actually been involved with four records in the Top Ten at the same time; everyone says three, but technically it's four. At first, I was like, "Hold up, what's going on?" But it's getting taken care of.

Where does your name come from?
Ashanti originated in Ghana. It's the name of a tribe You know how in other cultures, women are usually low on the totem pole?

Um, yeah...
Well, in this particular tribe, the women are just, like, the bomb. They're respected to the utmost. In other cultures, though, my name means different things. In Creole, it means "of song"; in Indian, shanti means "peace," but when you put an a in front of it, it means "war." But I'm a peaceful people person -I only bring the war when I have to. [Suddenly] Shereese, this is such a cheap comb -it's no good! My hairdresser just broke this comb in half, and all the teeth are coming out!

Ashanti, you can't let your hair get nappy like that!
It's not me! [Laughs] It's my hairdresser! She has booga-naps! 

What's a booga-nap?
You know how if a curl is really, really tight and you can't get the comb through because it's too nappy? That's a booga-nap.

It probably doesn't bode well for your look if your hairdresser has booga-naps. Anyway, here's one I'm sure you've never heard before: Are you always on time?
Negative. What do you expect? I'm a female, so no.

Are you saying you're a diva?
No, no -far from it. I'm a real down-to-earth girl.

Who's late all the time.
I'm not late all the time. But, y'know, sometimes. Give me a break! It gets ugly, but I'm not trying to be a diva. I mean, I complain, but no one pays me any mind!

When I heard all the war stories on your album, I was like, "Damn, this girl must've had so many fucked-up relationships." How many times have you been foolish in love?
I'm only twenty-one -I've only had two serious relationships. The last one was real, real serious, but I had to dead it. There was too much pressure from the success and the traveling. I was kinda foolish in that last relationship, though. 

So "Foolish" is based on reality.
Definitely. We weren't throwing lamps at each other like in the video, but he did a lot of crazy things. Making the album was like a group-therapy session: Everyone in the studio was going through the same relationship struggles, from the engineers to the guys that just hang out and roll dice! "Over" is very personal. I'd get so mad with my boyfriend, I'd roll down the windows and blast "Over"! 

Do you feel the need to confess in your songs?
It's not about confessing. It's about keeping it real. There was one song where I did that I left off my album. It's kinda corny, but I liked what I said in it: It was about being insecure, about what was going on in my life, about the things that were happening late at night. Like people going through my clothes and my drawers.

Huh?
We'll save that for the next interview.