Concrete Rose

Following the success of her sophomore studio album Chapter II, Ashanti confirmed in November 2003 that she had begun planning her third studio album, due to be out in mid-2004.[2] In February 2004, Ashanti said the album had "a new sound, a new flavor", and said she wanted "to touch on more topics that I didn't touch on with the first and the second record." She also confirmed that she had already recorded three songs for the album.[3] By July, Ashanti confirmed she had already finished the record, and planned its release for November.[4]

The song "Turn It Up", featuring rapper Ja Rule, was initially released as the lead single off the album. However, it was downscaled to a buzz single after The Inc. decided to release "Only U" as Concrete Rose's lead single instead.[5] The song, released on October 26, 2004, reached the top ten of several countries, including Ireland (#4), Japan (#), and the United Kingdom (#2); the song also reached the top twenty in Germany (#12), New Zealand (#14), Switzerland (#12), and the United States (#13).[5]

The album was largely overshadowed by the legal issues surrounding Murder Inc./The Inc. and its head, Irv Gotti. In January 2003, during recording of Chapter II, the offices Murder Inc. were raided during an investigation into Gotti's ties to gangster Kenneth McGriff.[6][7] In November, Murder Inc. changed its name to The Inc., in an attempt to distance the company from its several controversies.[8][9][10] Between November 2004 and January 2005, Gotti, McGriff, and several employees and associates of The Inc. were arrested on charges of money laundering, racketeering, and murder, regarding to the killing of rapper E-Money Bags.[11][12][13][14][15][16] In April 2005, Ashanti chose "Don't Let Them" to be the second single from the album.[17] However, in May, Def Jam dissolved its partnership with The Inc., and refused to promote the single or give it a music video.[18] As a result, the single failed to chart in the United States; however, the single did chart moderately in Ireland (#41) and the United Kingdom (#38).[17]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	47/100[19]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Blender	[19]
Billboard	(average)[20]
Entertainment Weekly	C−[21]
The Guardian	[22]
Los Angeles Times	[23]
PopMatters	[24]
Rolling Stone	[25]
Slant Magazine	[26]
USA Today	[27]

Concrete Rose received mixed reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 47, based on 10 reviews, which indicates "mixed or average" reviews.[19] Andy Kellman from Allmusic found that "disregarding the ill-suited standards, an Ashanti album is always good for a handful of strong singles, as Concrete Rose helps indicate [...] it's no better or worse than her 2002 debut or 2003's Chapter II, with the standout singles, decent album cuts, and filler fluff provided in equal doses."[1] USA Today journalist Steve Jones found that with Concrete Rose Ashanti "sticks closely to her usual formula of engaging beats and airy vocals [...] Still, she is consistent enough to make this Rose bloom full time."[27] Nicholas Tayor from PopMatters called the album "a decent, 54-minute collection of mostly mid-tempo tracks by a decent R&B singer."[24] Billboard noted that "a more confident-sounding Ashanti is onboard for her third time out. Powered by sensual lead single "Only You," Concrete Rose contains several other equally rhythmic jams."[20]

Hattie Collins, writing for The Guardian, found that "Ashanti doesn't stray from the R&B rulebook that has so far seen her sell some 7m albums in the US alone – namely a hip-hop backdrop of hard-knock beats tempered by a soul-lite vocal [...] A lack of originality and too much filler mark Ashanti more as a pedestrian than the princess she purports to be."[22] Steve Appleford from the Los Angeles Times wrote that Ashanti and Concrete Rose sound "trapped, sapped of strength and ideas, and buried beneath all the worst cold and calculated production tendencies of her label [...] What follows is modern R&B; formula at its most flat and uninspired. For all her lovesick panting, pleading and purring, Ashanti is never emotionally engaged with the songs, which aren't worth the trouble anyway."[23] Entertainment Weekly's Raymond Fiore remarked that "the thin-voiced vixen's third disc bruises both genres with a slew of mostly midtempo clunkers built with her weapons of choice: faux grit and forced sensuality."[21] In his review for Slant Magazine, Sal Cinquemani wrote: "Ashanti is incapable of doing slinky or sexy and, despite her incessant attempts at vamping, she can't all-out sing either – she's even upstaged by a Hammond organ."[26]

Concrete Rose debuted at number seven on the Billboard 200 album chart in December 2004 and Billboard's Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums chart at number one with first-week sales of 254,000 units sold. The album was certified Platinum by the RIAA on January 14, 2005 and remained on the Billboard 200 albums chart for 20 weeks. The album has sold over 1 million copies in the U.S. to date, as of October 2005.[28]

Outside the United States the album debuted or peaked at #25 in the United Kingdom, #98 in France, #35 in Germany and #66 in Switzerland.

• Concrete Rose at Metacritic