Before Nicki Minaj, there was Vita

Few new hip-hop heads today have heard of LaVita Raynor, but the rapper better known as Vita, from Murder Inc., used to kill mics and was considered the heiress apparent to the lady rap throne.
The Bermuda beauty had a sibling, Kima, in the Bad Boy group Total.
Like so many of the other artists associated with Irv Gotti this decade (remember Charlie Baltimore?), Vita has fallen off the map.
Vita's long-awaited album, which was due to be released in 2001, has still languished nearly a decade in what's left of Murder Inc.'s decrepit database of beats and rhymes.
When you look at Michael Jordan's greatness, it must be viewed against the people that kept him sharp, his competition. Same is true with the female rap game; when you look at the greatest of a Lil Kim or Foxy Brown, it must be viewed through the competition of female emcees that raised the bar for the them.
Vita raised the bar.

Check out Vita kill the first verse of Ja Rule's "Holla Holla" remix.

Is Ashanti Still Hot?

Is Ashanti still hot?
Does she still have it?
Fresh off her stage debut in the multi-week run of "The Wiz," and free of her record label woes with The Inc, AND free of a longterm relationship with rapper Nelly, (well, maybe) one has to ask: What's up with Ashanti these days?

The last we saw of her she performed with Ja Rule at the VH1 Hip Hop Honors, but as of now no solid music plans are in place.
People would not believe how much Ashanti had the music world on look a short 5 years ago. Everywhere you went you heard this girl. She was just that hot (Remember: "Foolish" sold more than 503,000 copies in its first week of release.)
Today, she's got fierce competition from the likes of Ms. Disturbia herself, as well as CiCi, Keri and a slew of others gunning for the throne.
So, does Ashanti have a chance?
Would you buy an album?

Critics Trash Ashanti in 'The Wiz'

With the shows ending last week in the short-running stage production of "The Wiz," singer Ashanti has gotten mixed reviews as Dorothy.
Actually if you replaced the word mixed with horrible, you'd be more on point.
We all saw this coming, right? I bet Nelly saw it ("You need to stay right hurrrr," he prolly told her).
It's not that she doesn't have the pipes of, say, Diana Ross (Well, let's be honest, she doesn't). But homegirl is trying to act too. What Di pulled off so effortlessly is apparently harder than it looks.
The New York Daily News said of her part: "A mighty singer with a voice that soars, but a limited actress whose face registers apprehension, delight, anger, whatever,
with scarcely a shift in expression.

Bloomberg said of her performance: As Dorothy, Ashanti sings pleasingly enough, but she isn’t much of an actress, her posture often listless and her expression a frequently frozen blank.

Even the New York Times called her "lovely but lifeless".

Ouch!
Guess, being on Murder Inc. so long must have taken the life out of ole 'Shanti. Somewhere, between lying to "Deb," we think Irv Gotti is smiling:)


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