Ashanti cooing her feelings "Never Should Have"

"You never should have loved me...," intense! Ashanti doesn't hide her feelings and reminisces about love gone wrong in the brand-new moving music video, that premiered exclusively via ET Online, to her latest crossover track, "Never Should Have," the first single from the Grammy-winning singer's upcoming oft-delayed comeback fifth studio album, and first in five years, "Braveheart," is slated for a June 11 release.
The title of the album was inspired by the 1995 film, "Braveheart," starring Mel Gibson on the First War of Scottish Independence against England. Ashanti says she channeled the underdog mentality and raw passion in the film. Speaking of her LP "Braveheart," the "Army Wives" star said, “It's something for women, just being empowering. This album is something very deep. I'm going places that I haven't gone on different albums." The former Murder Inc starlet is all too familiar with heartbreak and being the innocent victim of a smooth criminal who never loved her in the first place.
The 32-year-old New Yorker has never had the strongest voice, but she's always made bangers and definitely more powerful. The heart-wrenching "Never Should Have," which was produced by Mansur, is a pretty emotional ballad, and sees the R&B singer cooing of a former lover she now regrets over a marching band-driven beat that could easily sit on the pop charts. The emotionally-powerful heartbreak song soundtracks some very real relationship troubles while the songstress swans around idyllic settings.
Unlike her previously released, the Sanji Senaka-directed "Never Should Have" video displays Ashanti's more emotional side, detailing the heartbreak of love. Shot in Santa Barbara, California, we see The R&B songstress conveys heartbreak through the emotional storylines and pouring her heart out as a teary-eyed Ashanti sings the resentful lyrics on the beach, on a deserted road, and in the middle of some lost ruins, looking stunning in different flattering, and long gowns as the sun sets and sheds a tear about love lost. Besides the Ashanti scenes, the video features story-lines of random people and couples who are in some way facing struggles.

Ashanti Goes Sci-Fi For "The Woman You Love"

Ashanti makes a grand return after her 4-year hiatus and cranked up the push with a music video for her big comeback single, "The Woman You Love," the lead single from her next studio installment "Braveheart," hits stores April 17th. The Jerry Wonda-produced track featuring rapper Busta Rhymes as Ashanti looks stylish while suffering through a breakup and gets galactic as she sings about the love she tried to keep but had to let go in this Sean Coles-directed Sci-Fi inspired video.
Produced by Jerry "Wonda" Duplessis, the track definitely targeted towards the R&B/Hip-Hop crowd and features a thumping beat and a grooving bass line with hard-hitting rhymes over her broken heart lyrics about a failed relationship with no reconciliation in sight. The song features a pulsating backdrop, and Ashanti singing about a love interest who wasted her time, despite her trying her best to make him happy, while Rhymes caps off the song by admitting the man's guilt and looking for a second chance, before insisting that he's gone for good if he leaves.
It's been years since Ashanti was at the forefront of the R&B world and the 31-year-old Grammy winner's first indie release, Ashanti's taking it back to basics. She says that she has experienced many of the same struggles the characters in the film had to deal with. "The Woman You Love" harks back to the hard-edged hip-hop of the 90s, and it should please Ashanti stans and urban listeners alike, but it may be a little too edgy to crossover like the diva's past records have. The R&B diva combines drama with Sci-Fi as she blasts into space and looks back upon a failed relationship.
The music video follows a tortured soul who floats into the future and learns to deal with her heartache the best she could. Ashanti is a time traveler who seeks refuge from her broken heart and called on actor/model Marcus Patrick to serve as her disgruntled lover in the clip, which is hoped will give the track the boost it needs. The "Foolish" hitmaker is floating into the future while remembering her doomed relationship with a boyfriend and learning that "the only way to heal is to accept and let go of the past."