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Amidst a protest outside Universal Motown offices earlier this week, Ashanti and her label have decided to remove a highly controversial web tool that allowed fans to send customized, bloody, revenged-based e-mail blasts to people they disliked.
According to New York's Newsday, "The Gotchagram" was initially planned to be a marketing strategy for her single "The Way That I Love You" from her recently released album The Declaration.
"If you have someone you think is cheating on you, you can send them an e-mail blast and customize it and accuse them of maybe not being emotionally available, or you found them cheating on you, or sneaking around with one of your friends," Ashanti said prior to today's removal. "And you could send out an e-mail blast with a snippet of my video and it let's them know 'I know you're cheating' or 'I know you're thinking about it. Cut it out.'"
Despite the former Murder Inc. singer's positive intentions, violent images like a fake newscast about a murder victim and the image of the intended e-mail recipient's name spelled out in blood were discovered and protested against by Paul Porter of the Industry Ears media.
"There's just too much violence out there," Porter said. "What shocked me is that it came from Ashanti."
After protesting outside of her record label's offices in L.A. last Tuesday and threatening to continue prior to the start of the Lakers and Celtics Game 5 where she was scheduled to sing the national anthem, Universal Motown issued a statement promising to remove the feature.
"Ashanti and her music have always been about self-empowerment and addressing the issues that are most meaningful to her," the label said.
'Shanti released her first project independent of Irv Gotti's direction with an opening week sales total of 87,000. The album features production from Bryan Michael-Cox, Babyface, Jermaine Dupri, and Polow Da Don among others with appearances by Nelly, Akon, and Robin Thicke.
Source: sohh.com
According to New York's Newsday, "The Gotchagram" was initially planned to be a marketing strategy for her single "The Way That I Love You" from her recently released album The Declaration.
"If you have someone you think is cheating on you, you can send them an e-mail blast and customize it and accuse them of maybe not being emotionally available, or you found them cheating on you, or sneaking around with one of your friends," Ashanti said prior to today's removal. "And you could send out an e-mail blast with a snippet of my video and it let's them know 'I know you're cheating' or 'I know you're thinking about it. Cut it out.'"
Despite the former Murder Inc. singer's positive intentions, violent images like a fake newscast about a murder victim and the image of the intended e-mail recipient's name spelled out in blood were discovered and protested against by Paul Porter of the Industry Ears media.
"There's just too much violence out there," Porter said. "What shocked me is that it came from Ashanti."
After protesting outside of her record label's offices in L.A. last Tuesday and threatening to continue prior to the start of the Lakers and Celtics Game 5 where she was scheduled to sing the national anthem, Universal Motown issued a statement promising to remove the feature.
"Ashanti and her music have always been about self-empowerment and addressing the issues that are most meaningful to her," the label said.
'Shanti released her first project independent of Irv Gotti's direction with an opening week sales total of 87,000. The album features production from Bryan Michael-Cox, Babyface, Jermaine Dupri, and Polow Da Don among others with appearances by Nelly, Akon, and Robin Thicke.
Source: sohh.com