MadameNoire
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Following her Verzuz with Keyshia Cole last week, Ashanti addressed her opponent’s “attitude” and late arrival to the battle in today’s episode of Hot 97’s Ebro in the Morning. Coming to Keyshia’s defense, Ashanti said she did what she had to do in order to keep the fans preoccupied while they waited for Keyshia to get her set up together, and that it’s only natural Keyshia might have been on edge before hopping into the singing match.
After waiting for a longer time than expected to see the two R&B singers duke it out, fans finally got to see Keyshia and Ashanti go back-and-forth singing their classic hits last Thursday (Jan. 21). Before things could get started though, Ashanti and viewers had to wait over an hour after the battle was set to start for Keyshia to arrive and be ready. When discussing the delay with Ebro and his co-hosts, Ashanti said even though she expected the Verzuz to start on time, she felt it was her duty to both Keyshia and the watchers at home to keep the excitement pumped up until things were ready to begin.
“I obviously thought she was gonna be there a little bit sooner,” Ashanti said. “I just felt like as women camaraderie, if someone is late, you know, you hold on a little bit — I didn’t even realize so much time was going by, and we were sitting in the dressing room and I got a call like ‘Yo, we’ve got to figure out, what’s going on?’ and ‘Oh she’s not ready,’ whatever it is that was happening you know? I think there was something with her screen, or the sound, or something. I didn’t even know what was going on — I was like, OK, I have to go out because there’s just people sitting there. This thing has been already up and down—the cancelations, the postponements, now it’s late. So, I said, ‘I’m going to wait a bit longer, and then I’ll go out.’ So I did.”
Speaking on the backlash Keyshia received for her seemingly annoyed demeanor throughout the battle, Ashanti again defended the fellow songstress. As she saw it, with all the technical difficulties Keyshia supposedly had, mixed with general nerves leading up to the battle, she couldn’t fault Keyshia for coming across a bit tense.
“Everyone has their days, you know what I mean?” the “Foolish” singer said. “There was probably a lot of stuff going on. It’s a lot of pressure. When you think of that many people with eyes on you, you know what I mean? If her stuff wasn’t together, of course you’re going to be frustrated — So on top of being nervous and then having to deal with all of that, of course you’re going to be a little flustered. So I would just assume that played a part into it.”
When all is said and done, although people got tired of waiting for the Verzuz between Keyshia and Ashanti to go down both before and the day of the battle, at least not many were disappointed with the quality of the vocals when the singers did finally belt out their best hits. With many watchers agreeing Ashanti won the battle, harping over bragging rights seemed to be the least of Keyshia’s worries after the showdown.
