Ashanti appears on this week’s Page Six magazine cover.  She looks so pretty, doesn’t she? 

On her career being in a standstill due to the money laundering indictment of Irv Gotti, CEO of her record label Murder Inc., :

`That was the worst part—not having a say as to what’s happening in my own life,” she says now. “To a singer, that’s like telling them they’re dying. It was tragic.”

On being taken advantage of (she did not not even having a recording contract until after her first video, Foolish came out):

 “Trust me, if I knew then what I know now, that contract would have had a lot more zeros behind the dollar sign,” she says. “I was not an overnight success like people think.”

On her boyfriend of a few years, Nelly:

“an amazing person with a big heart, who’s taught me a lot.”

On wanting 10 kids (that’s not a type-o):

I love kids and kids dig me.” And that’s why as part of her declaration to be a “stronger, more independent woman,” she’s adding being a mom to her list of priorities. “I love my career, but to one day be a mom is more important to me than any platinum albums or awards.”