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Following her Verzuz with Keyshia Cole last week, Ashanti addressed her opponent’s “attitude” and late arrival to the battle during an interview with Hot 97’s Ebro in the Morning. She came to Keyshia’s defense and said she did what she had to do in order to keep the fans preoccupied while they waited for the “Let It Go” singer to get her set up together.
After waiting for a longer time than expected to see the two R&B singers duke it out, fans finally had the chance 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 more than 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 energy high until things were ready to begin.
“I obviously thought she was gonna be there a little bit sooner,” she 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 the fellow singer 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 and song choice when the singers did finally belt out their best hits.
