The Declaration (2008)
Her fourth studio album, The Declaration, was released in June 2008. Ashanti ventured out and acquired producers and collaborators primarily outside The Inc. for the first time. She said the album was a representation of the freedom she felt she had at that time in her career. "I'm steering my own ship and taking the lead on everything. You can definitely hear the growth; I'm working with producers I've never worked with before". Irv Gotti was quoted as saying, "she's having her little Janet Jackson Control moment. Every artist has their moment when they feel they need to take over their own music and this is hers".
The album debuted at number six on the Billboard 200 with sales of 86,000 copies, Ashanti's lowest first-week sales for a studio album. Two singles released during 2007 in advance of the album's release-"Switch" featuring Nelly and "Hey Baby (After the Club)" featuring Mario Winans-did not chart on the Billboard Hot 100. "Hey Baby (After the Club)" reached number eighty-seven on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, and the third single, which is known as the official first single of the album, the L. T. Hutton-produced "The Way That I Love You", reached number two on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and peaked at number thirty-seven on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
The next single from the album is the Jermaine Dupri-produced "Good Good". Also featured on The Declaration is the Nelly collaboration "Body on Me", which is the third single from his 2008 album Brass Knuckles. On July 17th BET premiered the video for "Good Good" by playing of the video at the top of every hour. It was directed by Melina.
Ashanti came under heavy fire for the now pulled TheWayThatILoveYou.com and its Gotchagrams. Visitors to the controversial site were greeted by a fake news headline from the UCN, the Universal Crime Network, which reported that, "police are investigating a recent wave of violence in New Jersey. The police commissioner has hinted that there may be a tie between the recent attacks and the music video for Universal/Motown recording artist Ashanti's single 'The Way That I Love You.'" Less than 30 seconds after the site loaded, a large knife, dripping with blood, carved out a box at the top of the page, and a menu popped up that let users send a "Gotchagram" e-card/video to a friend or enemy. After putting in your name, the name of your friend and their "crime," a menu titled "Your Victim's Crime" dropped down with such options as "sleeping around," "suspected sleeping around," "playing you like a fool" and "breaking your heart." The next drop-down menu, for "Weapon of Choice," features options such as "boot," "knife," "can," "sledgehammer," "rolling pin" and "guillotine." Due to the threat of a protest and bad publicity towards the album, Ashanti & Universal decided to take the website down. The Way That I Love You has sold over 8 million ringtones in the U.S