Ashanti - Foolish

What this video is

Released February 11, 2002, 'Foolish' arrived at the absolute crest of Ashanti's crossover moment. By April 2002, she simultaneously held the top two positions on the Billboard Hot 100 with 'Foolish' and 'What's Luv?' — making her the first female artist to achieve this. The song spent ten consecutive weeks at No. 1, and her debut album sold 503,000 copies in its first week, the highest first-week debut for a…

Why it matters

'Foolish' is a defining artifact of the melodic hip-hop soul subgenre that dominated the Billboard Hot 100 in 2001–2004, characterized by DeBarge-era soul samples layered beneath contemporary hip-hop production. The video's narrative gravity and cinematic ambition set a template for R&B…

The director

Born Irving Domingo Lorenzo Jr. in Hollis, Queens, New York. Started as a hip-hop DJ in the 1980s, became A&R at TVT Records (1995) then Def Jam (1997). Co-founded Murder Inc. Records with brother Chris Gotti in 1998–1999 as a Def Jam imprint. Grammy winner;…