prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: Who gave the mother of Alberic II of Spoleto the title "patricia" of Rome?

The following are given passages.
Context 1: Passage 1:
Alberic III of Dammartin
Alberic III of Dammartin (Aubry de Dammartin) (c  1138 – 19 September 1200) was a French count and son of Alberic II, Count of Dammartin, and Clémence de Bar, daughter of Reginald I, Count of Bar  
He married Mathilde, heiress to the county of Clermont and daughter of Renaud II, Count of Clermont  They had:

Renaud I, Count of Dammartin (c  1165–1227), married 1) Marie de Châtillon and 2) Ide de Lorraine with whom he had Matilda II, Countess of Boulogne, Queen of Portugal
Alix de Dammartin (1170–1237), married Jean, Châtelain de Trie
Simon of Dammartin (1180 – 21 September 1239), married Marie, Countess of Ponthieu father of Joan, Countess of Ponthieu, Queen of Castile and Leon 
Julia of Dammartin, married Hugh de Gournay
Agnes of Dammartin, married William de Fiennes

Notes
Passage 2:
Gregory I, Count of Tusculum
Gregory I was the Count of Tusculum sometime between 954 and 1012  Consul et dux 961, vir illustrissimus 980, praefectus navalis 999  He was the son of Alberic II (son of Alberic I of Spoleto and Marozia), and Alda of Vienne (daughter of Hugh, King of Italy and his second wife, Alda (or Hilda))  His half-brother was Pope John XII 
He held the cities of Galeria, Arce, and Preneste and the title count palatine, the palace referred to being that of the Lateran  He was the first to carry the title "Count of Tusculum" and he passed it to all his descendants  They also received the titles of excellentissimus vir' (most excellent man) and apostolic rector of Sant'Andrea, which Gregory received in 980  In 981, Gregory bore the title Romanorum consul, dux et senator: "Consul, duke, and senator of the Romans "
As well as being an intimate and ally of the popes, especially Sylvester II, Gregory also served as praefectus navalis of Holy Roman Emperors Otto I and Otto II  However, on 6 February 1001, he was named "Head of the Republic" by the Romans for leading the revolt against Otto III and expelling the Crescentii  In 1002, the latter returned to power and he had to renounce his title 
His death is attested before the 11 June 1012, when his successor, Theophylact, was elected Pope 

Marriage and issue
By his wife Maria (died 1013) he had three sons and a daughter:

Theophylact, who became Pope Benedict VIII 
Alberic III who succeeded him in Tusculum and in his titles 
Romanus, who became Pope John XIX
Marozia III, who married Thrasimund III of Spoleto  Together, the houses of Tusculum and Spoleto were the dominant secular powers in the central Italian peninsula, the one representative of the imperial power and the other, Gregory's, of papal 


== Sources ==
Passage 3:
Alberic II of Spoleto
Alberic II (912–954) was ruler of Rome from 932 to 954, after deposing his mother Marozia and his stepfather, King Hugh of Italy 
He was of the house of the counts of Tusculum, the son of Marozia by her first husband, Duke Alberic I of Spoleto  His half-brother was Pope John XI  At the wedding of his mother to King Hugh of Italy, Alberic and his new stepfather quarreled violently after Hugh slapped Alberic for clumsiness  Infuriated by this and perhaps motivated by rumors that Hugh intended to have him blinded, Alberic left the festivities and incited a Roman mob to revolt against Hugh  In December 932 Hugh fled the city, Marozia was cast into prison, and Alberic took control of Rome 

Marriage and issue
In 936 Alberic married his stepsister Alda, the daughter of King Hugh of Italy and had one son by her, Count Gregory I of Tusculum  According to Benedict of Soracte, he also had one illegitimate son, Octavianus, by an unknown mistress  On his deathbed Alberic had Roman nobility and clergy swear they would elect Octavianus as pope 

Sources
Williams, George L  (1998)  Papal Genealogy: The Families and Descendants of the Popes  McFarland & Company, Inc 
Lexikon des Mittelalters 
Passage 4:
Marozia
Marozia, born Maria and also known as Mariuccia or Mariozza (c  890 – 937), was a Roman noblewoman who was the alleged mistress of Pope Sergius III and was given the unprecedented titles senatrix ("senatoress") and patricia of Rome by Pope John X 
Edward Gibbon wrote of her that the "influence of two sister prostitutes, Marozia and Theodora was founded on their wealth and beauty, their political and amorous intrigues: the most strenuous of their lovers were rewarded with the Roman tiara, and their reign may have suggested to darker ages the fable of a female pope  The bastard son, two grandsons, two great grandsons, and one great great grandson of Marozia—a rare genealogy—were seated in the Chair of St  Peter " Pope John XIII was her nephew, the offspring of her younger sister Theodora  From this description, the term "pornocracy" has become associated with the effective rule in Rome of Theodora and her daughter Marozia through male surrogates 

Early life
Marozia was born about 890  She was the daughter of the Roman consul Theophylact, Count of Tusculum, and of Theodora, the real power in Rome, whom bishop Liutprand of Cremona characterized as a "shameless whore    [who] exercised power on the Roman citizenry like a man "
At the age of fifteen, Marozia became the mistress of Theophylact's cousin Pope Sergius III, whom she knew when he was bishop of Portus  The two had a son, John (the later Pope John XI)  That, at least, is the story found in two contemporary sources, the Liber Pontificalis and the Antapodosis sive Res per Europam gestae (958–62), by Liutprand of Cremona (c  920–72)  But a third contemporary source, the annalist Flodoard (c  894–966), says John XI was brother of Alberic II, the latter being the offspring of Marozia and her husband Alberic I  Hence John too may have been the son of Marozia and Alberic I 
Marozia married Alberic I, duke of Spoleto, in 909, and their son Alberic II was born in 911 or 912  By the time Alberic I was killed at Orte in 924, the Roman landowners had won complete victory over the traditional bureaucracy represented by the papal curia  Rome was virtually under secular control, the historic nadir of the papacy 

Guy of Tuscany
In order to counter the influence of Pope John X (whom the hostile chronicler Liutprand of Cremona alleges was another of her lovers), Marozia subsequently married his opponent Guy of Tuscany  Together they attacked Rome, arrested Pope John X in the Lateran, and jailed him in the Castel Sant'Angelo  Either Guy had him smothered with a pillow in 928 or he simply died, perhaps from neglect or ill treatment  Marozia seized power in Rome in a coup d'état  The following popes, Leo VI and Stephen VII, were both her puppets  In 931 she managed to impose her twenty-one years old son as pontiff, under the name of John XI 

Hugh of Arles, and death
Guy died in 929, and Marozia negotiated a marriage with his half-brother Hugh of Arles, the King of Italy  While in Rome Hugh quarreled with Marozia's son Alberic II, who organized an uprising during the wedding ceremonies in 932  Hugh escaped, but Marozia was captured 
Marozia died after spending some 5 years in prison  Her descendants remained active in papal politics, starting with Alberic II's son Octavian, who became Pope John XII in 955  Popes Benedict VIII, John XIX, and Benedict IX, and antipope Benedict X of the House of Tusculani, were also descended from Marozia  By Guy of Tuscany she had a daughter named Berta Theodora, who never married 

Family tree
Sources
Chamberlin, E  R  (1969)  The Bad Popes  New York: Dial Press  ISBN 9789030041801  OCLC 647415773 
Williams, George (1998)  Papal genealogy, the families and descendants of the popes 
di Carpegna Falconieri, Tommaso (2008), Marozia, in Dizionario biografico degli italiani, 70, pp  681–685


== Footnotes ==
Passage 5:
Renaud I, Count of Dammartin
Renaud de Dammartin (Reginald of Boulogne) (c  1165 – 1227) was Count of Boulogne from 1190, Count of Dammartin from 1200 to 1214 and Count of Aumale from 1204 to 1214  He was son of Alberic III of Dammartin and Mathilde of Clermont Brought up at the French court, he was a childhood friend of Philip Augustus  At his father's insistence he fought for the Plantagenets  Received back into Philip's favour, he married Marie de Châtillon, daughter of Guy II de Châtillon and Adèle of Dreux, a royal cousin 
In 1191, Renaud's father, Alberic, kidnapped and had Renaud marry Ida, Countess of Boulogne  The County of Boulogne thereby became vassal to the French king, rather than the count of Flanders  While this marriage made Renaud a power, it also made enemies in the Dreux family and that of the count of Guînes, who had been betrothed to Ida 
In 1203, Renaud and his wife gave a merchant's charter to Boulogne  This was probably made for financial consideration  Philip made Renaud Count of Aumale the following year, but Renaud began to detach himself  Following the acquisition of Normandy in April 1204, King Philip granted Renaud the county of Mortain and the honor of Warenne which was centered on the fortresses of Mortemer and Bellencombre   Both Mortain and Warenne had been held by William I of Boulogne and it would appear that King Philip recognized the Boulogne claim to them 
In 1211, he refused to appear before Philip in a legal matter, a suit with Philippe de Dreux, bishop of Beauvais  Philip II seized his lands and on 4 May 1212 at Lambeth, Dammartin made an agreement with King John who had also lost possessions to Philip  Renaud brought other continental nobles, including the Count of Flanders, into a coalition with John against Philip  In return he was given several fiefs in England and an annuity  Each promised not to make a separate peace with France With the Emperor Otto IV and Ferdinand of Flanders, he took part in the attack on France in 1214 culminating in the Battle of Bouvines  Commanding the Brabançons, he was on the losing side, but was one of the last to surrender, and refused submission to Philip Augustus  His lands were taken away, and given to Philip Hurepel  Renaud was kept imprisoned at Péronne for the rest of his life, which ended in suicide   His daughter Matilda II was married to Philip Hurepel 
Passage 6:
Alberic II, Count of Dammartin
Alberic II (died 1183) was the Count of Dammartin, possibly the son of Aubry de Mello, Count of Dammartin, and Adela, daughter of Hugh I, Count of Dammartin What little is known for sure about Alberic II is confounded by the preponderance of noblemen of the same name in both France and England  What is known is that he married Clémence of Bar, daughter of Reginald I "One-Eyed", Count of Bar, one of the leaders of the Second Crusade, and Gisèle de Vaudémont, daughter of Gerard I, Count of Vaudémont 
Alberic and Clémence had one son:

Alberic III, Count of Dammartin Alberic II was succeeded by his son Alberic III as Count of Dammartin upon his death 
The discussion in Aubry, Count of Dammartin, provides some insight into how Alberic III came to claim the countship  Further complicating the genealogy, Clémence, widowed, married Renaud II, Count of Clermont-en-Beauvaisis, her second husband and his second wife  Renaud and his first wife, Adelaide, Countess of Vermandois, were the parents of Mathilde, wife of Alberic III 

Sources
Mathieu, J  N , Recherches sur les premiers Comtes de Dammartin, Mémoires publiés par la Fédération des sociétés historiques et archéologiques de Paris et de l'Ile-de-France, 1996
Passage 7:
Alberik II
Alberic II was a bishop of Utrecht from 838 to 844 
Alberic was the brother of his predecessor Frederick of Utrecht  Nothing is known about his administration  He was buried in the Saint Salvatorchurch in Utrecht 
Passage 8:
Pope Agapetus II
Pope Agapetus II (died 8 November 955) was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from 10 May 946 to his death  A nominee of the princeps of Rome, Alberic II of Spoleto, his pontificate occurred during the period known as the Saeculum obscurum 

Pontificate
Agapetus was born to a Roman father (a descendant of Consul Anicius Faustus Albinus Basilius) and a Greek mother  He was elected pope on 10 May 946 after the death of Marinus II  The existence of an independent republic of Rome, ruled by Alberic II of Spoleto, meant that Agapetus was prevented from exercising any temporal or secular power in Rome and the Papal States  The struggle between Berengar II and Otto I for the Kingdom of Italy allowed Alberic to exercise complete control over Rome and Agapetus, meaning the pope was largely limited to managing internal church affairs  Even Agapetus’ invitation to Otto to intervene in Italian affairs in 951 was done at the instigation of Alberic, who was growing concerned at Berengar's growing power  However, when Otto's envoys, the bishops of Mainz and Chur, were sent to the pope to discuss Otto's reception in Rome and other more important questions, they were turned away by Alberic Agapetus was forced to intervene in the dispute over the occupancy of the See of Reims  He ordered a synod to be held at Ingelheim in June 948 to resolve the rights of the rival claimants, Hugh of Vermandois and Artald of Reims  He sent his legate Marinus of Bomarzo to act on his behalf, while Agapetus wrote to a number of bishops, asking them to be present at the council  Through his legate the pope indicated his support for King Louis IV of France, and gave his support for reinstalling Artald as bishop of Reims  This council was followed up by another one at Trier, where Agapetus was again represented by Marinus of Bomarzo  In 949, Agapetus held a synod in Rome, which confirmed the rulings of the two councils  It condemned the former bishop Hugh and it excommunicated his father, Count Herbert II of Vermandois, for his opposition to King Louis IV After receiving requests from both Louis IV of France and Otto I of Germany, Agapetus granted privileges to monasteries and nunneries within their respective kingdoms  He also was sympathetic towards Otto's plans to restructure the bishoprics within Germany, which were eventually aborted due to pressure exerted by William of Mainz  Around 948, Agapetus, granted the Archbishop of Hamburg the right of consecrating bishops in Denmark and other northern European countries instead of the pope  The pope was also allegedly asked by a Danish king named Frode, now considered legendary, to send missionaries to his kingdom Agapetus was also asked to intervene in a dispute between Herhold, archbishop of Salzburg and Gerard, bishop of Lauriacum, who both claimed the title of metropolitan of all Pannonia  Agapetus dispatched a letter to the two claimants, in which he stated that the diocese of Lauriacum had been the metropolitan church of all Pannonia before the invasion of the Huns  However, following the ravages inflicted by them, the metropolitan had transferred his see to another city, and since that time Salzburg had been raised to an archbishopric  Consequently, both lawfully occupied their respective sees, and both were to retain their rank and diocese  Agapetus ruled that jurisdiction over western Pannonia would rest with Herhold, while the eastern part, along with the regions occupied by the Avars and the Moravians, would fall under Gerard In Italy, Agapetus wrote to the dukes of Beneventum and Capua, demanding that monasteries be returned to the monks whom they had displaced  He also deposed the bishops of Termoli and Trivento who were accused of simony  Hoping to rejuvenate the religious life of the clerics in Italy, Agapetus, with the blessing of Alberic, asked for the abbot of Gorze Abbey to send some of his monks down and join the monastic community attached to the church of Saint Paul Outside the Walls Agapetus died on 8 November 955, and was succeeded by Alberic's son, Octavian, who took the papal name of John XII  He was buried in the Lateran basilica, behind the apse, and close to the tombs of Leo V and Paschal II  Agapetus was noted for his caution and for the sanctity with which he led his life 
Passage 9:
Pope Leo VII
Pope Leo VII (Latin: Leo VII; died 13 July 939) was the bishop of Rome and nominal ruler of the Papal States from 3 January 936 to his death 

Election
Leo VII's election to the papacy in 936, after the death of Pope John XI, was secured by Alberic II of Spoleto, the ruler of Rome at the time  Alberic wanted to choose the pope so that the papacy would continue to yield to his authority  Leo was the priest of the church of San Sisto Vecchio in Rome, thought to be a Benedictine monk  He had little ambition towards the papacy, but consented under pressure 

Pontificate
As pope, Leo VII reigned for only three years  Most of his bulls were grants of privilege to monasteries, especially including the Abbey of Cluny  Leo called for Odo of Cluny to mediate between Alberic and King Hugh of Italy  Odo was successful in negotiating a truce after arranging a marriage between Hugh's daughter Alda and Alberic  Leo VII also appointed Archbishop Frederick of Mainz as a reformer in Germany  Leo allowed Frederick to drive out Jews that refused to be baptized, but he did not endorse the forced baptism of Jews Leo VII died on 13 July 939, and was interred at St  Peter's Basilica  He was succeeded by Stephen VIII 
Passage 10:
Simon, Count of Ponthieu
Simon of Dammartin (1180 – 21 September 1239) was a son of Alberic III of Dammartin (Aubry de Dammartin) and his wife Mathildis of Clermont,  heiress to the county of Clermont and daughter of Renaud II, Count of Clermont 

Biography
Simon was the brother of Renaud I, Count of Dammartin, who had abducted the heiress of Boulogne, and forced her to marry him  It is thought that in order to strengthen the alliance with the Dammartins, King Philip Augustus of France allowed Simon to marry Marie, Countess of Ponthieu, who was a niece of the king, in 1208  Renaud and Simon of Dammartin would eventually ally themselves with John, King of England  In 1214 the brothers stood against Philip Augustus in the Battle of Bouvines  The French won the battle, and Renaud was imprisoned, while Simon was exiled 
Marie's father William IV, Count of Ponthieu had remained loyal to Philip Augustus  When William died in 1221, Philip Augustus denied Marie her inheritance and gave Ponthieu in custody to his cousin Robert III, Count of Dreux  After the death of Philip Augustus, Marie was able to negotiate an agreement with his successor Louis VIII in 1225  Ponthieu was held by the king, and Simon would only be allowed to enter this or any other fief if he obtained royal permission  In 1231 Simon agreed to the terms and added that he would not enter into marriage negotiations for his daughters without consent of the king 

Family
Simon married Marie, Countess of Ponthieu, the daughter of  William IV, Count of Ponthieu and Alys, Countess of the Vexin  Marie became Countess of Ponthieu in 1225 Simon and his wife Marie had four daughters:

Joan, Countess of Ponthieu (1220–1278), married 1) Ferdinand III of Castile  Mother of Eleanor of Castile, the wife of Edward I of England  Married 2) Jean de Nesle, Seigneur de Falvy et de La Hérelle 
Mathilda of Dammartin (-1279), married John of Châtellerault
Philippe of Dammartin (-1280), married 1) Raoul II of Lusignan, 2) Raoul II, Lord of Coucy, 3) Otto II, Count of Guelders 
Maria of Dammartin, married John II, Count of Roucy 



ground_truth: Pope John X

prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: What form of play does Yameen and Activision have in common?

The following are given passages.
Context 2: Passage 1:
Yameen
Yameen is an American hip hop producer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States  His most recent album, "Diamond is Unfadable" was released in 2017 on Rumble Pack Records 

Light of Love / Sound of Fire
In 2010, Yameen released an anime music video for his single, “Light of Love” featuring singer, Lady Alma  The video was a production of Daisuke Nakayama's Realthing studio located in Shibuya, Tokyo and directed by Jamie Vickers (Studio 4°C, Madhouse) “Light of Love” was a vertical slice of an intended full-featured television pilot called “The Sound of Fire,” consisting of characters such as the titular Yameen, Meca, Ichi-go and more featured in the video 
The video ends with the cast of characters sitting atop the iconic Hieroglyphics music group 3-eyed logo, a clear nod to Yameen's history as "StinkE" with the group 

SupremeEx
The recording alias "SupremeEx" is generally reserved for collaborative concept albums between Yameen and Tajai of Souls of Mischief / Hieroglyphics In 1998, SupremeEx released the instrumental-only affair, Destructor on retail cassette which originally caught the ear of Tajai and also lead to collaborations with Bobbito's Footworks, Electronic Arts / EA Sports and Eckō Unltd  clothing, among others  SupremeEx & Tajai began recording what would become their first project together, Projecto: 2501 that same year In 1999, SupremeEx and Tajai released Projecto: 2501 as the first album on Tajai's fledgling Hieroglyphics Imperium sub-imprint, Clear Label Records  The critically acclaimed EP - applauded for its imaginative use of story telling elements such as included trading cards, Enhanced CD and web-delivered content - featured guest artists Shing02, Low Budget (Hollertronix), Jay Biz (Hieroglyphics), DJ Nozawa & Major Terror  Additional content was also included on the Enhanced CD including a bonus MP3, computer wallpaper, videos in the studio recording "Projecto" and more In 2005, Rumble Pack Records released an all-new full-length album from SupremeEx & Tajai entitled, Nuntype  Again, building on the story-telling aspects the duo established on, "Projecto" Nuntype is an album about Chaos, Prophecy and Change with Tajai as a deity who wields the power of Creation  Guest artist included R&B crooner, Goapele on the album's single, "Meaning" Although never established as an official labelmate, nor indicative of the classic "Hiero sound", Yameen's roots as Stinke — the creator and curator of Hieroglyphics com between 1995 and 2001 — offer him a curious niche in helping broaden the Hiero discography 

StinkE (Web Developer)
Yameen, under his nom de web "StinkE," designed and coded many popular hiphop websites and was featured as one of URB magazine's "Next 100" people to watch in April 2001  His work with the music group Hieroglpyhics proved particularly ground-breaking In 1995 when the individual group members of Hieroglyphics were each released from their respective major record labels, Yameen's fansite caught the attention of Souls of Mischief member Tajai who made the website the official online destination of Hieroglyphics  Hieroglyphics com was one of the first websites from any music artist and was featured heavily in popular media of the time  Yameen as the site's webmaster engaged directly with the group's fanbase, fostering a vibrant and active online community at a time when most people did not have access to personal computers or the internet  This community-driven aspect is what allowed the Hieroglyphics to continue to flourish as independent artists without the need of a major label In 2013, Oakland, California mayor Jean Quan recognized the efforts of Yameen and Hieroglyphics com as "a pioneering entity in technology and innovation and shining example of a local, homegrown business with worldwide appeal and recognition" while officially establishing September 3 as "Hiero Day" in the city of Oakland, CA Yameen also coded websites for artists such as Aesop Rock, The Giant Peach, Murs, Mr  Len & more 

Discography
Solo albums
Never Knows Best (2008)
Never Knows More (2009)
Never Knows Encore (2010)
Come On & Go Off (2014)

SupremeEx albums
Destructor (1998)
Projecto: 2501 (2000)
Nuntype (2005)
Nuntype: The Instrumentals (2006)

Other appearances
March Madness 2000 (Videogame) (1999)
Some of the Coolest Rappers   Ecko Clothing Compilation (2000)
Sleeping Giant, mixtape by Tajai (2003)
Pre-emptive Hype 3 5 HipHopSite

External links
Official Artist Website
Yameen Discogs
SupremeEx Artist Website
Nuntype Website
Projecto: 2501 Website
Hieroglyphics Website
SupremeEx Discogs
Interview
Passage 2:
Right Back at It Again
"Right Back at It Again" is the second track and the first single from A Day to Remember's fifth album, Common Courtesy (2013)  In October 20, 2015, the song was featured in Activision rhythm-music game, Guitar Hero Live 

Music and lyrics
Vocalist, Jeremy McKinnon wrote the lyrics, while the music was written by McKinnon, former guitarist Tom Denney, guitarist Neil Westfall and producer Andrew Wade  "Right Back at It Again" almost wasn't included on the album as it was one of the excess songs the band had recorded, "we realised that it sounded great, so on it went "

Release and reception
"Right Back at It Again" was announced on October 7, 2013 to be broadcast as part of BBC Radio 1's Rock Show the following midnight, with the band calling the song their "brand new single"  The song impacted radio on November 11  "Right Back at It Again" charted at number 33 on the Alternative Songs chart, and at number 40 on the Modern Rock chart in the U S  McKinnon, Westfall and guitarist Kevin Skaff performed a surprise acoustic show for Warped Tour 2013 UK on November 17, and another acoustic set, this time at Banquet Records the following day, both in London; band played "Right Back at It Again" on both occasions Tamsyn Wilce for Alter the Press! noted that the way "Right Back at it Again" follows on from opening track "City of Ocala" "continues the catchy hardcore beats" that is present in all of the band's albums  Rock Sound's Andy Ritchie called the song "unmistakably the 'All I Want' of 'Common Courtesy'"  A music video for the song was released on 19 December 2013 
The music video was nominated for Best Video at the Kerrang! Awards 

Track listing
Promotional CD"Right Back at It Again" (alternative edit)
"Right Back at It Again" (active rock edit)

Personnel
Personnel per digital booklet 

Chart positions
Passage 3:
Form 8-K
Form 8-K is a very broad form used to notify investors in United States public companies of specified events that may be important to shareholders or the United States Securities and Exchange Commission  This is one of the most common types of forms filed with the SEC  After a significant event like bankruptcy or departure of a CEO, a public company generally must file a Current Report on Form 8-K within four business days to provide an update to previously filed quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and/or Annual Reports on Form 10-K  Form 8-K is required to be filed by public companies with the SEC pursuant to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended 

When Form 8-K is required
Form 8-K is used to notify investors of a current event  These types of events include:

signing, amending or terminating material definitive agreements not made in the ordinary course of business, bankruptcies or receiverships
mine shutdowns or violations of mine health and safety laws
consummation of a material asset acquisition or sale
results of operations and financial condition, creating certain financial obligations, such as incurrence of material debt
triggering events that accelerate material obligations (such as defaults on a loan)
costs associated with exit or disposal plans (layoffs, shutting down a plant, or material change in services or outlets)
material impairments
delisting from a securities exchange or failing to satisfy listing requirements
unregistered equity sales (private placements)
modifications to shareholder rights
change in accountants
determinations that previously issued financial statements cannot be relied upon
change in control
senior officer appointments and departures
director elections and departures
amendments to certificate/articles of incorporation or bylaws
changes in fiscal year
trading suspension under employee benefit plans
amendments or waivers of code of ethics
changes in shell company status
results of shareholder votes
disclosures applicable to issuers of asset-backed securities
disclosures necessary to comply with Regulation FD
other material events
certain financial statements and other exhibits Investors should always read any 8-K filings that are made by companies in which they are invested  These reports are often material to the company, and frequently contain information that will affect the share price 

Reading Form 8K
Typically an 8-K filing will only have two major parts: the name and description of the event and any exhibits that are relevant  The name and description of the event contains all the information that the company considers relevant to shareholders and the SEC  It is important to read this information, as it has been deemed "material" by the company  Any exhibits that are relevant may include financial statements, press releases, data tables, or other information that is referenced in the description of the event 

Form 8K Items
The 8-K items are defined in the following table 

Historical Form 8K Items
Prior to August 23, 2004, 8-K items were filed under different item numbers  Those historical items are displayed in the table below 
Passage 4:
Lotion play
Lotion play is a subset of the better known wet-and-messy fetish (WAM), which typically involves participants using food (such as pudding or whipped cream), mud, or paint as a lubricant to facilitate sexual activity   Lotion play uses lotion specifically for this purpose 
In Japan, lotion play (ローションプレイ, rōshon purei), also known as gookakke or gluekakke (a play on words from goo/glue and bukkake), is a popular fetish, a form of Japanese erotica and prostitution request involving the use of copious amounts of lubricant, which in the Japanese language is referred to by the French loanword "lotion" (ローション in Japanese)   Typically lotion play involves a participant rubbing lotion on another using their body, sexual intercourse in a pool or bath filled with lotion, or lotion being poured over the participants during sex 
Lotion is available in concentrated form, to be added to hot water   A one-gallon concentrate will typically yield 6-10 gallons of lotion (J-Lube Lotion Concentrate)   The main component in most lotion is polyacrylate  A similar effect can be achieved by dissolving powdered methyl cellulose in water 
Passage 5:
The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon
The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon is a 2008 action-adventure video game in the Spyro series  It is the third and final installment in The Legend of Spyro trilogy and the sequel to The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night (2007), marking the tenth anniversary of the game series  The game was released for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, and mobile 
Elijah Wood and Gary Oldman reprise their roles as Spyro and Ignitus, respectively, while Wayne Brady replaces Billy West as Sparx and Christina Ricci replaces Mae Whitman as Cynder from the previous game  It also features the voice talents of Blair Underwood as Hunter the Cheetah and Mark Hamill as Malefor, the Dark Master 
It is the end of the second Spyro continuity, with Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure (2011) serving as the second reboot of the franchise after Vivendi Games merged with video game publisher Activision to form the Activision Blizzard holding company on July 10, 2008 

Gameplay
This is the first Spyro game that allows a player to fly at any time they want (free-fly mode)  The game also features a co-op mode with Cynder  The co-op feature allows players to have the option of completing the game as either Spyro or Cynder, along with giving them the power to switch between Spyro and Cynder  In previous titles of the Legend of Spyro series, Spyro must travel through the level and defeat enemies in a linear fashion  However, this time players explore larger areas and collect items in order to progress through the game 
Spyro retains his command of fire, electricity, ice and earth (all of which he now has access to from the start), while Cynder controls poison, fear, wind and shadow  Powers, that were given to her, when she was controlled by the Dark Master  Cynder is faster, yet weaker than Spyro 
Along with the standard power-ups that gems can cause, Spyro and Cynder can both equip pieces of Dragon-armor, that they'd find  They also have another feature called melee combos  The more times, the player hits the enemy, the more blue Gems the players will earn  Blue Gems will power up Spyro and Cynder, allowing them to upgrade moves  Along with Blue Gems, there are also Red gems, which restore lost health  The green gems will give the dragons their magic, allowing to charge their element attacks  The Fury Gems, known from previous titles, have been replaced by dark crystals, that can drain magic, if they're not destroyed  The Fury-Meter now goes up, depending on the number of times, Spyro or Cynder score attacks on enemies  In addition to normal enemies, there are elite enemies, which are enemies, that are stronger than normal ones  Their masks give them invincibility to normal attacks  The player must use an element of a designated color, that matches the of the mask, in order to knock the mask off  Once kicked off, normal attacks and other elemental powers will be allowed 

Plot
The game's story continues three years after the events of The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night  Spyro and Cynder, now teenagers, are broken free of their crystalline prison by mysterious enemies known as Grublins  The two are tethered together with green energy chains created by the Dark Master before being carried away, while Sparx is found by Hunter of Avalar, who was watching them from the shadows  Meanwhile, Spyro and Cynder find themselves in a dark, volcano-like area  When they try to leave, they find out they can't as they are chained to the platform they awoke on  After defeating several waves of Grublins and avoiding an earth Golem that attacks them soon after, Spyro and Cynder manage to escape the Catacombs with the help of Hunter, who is with Sparx  After reaching safety in Twilight Falls, Hunter reveals to Spyro, Cynder, and Sparx that the Dark Master, Malefor, had returned to the realm shortly after the events of The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night and has covered the land in darkness ever since 

Once they reach the Dragon City of Warfang, Spyro, Cynder and Hunter are separated as the city is under siege by Malefor's forces  After a long and fierce battle that ends in the siege driven back, the Golem returns and uses parts of the city to create an arm to replace the one it lost in the Catacombs  Spyro and Cynder defeat the Golem by destroying the Dark Crystal in its head, allowing Spyro, Cynder, and the Dragon Guardians to finally reunite  The victory is short-lived, as later that night, Malefor sends the citizens of Warfang a message: he has revived the Destroyer, an ancient creature whose purpose is to renew the world by bringing about its destruction  As they will be unable to catch up with the beast if they fly after it, the Fire Dragon Guardian Ignitus (the leader of the Dragon Guardians) hatches a plan to wait for it to circle back and attack before it can complete its circle  Passing underground is the only way to intercept it in time  Cynder and Spyro are able to open the gates to the underground Ruins of Warfang, which leads the attack forces to the canyon where the Destroyer will complete the Ring of Annihilation by destroying a nearby dam  They stall the Destroyer long enough to destroy its Dark Crystal heart  Despite this, the Destroyer manages to complete the Belt of Fire, and Ignitus orders everyone underground as he escorts Spyro and Cynder through the Belt of Fire  To get them to the Burned Lands, which will lead them to Malefor's lair, Ignitus sacrifices himself in the crossing  Overcome with grief, Spyro turns into his dark form and tries to go back and save him (which also threatens to harm Cynder with levitating rocks) but is stopped and comforted by Cynder  Cynder tells Spyro he's not alone and encourages him to continue the journey, as Ignitus wanted them to  
After getting through the Burned Lands and the Floating Islands, Spyro and Cynder arrive at Malefor's lair and confront him  Malefor taunts Spyro by telling him that the destiny of all purple dragons is to bring about the world's destruction, which Spyro denies  During the confrontation, the evil dragon gets rid of the green chain that tethered Spyro and Cynder together throughout their trials, then corrupts Cynder back to his cause; Cynder attacks Spyro, only to break free from Malefor's control when Spyro refuses to fight, stating that Cynder has left him nothing to fight for  Angered by this turn of events, Malefor binds Spyro and Cynder together once again to kill them both before beginning their airborne battle  As Spyro and Cynder fly after Malefor, the Destroyer completes its circle, marking the world's end  The three dragons fall into the volcano The Destroyer had entered, and after fighting with Malefor, Spyro and Cynder plummet into the center of the earth as they continue their battle  Malefor proclaims that he is eternal, unable to be defeated, but is then sealed away in the world's core by the spirits of the ancestors, and the green chain disappears soon after 
Despite Malefor's defeat, the world is still falling apart, as Spyro and Cynder wonder if this is indeed the end  Ignitus' spirit returns and gives Spyro hope  With the chain that bound them together broken with Malefor's defeat, Spyro tells Cynder to flee while he stops the catastrophe, but she refuses to leave him  As Spyro prepares to unleash a powerful Fury wave, Cynder verbally reveals that she loves him  Spyro's magic rebuilds the world, and the remaining Dragon Guardians, Hunter, Sparx, and the survivors emerge from underground into the setting sun as stars in the sky form into the figure of a dragon 
After the credits, the Chronicler speaks to someone that a new age is beginning, and with each new age, a worthy dragon is chosen to record the triumphs and failures of that era  His time is over, but the time of the new chronicler, Ignitus, has just begun  Before passing his mantle, the Chronicler informs Ignitus that though he has tried his best, he cannot find "any trace of Spyro" in the book that details dragons who have died  As Ignitus becomes the new Chronicler, he wonders where Spyro could be  Meanwhile, as the game closes, a glimpse of Spyro and Cynder can be seen flying together over the Valley of Avalar 

Reception
The game received "mixed" reviews on all platforms according to the review aggregation website Metacritic 

Notes
Passage 6:
Activision
Activision Publishing, Inc  is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California  It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios  Activision is one of the largest third-party video game publishers in the world and was the top United States publisher in 2016 The company was founded as Activision, Inc  on October 1, 1979 in Sunnyvale, California, by former Atari game developers upset at their treatment by Atari in order to develop their own games for the popular Atari 2600 home video game console  Activision was the first independent, third-party, console video game developer  The video game crash of 1983, in part created by too many new companies trying to follow in Activision's footsteps without the expertise of Activision's founders, hurt Activision's position in console games and forced the company to diversify into games for home computers, including the acquisition of Infocom  After a management shift, with CEO Jim Levy replaced by Bruce Davis, the company renamed itself to Mediagenic and branched out into business software applications  Mediagenic quickly fell into debt, and the company was bought for around US$500,000 by Bobby Kotick and a small group of investors around 1991 
Kotick drastically revamped and restructured the company to get it out of debt: dismissing most of its staff, moving the company to Los Angeles, and reverting to the Activision name  Building on existing assets, the Kotick-led Activision pursued more publishing opportunities and, after recovering from its former financial troubles, started acquiring numerous studios and various types of intellectual property over the 1990s and 2000s, among these being the Call of Duty and Guitar Hero series  A holding company was formed as Activision's parent company to manage both its internal and acquired studios  In 2008, this holding company merged with Vivendi Games (the parent company of Blizzard Entertainment) and formed Activision Blizzard, with Kotick as its CEO  Within this structure, Activision manages numerous third-party studios and publishes all games besides those created by Blizzard 

History
Founding (1979)
In 1976, Warner Communications bought Atari, Inc  from Nolan Bushnell to help accelerate the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS or later the Atari 2600) to market by 1977  That same year, Atari began hiring programmers to create games for the system  Prior to Warner's acquisition, the company did not award bonus pay to programmers who worked on profitable games, nor credit the programmers publicly, to prevent them from being recruited by rival game companies  Warner Communication's management style was also different from Bushnell's  According to developer John Dunn, Warner management treated developers as engineers rather than creative staff, creating conflicts with staff  Atari's CEO Ray Kassar, named to that position following Warner's acquisition in 1978, was committed to keeping production costs minimal for Warner, according to David Crane, one of Atari's programmers In early 1979, Atari's marketing department circulated a memo listing the best-selling cartridges from the previous year to help guide game ideas  Crane noted that the games he was fully responsible for had brought in over $20 million for the company but he was still only receiving a $20,000 salary  Out of a development staff of thirty-five, four programmers (Crane, Larry Kaplan, Alan Miller and Bob Whitehead), had produced games that had accounted for 60% of Atari's sales Crane, Kaplan, Miller, and Whitehead became vocal about the lack of recognition within the company and became known as the "Gang of Four"  The group met with Kassar in May 1979 to demand that the company treat developers as record labels treated musicians, with royalties and their names on game boxes  Kaplan, who called the others "the best designers for the [2600] in the world", recalled that Kassar called the four men "towel designers" and claimed that "anybody can do a cartridge" The four made the decision to soon leave Atari and start their own business, but were not sure how to go about it  In 1979, the concept of third-party developers did not exist, as software for video game consoles were published exclusively by makers of the systems for which the games were designed; thus the common thinking was that to make console games, one needed to make a console first  The four decided to create their own independent game development company  They were directed by their attorney to Jim Levy, who was at the time raising venture capital to get into the software business for early home computers  Levy listened to their plans, agreed with its direction, and helped the four to secure about $1 million in capital from Sutter Hill Ventures  They also checked with legal counsel on their plans to develop games for the Atari VCS, and included litigation fees in their capital investment By August, Crane and Miller had left Atari, with Whitehead joining them shortly after  Kaplan had also quit Atari in August, but initially decided not to join as he did not like the starting business plan; he came back later to join Activision that December  Activision was formally founded on October 1, 1979, with Levy serving as CEO  The company was initially named "Computer Arts, Inc " while they considered a better title  The founders had thought of the name VSync, Inc , but feared that the public would not understand or know how to say it  Levy suggested combining "active" and "television" to come up with Activision 

Early years (1980–1982)
Activision began working out of Crane's garage in the latter half of 1979, each programmer developing their own game that was planned for release in mid-1980, Dragster, Fishing Derby, Checkers, and Boxing  The four's knowledge of the Atari 2600, as well as software tricks for the system, helped them make their own games visually distinct from Atari-produced games  To further distinguish themselves, Activision's boxes were brightly colored and featured an in-game screenshot on the back cover  Instruction manuals for games devoted at least one page to credit the developer  Additionally, for nearly all of Activision's games through 1983, the instruction manuals included instructions for sending the company a photograph of a player's high scores to receive a patch in return Ahead of the release of the first four games, Activision obtained space at the mid-year 1980 Consumer Electronics Show to showcase their titles, and quickly obtained favorable press  The attention afforded to Activision worried Atari, as the four's departure had already created a major dent in their development staff  Atari initially tried to tarnish Activision's reputation by using industry press at CES to label those that took trade secrets as "evil, terrible people", according to Crane, and then later threatened to refuse to sell Atari games to retailers that also carried these Activision titles  By the end of 1980, Atari filed a formal lawsuit against Activision to try to stop the company, claiming the four had stolen trade secrets and violated non-disclosure agreements  The lawsuit was settled by 1982, with Activision agreeing to pay royalties to Atari but otherwise legitimizing the third-party development model  In 2003, Activision's founders were given the Game Developers Choice "First Penguin" award, reflecting their being the first successful third-party developer in the video game industry Following the first round of releases, each of the founders developed their own titles, about once a year, over the first few years of the company  While their 1980 games were modest hits, one of the company's first successful games was Kaboom!, released in 1981, which was Activision's first game to sell over a million units  Activision's breakout title was 1982's Pitfall!, created by Crane  More than four million copies of the game were sold  Near the end of 1982, Kaplan left Activision to work on the development of the Amiga personal computer as he wanted to be more involved in hardware development Total sales for Activision were estimated at $157 million and revenues at $60 million ahead of its June 1983 initial public offering; at this point Activision had around 60 employees  Danny Goodman stated in Creative Computing Video & Arcade Games in 1983, "I doubt that there is an active [Atari 2600] owner who doesn't have at least one Activision cartridge in his library"  The company completed its public offering in June 1983 on NASDAQ under the stock ticker AVSN 

The video game market crash (1983–1988)
The success of Activision, alongside the popularity of the Atari 2600, led to many more home consoles third-party developers as well as other home consoles  Activision produced some of its Atari games for the Intellivision and ColecoVision consoles, among other platforms  However, several new third-party developers also arose, attempting to follow the approach Activision had used but without the experience they had; according to Crane, several of these companies were founded with venture capital and hired programmers with little game design experience off the street, mass-publishing whatever product the developers had made  This was a contributing factor to the video game crash of 1983 For Activision, while they survived the crash, they felt its effects in the following years  These third-party developers folded, leaving warehouses full of unsold games, which savvy retailers purchased and sold at a mass discount ($5 compared to Activision's $40 manufacturer's suggested retail price)  While there was still a demand for Activision games, uneducated consumers were more drawn to the heavily discounted titles instead, reducing their income  Their quarterly revenue dropped from $50 million in mid-1983 to about $6–7 million by the end of 1984, according to Levy, and were forced to lay off staff, going from about 400 employees to 95 in that period  Because of this, Activision decided that they needed to diversify their games onto home computers such as the Commodore 64, Apple, and Atari 8-bit family to avoid completely going out of business like other third-party developers  There still was a drain of talent through 1985 from the crash  Miller and Whitehead left in 1984 due to the large devaluation of their stock and went to form Accolade With the video game crash making console game development a risky proposition, the company focused on developing for home computers with games like Little Computer People and Hacker, while Levy tried to keep expenditures in check as they recovered  Looking to expand further, Activision acquired, through a corporate merger, the struggling text adventure pioneer Infocom in June 1986  This acquisition was spearheaded by Levy, who was a big fan of Infocom's titles and felt the company was in a similar position as Activision  About six months after the "Infocom Wedding", Activision's board decided to replace Levy with Bruce Davis  Davis was against the purchase of Infocom from the start and was heavy-handed in its management, and even attempted to seek a lawsuit to recover their purchase from Infocom's shareholders  Crane also found Davis difficult to work with and was concerned with how Davis managed the closure of Imagic, one of the third-party development studios formed in Activision's success in 1981  Crane left Activision in 1986 and helped Garry Kitchen found Absolute Entertainment 

Mediagenic (1988–1991)
In 1988, Activision began involvement in software besides video games, such as business applications  As a result, Activision changed its corporate name to Mediagenic to better represent all of its activities Mediagenic consisted of four groups:

Activision: video game publisher for various platforms, notably the Nintendo Entertainment System, Master System, Atari 7800, Atari ST, Commodore 64, and Amiga
Infocom: developer of interactive fiction games
Gamestar: initially an independent company but purchased by Activision in 1986  Specialized in sports video games
Ten Point O: business application softwareIn 1989, after several years of losses, Activision closed down the Infocom studios, extending to only 11 of the 26 employees an offer to relocate to Activision's Silicon Valley headquarters  Five of them accepted this offer Notably during this time, Mediagenic was known to have worked on the early version of a football game that would be the basis for Joe Montana Football  Sega of America's Michael Katz had been able to get Sega to pay Mediagenic around early 1990 to develop this into the branded version after securing the rights to Joe Montana's name, but was unaware of internal troubles that had been going on within the company, which had left the state of the game mostly unfinished  Katz and Sega were forced to take the incomplete game to Electronic Arts, which had been developing its own John Madden Football series for personal computers, to complete the game During this period Mediagenic, via Activision, secured the rights to distribute games from Cyan Worlds  The first game published by Activision from Cyan was The Manhole, on CD-ROM for personal computers, the first major game distributed in this format 

Purchase by Bobby Kotick (1991–1997)
Davis' management of Mediagenic failed to produce a profitable company; in 1991, Mediagenic reported a loss of $26 8 million on only $28 8 million of revenue and had over $60 million in debt  Cyan severed their contract with Activision, and turned to Broderbund for publishing, including what would become one of the most significant computer games of the 1990s, Myst 

Bobby Kotick had become interested in the value of the video game industry following the crash, and he and three other investors worked to buy Commodore International in an effort to gain access to the Amiga line of personal computers  After failing to complete purchase, the group bought a company that licensed Nintendo characters, and through Nintendo was directed to the failing Mediagenic  Kotick was drawn to buy out Mediagenic not for its current offerings but for the Activision name, given its past successes with Pitfall!, with hopes to restore Activision to its former glory  Crane said that Kotick has recognized the Activision brand name could be valued around $50 million and rather than start a new company and spend that amount to obtain the same reputation, he saw the opportunity to buy the failing Mediagenic at a bargain price and gain Activision's reputation with minimal cost  Kotick and additional investors bought Mediagenic for approximately $500,000 in 1991  This group of investors included real estate businessman Steve Wynn and Philips Electronics Kotick became CEO of Mediagenic on its purchase and made several immediate changes: He let go of all but 8 of the companies' 150 employees, performed a full restructuring of the company, developed a bankruptcy restructuring plan, and reincorporated the company in Los Angeles, California  In the bankruptcy plan, Kotick recognized that Mediagenic still had valuable assets, which included the Infocom library as well as its authoring tools to make games, Activision's distribution network, and licenses to develop on Nintendo and Sega home consoles  Kotick offset some debt by giving stock in the company to its distributors as to keep them vested in the company's success  Kotick also had the company reissue several of its past console and Infocom titles as compilations for personal computers  Kotick had also recognized the value of the Zork property from Infocom, and had the company develop a sequel, Return to Zork  Combined, these steps allowed Mediagenic to fulfill on the bankruptcy plan, and by the end of 1992, Kotick renamed Mediagenic to the original Activision name  The new Activision went public in October 1993, raising about $40 million, and was listed on NASDAQ under its new ticker symbol ATVI By 1995, Kotick's approach had met one promise he made to investors: that he would give them four years of 50% growth in revenues while remaining break-even  Reaching this goal, Kotick then set Activision on his second promise to investors, to develop high-demand games and make the company profitable by 1997 Activision published the first-person perspective MechWarrior in 1989, based on FASA's pen-and-paper game BattleTech  A sequel, MechWarrior 2, was released in 1995 after two years of delays and internal struggles, prompting FASA not to renew their licensing deal with Activision  To counter, Activision released several more games bearing the MechWarrior 2 name, which did not violate their licensing agreement  These included NetMech, MechWarrior 2: Ghost Bear's Legacy, and MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries  The entire MechWarrior 2 game series accounted for more than US$70 million in sales 
Activision procured the license to another pen-and-paper-based war game, Heavy Gear, in 1997  The video game version was well received by critics, with an 81 46% average rating on GameRankings and being considered the best game of the genre at the time by GameSpot  The Mechwarrior 2 engine was also used in other Activision games, including 1997's Interstate '76 and 1998's Battlezone 

Growth and acquisitions (1997–2008)
With several of its own successfully developed games helping to turn a profit, Kotick led Activision to start seeking acquisitions of video game development studios, guided by market surveys to determine what areas of content to focus on  It is estimated that between 1997 and 2008, Activision made 25 acquisitions, several for undisclosed amounts  Several of these came prior to 2001, in the midst of the Dot-com bubble, enabling the company to acquire studios at a lower valuation  On June 16, 2000, Activision reorganized as a holding company, Activision Holdings, to manage Activision and its subsidiaries more effectively  Activision changed its corporate name from "Activision, Inc " to "Activision Publishing, Inc ", while Activision Holdings took Activision's former "Activision, Inc " name  Activision Publishing became a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision, which in turn became the publicly traded company, with all outstanding shares of capital stock converted Some of the key acquisitions and investments made by Activision in this period include:

Raven Software: Raven was founded in 1990; because of their close proximity, Raven frequently collaborated with id Software, and one of the studio's early successes was the Heretic series using id's Doom engine  Around 1997, Raven's founders Brian and Steve Raffel felt the need to seek a parent company  They arranged a publishing deal with Activision in 1997, which not only served to provide Raven additional financial support, but also gave Activision the opportunity to work closely with id Software and gain business relationships with them  By the end of 1997, Activision acquired Raven as one of its first subsidiaries under Kotick  The acquisition price was $12 million 
Neversoft: Prior to its acquisition in 2000, Activision had arranged a development deal with Neversoft to re-develop Apocalypse, a title that failed to be completed within Activision  Subsequently, Activision had Neversoft work on a prototype for a skateboarding game, which would end up becoming the first in the Tony Hawk's series of skateboarding video games  Tony Hawk's Pro Skater was a critical success, leading Activision to acquire Neversoft in April 2000  After eight games, the series has brought in $1 6 billion 
Infinity Ward: After Electronic Arts released Medal of Honor: Allied Assault in 2002, several of the developers from 2015, Inc , disenchanted with their current contracts, left to form a new studio, Infinity Ward  Kotick himself provided the group with startup funding, as they were seeking to develop a similar title to Medal of Honor  Activision acquired the studio for $5 million in January 2003, and later publish their first title, Call of Duty, directly competing with Electronic Arts  The Call of Duty series has since seen nearly yearly releases and as of 2016 had sold more than 250 million units and brought in more than $12 billion in revenue 
Treyarch: The Santa Monica, California studio was founded in 1996  With the success of the first Tony Hawk game from Neversoft, Activision used Treyarch to assist in further Tony Hawk games as well as to develop titles using Activision's license of Marvel's Spider-Man  Activision acquired the studio in 2001 for about $20 million   Following the success of Call of Duty from Infinity Ward, Activision moved Treyarch to assist in the series' development, trading off each year' major release between the two studios 
Gray Matter Studios: While Gray Matter was originally founded in 1993 as Xatrix Entertainment, it was rebranded to Gray Matter in 1999 as they began work on Return to Castle Wolfenstein, in conjunction with Nerve Software and oversight by id Software who owned the Castle Wolfenstein IP  Activision, the game's publisher, acquired a portion of Gray Matter's stock during this time  Return to Castle Wolfenstein was a critical and financial success, and led Activision to acquire the remaining shares of Gray Matter in 2002 for about $3 2 million, with the intent to help Infinity Ward expand out the Call of Duty franchise  In 2005, Activision made the decision to merge the smaller Gray Matter into the larger Treyarch to put their combined talents towards Call of Duty 3 
RedOctane: Around 2005, Red Octane was co-developing Guitar Hero, a console game based on the arcade game GuitarFreaks, with Harmonix; Harmonix was developing the software while RedOctane developed the instrument controllers  Guitar Hero was a major success  Activision purchased RedOctane for nearly $100 million in June 2006  The series has since earned more than $2 billion in revenues 
Toys for Bob: Toys for Bob was founded by Paul Reiche III, Fred Ford, and Terry Falls in 1989 and gained success in developing the first two Star Control games, and later made film-to-video game adaptions  Activision purchased the studio in 2005, and had given them work on some of the Tony Hawk's games as well as other licensed properties  Following Activision's merger with Vivendi, Activision gained the Spyro intellectual property and assigned Toys for Bob to develop the series in a new direction, leading to the toys-to-life Skylanders series 

Merger with Vivendi Games (2008)
While Activision was highly successful with its range of developers and successful series, Kotick was concerned that they did not have a title for the growing massively multiplayer online market, which presented the opportunity for continued revenues from subscription models and microtransactions instead of the revenue from a single sale  Around 2006, Kotick contacted Jean-Bernard Lévy, the new CEO of Vivendi, a French media conglomerate  Vivendi had a games division, Vivendi Games, that was struggling to be viable at the time, but its principal feature was that it owned Blizzard Entertainment and its highly successful World of Warcraft game, which was drawing in $1 1 billion a year in subscription fees  Vivendi Games also owned Sierra Entertainment Lévy recognized Kotick wanted control of World of Warcraft, and offered to allow the companies to merge, but only if Lévy held the majority shares in the merged group, forcing Kotick to cede control  Kotick fretted about this decision for a while, according to friends and investors  During this time in 2006–2007, some of Activision's former successful properties began to wane, such as Tony Hawk's, so Activision bought RedOctane, the publisher of the Guitar Hero franchise  Kotick met with Blizzard's president Mike Morhaime, and learned that Blizzard also had a successful inroad into getting their games into China, a potentially lucrative market  Given this potential opportunity, Kotick agreed to the merger Activision's board signed on to the merger by December 2007  The merger was completed in July 2008  The new company was called Activision Blizzard and was headed by Kotick, while Vivendi maintained a 52% share in the company  The new company was estimated to be worth US$18 9 billion, ahead of Electronic Arts, which was valued at US$14 1 billion 

Post-merger developments (2009–present)
Activision Publishing remains a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard following the merger, and is responsible for developing, producing, and distributing games from its internal and subsidiary studios  Eric Hirshberg was announced as Activision Publishing's CEO in 2010 Activision Publishing established Sledgehammer Games in November 2009  Formed earlier in 2009 by Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey, former Visceral Games leads that had worked on Dead Space, Sledgehammer intended to develop a Call of Duty spin-off title fashioned after the gameplay in Dead Space  However, in early 2010, legal issues between Infinity Ward and Activision Blizzard led to several members of Infinity Ward leaving, and Activision assigned Sledgehammer to assist Infinity Ward in the next major Call of Duty title, Modern Warfare 3  Since then, Sledgehammer, Infinity Ward, and Treyarch share development duties for the flagship series, with support from Raven and other studios as necessary 
In February 2010, Activision Blizzard reported significant losses in revenue stemming from a slow down in Guitar Hero sales and from its more casual games  Subsequently, Activision Publishing shuttered Red Octane, Luxoflux and Underground Development as well as laid off about 25% of the staff at Neversoft  Within the same year, Activision shuttered Budcat Creations in November 2010, and Bizarre Creations in February 2011 Hirshberg left the CEO position in March 2018 Into the 2020s, Activision put more focus on the Call of Duty franchise, including the release of the free-to-play Call of Duty: Warzone in 2020  By April 2021, the company had assigned all of its internal studios to work on some part of the Call of Duty franchise  This includes a new studio, Activision Mobile,  devoted to the Call of Duty Mobile title as reported in August 2021 In 2021, while all their employees were working remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic, Activision and its parent Activision Blizzard vacated their longtime headquarters building in Santa Monica and ended their lease with Boston Properties  In September 2021, they subleased a much smaller office space in Santa Monica at the Pen Factory (a former Paper Mate factory) from Kite Pharma, which had leased the space from Lincoln Property Company 

Studios
Activision Shanghai Studio in Shanghai, China, founded in 2009 
Beenox in Québec City, Québec, Canada, founded in May 2000, acquired on May 25, 2005 
Demonware in both Dublin, Republic of Ireland and Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, founded in 2003, acquired in May 2007 
Digital Legends Entertainment in Barcelona, Spain, founded in May 2001, acquired on October 28, 2021 
High Moon Studios in Carlsbad, California, founded as Sammy Corporation in April 2001, acquired by Vivendi Games in January 2006 
Infinity Ward in Woodland Hills, California, founded in 2002, acquired in October 2003 
Radical Entertainment in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, founded in 1991, acquired by Vivendi Games in 2005, laid off most staff in 2012 
Raven Software in Madison, Wisconsin, founded in 1990, acquired in 1997 
Sledgehammer Games in Foster City, California, founded on July 21, 2009 
Solid State Studios in Santa Monica, California, founded in 2021 
Toys for Bob in Novato, California, founded in 1989, acquired on May 3, 2005 
Treyarch in Santa Monica, California, founded in 1996, acquired in 2001 

Former studios
7 Studios in Los Angeles, California, founded in 1999, acquired in April 2009, closed in February 2011 
Beachhead Studio in Santa Monica, California, founded in February 2011 
Bizarre Creations in Liverpool, England, founded as Raising Hell Productions in 1987 and changed name in 1994, acquired on September 26, 2007, closed on February 18, 2011 
Budcat Creations in Iowa City, Iowa, founded in September 2000, acquired on November 10, 2008, closed in November 2010 
FreeStyleGames in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, United Kingdom, founded in 2002, acquired on September 12, 2008, sold to Ubisoft on January 18, 2017, subsequently renamed Ubisoft Leamington 
Gray Matter Studios in Los Angeles, California, founded in the 1990s as Xatrix Entertainment, acquired in January 2002, merged into Treyarch in 2005 
Infocom in Cambridge, Massachusetts, founded on June 22, 1979, acquired in 1986, closed in 1989 
Luxoflux in Santa Monica, California, founded in January 1997, acquired in October 2002, closed on February 11, 2010 
Massive Entertainment in Malmö, Sweden, founded in 1997, acquired by Vivendi Universal Games in 2002, sold to Ubisoft on November 10, 2008 
Neversoft in Los Angeles, California, founded in July 1994, acquired in October 1999, merged into Infinity Ward on May 3, 2014 and was officially made defunct on July 10, 2014 
RedOctane in Mountain View, California, founded in November 2005, acquired in 2006, closed on February 11, 2010 
Shaba Games in San Francisco, California, founded in September 1997, acquired in 2002, and closed on October 8, 2009 
Swordfish Studios in Birmingham, England, founded in September 2002, acquired by Vivendi Universal Games in June 2005, sold to Codemasters on November 14, 2008 
The Blast Furnace in Leeds, United Kingdom, founded in November 2011 as Activision Leeds, renamed in August 2012, closed in March 2014 
Underground Development in Redwood Shores, California, founded as Z-Axis in 1994, acquired in May 2002, closed on February 11, 2010 
Vicarious Visions in Menands, New York, founded in 1990, acquired in January 2005, moved to Blizzard Entertainment in January 2021  It was renamed to Blizzard Albany on April 12, 2022 
Wanako Games in Santiago, Chile, founded in 2005, acquired by Vivendi Games on February 20, 2007, sold to Artificial Mind and Movement on November 20, 2008 

Notable games published
See also
List of video game companies
Passage 7:
Intellivision Rocks
Intellivision Lives!  is a compilation of over 60 Intellivision video games, originally produced by Mattel Electronics and INTV Corporation between 1978 and 1990   Using original game code and software emulation, Intellivision Productions released the compilation on a Windows and Macintosh hybrid CD-ROM in December 1998  Additional versions were then released for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube by Crave Entertainment  In 2010, Virtual Play Games released a Nintendo DS version  
Intellivision Productions later published Intellivision Rocks, which includes third-party games originally published by Activision and Imagic, as well as Intellivoice and ECS games 

Overview
Some games could not be included due to licensing (e g  Tron, BurgerTime, Masters of the Universe, Pac-Man,)   Others such as Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Cloudy Mountain and Treasure of Tarmin use different titles to avoid the trademark   Licenses such as MLB, NFL, NBA, and The Electric Company were simply dropped from the titles   Also included were games never before released, such as King of the Mountain, Brickout, and Takeover In addition to the games, the Crave Entertainment releases have several unlockables, such as classic Intellivision commercials  The original Windows/Mac version is a resource for development history, unfinished prototypes, box art, overlays, instructions, hidden features, programmer biographies, and video interviews 

History and development
In June 1995, former Mattel Electronics programmers led by Keith Robinson started the Blue Sky Rangers Intellivision website   Blue Sky Rangers being a nickname given to the Mattel Electronics programmers in a TV Guide magazine article from the 1982 June 19 issue   The website provides the history of the Intellivsion games and credits the programmers and artists  It was well received with fans asking how the games can be played on their computers  In 1997 Intellivision Productions, Inc  was formed by former Mattel Electronics programmers Keith Robinson and Stephen Roney with the purchase of the rights to the Intellivision and its games At the same time, a student in Michigan named Carl Mueller Jr  was independently working on reverse engineering the Intellivision   With the help of Intellivision ROM dumps from Sean Kelly and then William Moeller and Scott Nudds, Carl was able to create the first Intellivision emulator that plays the games on a modern computer   Sean was fortunate to have two Intellivision prototype cartridges with standard 8-bit EPROMS as opposed to the more complex memory mapped ROMS used by standard cartridges   William and Scott were able to dump the Intellivision embedded executive control software and graphics ROMS, as well as build a cartridge reader to dump any Intellivision cartridge Carl's MS-DOS emulator and a Macintosh emulator created by Intellivisions Productions' Steve Roney would be used in the free Intellipack downloads so anyone could play select Intellivision games on their computers for the first time in 1997   The Intellivision for PC/Mac Volume 2 download, also of 1997, was the first release of Deep Pockets Super Pro Billiards, the last game programmed for the Intellivision in 1990 but unreleased by INTV Corporation   They would also be used to play the original Intellivision games in the Intellivision Lives! PC/Mac CD-ROM edition released in 1998 by Intellivision Productions 

PC and Macintosh system requirements
The PC/Mac edition was produced with Macromedia Director and may not be compatible with modern operating systems   The QuickTime videos, emulators, and Intellivision ROM image files are directly accessible on the CD-ROM 
The Intellivision Lives! PC/Mac v1 0 system requirements:
PC:  Pentium 90 MHz, Windows 95, 8MB RAM, 8x CD-ROM, QuickTime v3 0 or better
Mac:  Power Macintosh, OS7 5, 100 MHz, 16MB RAM, 8x CD-ROM, QuickTimeThe Intellivision Lives! PC/Mac v1 1 system requirements:
PC: Pentium 266 MHz, Windows 95/98/Me/2000/XP, 32M RAM, 8X CD-ROM, 16-bit DirectX compatible sound & video cards, DirectX 7 or better, QuickTime v3 0 or better
Mac: Power Macintosh, OS 8/9/X, 120 MHz, 32M RAM, 8X CD-ROM, QuickTimeController functions are mapped to the computer keyboard; an extended keyboard is required to access both left and right Intellivision controllers   With Macintosh, USB game controllers could be used indirectly with a joystick to keyboard mapper utility   For PC, Intellivision Productions promoted the Gravis GamePad Pro game controller (game port version)   The MS-DOS emulator, directly accessible on the CD-ROM, also supported original Intellivision controllers through the INTV2PC Hand Controller Interface   INTV2PC is a parallel port adapter that accepts original Intellivision hand controllers   This feature although not promoted is documented in the INTVPC files on the CD-ROM   Modern intellivision emulators and USB controller adapters have since become available, compatible with the Intellivision Lives rom image files 
To play the games using real Intellivision controllers Intellivision Productions supported the use of a device called the Intellicart   The Intellicart is a RAM cartridge with an RS-232 interface that can accept a copy of an Intellivision ROM image file from a computer   Rather than play the Intellivision Lives! games through an emulator, they can be played on a real Intellivision through an Intellicart   Since that time modern Intellivision flash memory cartridges have been made that achieve the same result 
In 2002 an updated Intellivision Lives! PC/Mac v1 1 was made available by Intellivision Productions   Those that purchased the original could upgrade for a nominal fee   It added Windows 98/ME/2000/XP support with a native Windows emulator supporting DirectX sound, video, and game controllers 

Modern video game consoles
Realtime Associates developed the video game console editions published by Crave Entertainment for PlayStation 2 (2003), Xbox (2004), and GameCube (2004)   In these versions the games are accessed from a 3D "overworld" set in a circa 1980s pizza parlor; an inaccurate representation as the Intellivision games were originally designed for a home console  Games were also re-organised by genres rather than the original Mattel Electronics Networks used in the PC/Mac edition   Some games require two controllers, even to play single player In 2010 Virtual Play Games published Intellivision Lives! for the Nintendo DS handheld system, also developed by Realtime Associates  It features wireless, multiplayer support using a single game card  The Nintendo DS's touch screen emulates the Intellivision's 12-button keypad including an overlay image for each game   The Nintendo DS lacks a 16 direction pad used by some Intellivision games   This limitation was overcome, in Vectron for example, by mapping directional inputs to the touch screen   Only 10,000 copies of the Nintendo DS edition were ever released The Xbox version of Intellivision Lives! is fully forward compatible with the Xbox 360 console, and in 2008 Intellivision Lives! became available for purchase as a download through Xbox Live Game Marketplace's Xbox Originals 

Intellivision Rocks
Intellivision Rocks is the PC-only sequel to the original PC version of Intellivision Lives!  As with Intellivision Lives!, Intellivision Rocks is a collection of games which were originally found on the Intellivision, presented in emulated form  It mainly features 3rd-party games from Activision and Imagic  In addition, several unreleased games are included 

Reception
IGN said that Intellivision Lives! is "still blocky after all these years, sure   but these games really need the controller " GameSpot editors said that although the controller emulation is a little hard to handle, the collection does a fine job in delivering classic Intellivision games 
Passage 8:
Raven Software
Raven Software Corporation is an American video game developer based in Wisconsin and founded in 1990  In 1997, Raven made an exclusive publishing deal with Activision and was subsequently acquired by them  After the acquisition, many of the studio's original developers, largely responsible for creating the Heretic and Hexen: Beyond Heretic games, left to form Human Head Studios 

History
id Software
Raven Software was founded in 1990 by brothers Brian and Steve Raffel  Originally a three-person company, they were discovered by John Romero, co-founder of id Software, who collaborated with Raven to make games using their game engine beginning with ShadowCaster  Raven then started making games with id Software; the company even briefly moved to the same street as id Software  They used id's engines for many of their games, such as Heretic, Hexen: Beyond Heretic and Hexen II 
In 2005 and 2009, Raven developed two games from id's catalog: Quake 4 and Wolfenstein respectively 

Activision
The company was independent until 1997, when it was acquired by Activision for $12 million  They were still collaborating with id Software but at the same time developed other titles as well such as Soldier of Fortune in 2000, Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy in 2003, X-Men Legends in 2004 and many more 
In August 2009, following poor performance and possible over-budget of Wolfenstein, the company made a major layoff of 30-35 staff, leaving two development teams  This was reduced to one after more layoffs in October 2010, after delays with Singularity; as many as 40 staff were released  Following the layoffs and after id Software was bought over by ZeniMax Media, Raven has since become a primary developer for the Call of Duty series In December 2021, Activision did not renew the contract of several members of the quality assurance (QA) department that were contract employees   One of the associate managers said that "valuable members" were fired although they "were promised, for months, that Activision was working towards a pay restructure to increase their wages"  Following these firings as well as other controversies revolving Activision Blizzard, a strike has been initiated  On January 21, 2022, Raven's QA team formed a union named the Game Workers Alliance with Communications Workers of America In May 2022, a group of quality assurance testers from Raven Software successfully organized a union known as the Game Workers Alliance, with the vote being 19 for and 3 against  In June 2022 Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick stated that the company would recognize the union and begin negotiations with it 

Games
In 2012, Raven began hiring employees for a game, and were announced as collaborating with Infinity Ward on Call of Duty: Ghosts in May 2013 On April 3, 2013 following the closure of LucasArts, Raven Software released the source code for Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast and Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy on SourceForge under the GPL-2 0-only license In April 2014, the company became lead developer of the now shutdown free-to-play Chinese Call of Duty title, Call of Duty: Online  The company also remade Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, titled Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered In 2020, Raven Software collaborated with Infinity Ward on the game Call of Duty: Warzone  The company is considered the face of maintaining, updating and debugging the game as they regularly provide status updates and patch notes on Twitter and their official website (though it is unclear if they are the sole studio responsible behind-the-scenes) Raven developed Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War with Treyarch, which released on November 13, 2020 



ground_truth: video game

prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: When was the American singer, songwriter, record producer, dancer and actress born who's second studio album is Chapter II?

The following are given passages.
Context 3: Passage 1:
Like a Virgin (album)
Like a Virgin is the second studio album by American singer and songwriter Madonna, released on November 12, 1984, by Sire Records  Following the success of her self-titled debut album, Madonna wanted to become the record producer of her next album  However, her label was not ready to give her the artistic freedom and she chose Nile Rodgers instead to produce the album due to his work with David Bowie  Madonna wrote six songs on the record, five of which feature Steve Bray as a co-writer  The album was recorded at Power Station Studio in New York at a quick pace  Rodgers enlisted the help of his former Chic bandmates Bernard Edwards, who was the bassist, and Tony Thompson, who played drums  Jason Corsaro, the record's audio engineer, persuaded Rodgers to use digital recording, a new technique introduced at that time 
The album's photographs were shot by Steven Meisel  Madonna wanted the album title and the cover image to make a provocative link between her own religious name Madonna, as the Catholic title for Jesus' mother Mary, and the Christian concept of the virgin birth  While not a substantial musical departure from Madonna's first album, she felt that the material from Like a Virgin was stronger  After its release, Like a Virgin received mixed reviews from music critics; however, retrospective reviews of the album have been much more positive  Like a Virgin was a commercial success and became Madonna's first number one album on the Billboard 200 and set the record as the first female album in history  to sell over five million copies in the United States  The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) later certified it diamond for shipment of ten million units  It also reached number one in Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom, and remains one of the best-selling albums of all time with sales of over 21 million copies worldwide Five singles were released from the album, including Madonna's first US number-one "Like a Virgin" and her first UK number-one "Into the Groove", the latter of which was introduced on the 1985 international reissue of the album  To promote the album, she embarked on The Virgin Tour, touring North America only  Like a Virgin has attained significance as a cultural artifact of the 1980s  Madonna proved that she was not a one-hit wonder and was able to provide herself with a permanent footing in the music world  Her songs became a lightning rod for both criticism by conservatives and imitation by the younger female population, especially "Material Girl" and "Like a Virgin"  According to author J  Randy Taraborrelli, "Every important artist has at least one album in his or her career whose critical and commercial success becomes the artist's magic moment; for Madonna, Like a Virgin was just such a defining moment " In 2023, the Library of Congress added the album to the National Recording Registry for preservation in the United States, for being a "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" recording 

Background
A former dancer and fixture on the New York club scene, Madonna Ciccone became known to the world simply as Madonna, with the release of her 1983 self-titled debut album Madonna  Fueled by hit songs like "Holiday", "Borderline" and "Lucky Star", the album was one of the best selling of the year and helped Madonna become one of the most exciting new artists of the 1980s  When she started work on her second album, Madonna felt that her first album had succeeded in introducing her "street-smart dance queen" persona, and she wanted to solidify and build upon that concept  According to her, "My work, my dedication—the stubbornness for getting Madonna released—had paid off  Now it was time to solidify my future "For Like a Virgin, Madonna attempted to become one of the primary record producers, feeling the need to control the various aspects of her music  She believed that depending on a particular producer for her album was not something that suited her  Madonna said "I learnt my lesson while creating my debut album, and the way [Reggie, the producer of her debut project] Lucas left me in the water with the project, you can't trust men"—referring to the incident, when due to a certain difference of opinion between producer Reggie Lucas and Madonna, Lucas had left the project half-way  However, Warner Bros  Records was not ready to give her the artistic freedom that she wanted  In J  Randy Taraborrelli's biography of Madonna, she commented,

Warner Bros  Records is a hierarchy of old men and it's a chauvinist environment to be working in because I'm treated like this sexy little girl  I had to prove them wrong, which meant not only proving myself to my fans but to my record company as well  That is something that happens when you're a girl  It wouldn't happen to Prince or Michael Jackson  I had to do everything on my own and it was hard trying to convince people that I was worth a record deal  After that, I had the same problem trying to convince the record company that I had more to offer than a one-shot singer  I had to win this fight 
Ultimately, Nile Rodgers was chosen by Madonna as the producer of the album, with the approval of the Warner Brothers executives  Madonna chose Rodgers mostly because of his work as a member of the 1970s band Chic, and his most recent production work with David Bowie on his 1983 album Let's Dance  She commented, "When I was making the record, I was just so thrilled and happy to be working with Nile Rodgers  I idolized Nile because of the whole Chic thing  I couldn't believe that the record company gave me the money so that I could work with him "For his part, Rodgers recalled that he had first seen Madonna perform at a small club in New York in 1983  In an interview with Time magazine, Rodgers explained: "I went to the club to see another woman sing, but when I got there Madonna was onstage  I loved her stage presence and then we met right after that  I kept thinking to myself, 'Damn, is she a star', but she wasn't at that time  I always wanted to work with her and Like a Virgin seemed like a perfect opportunity "

Recording
The album was recorded at Power Station Studio in New York at a quick pace  Rodgers enlisted the help of his former Chic bandmates Bernard Edwards, who was the bassist, and Tony Thompson, who played the drums; they appeared on several tracks of the album  Rodgers decided to be the guitarist, when Edwards requested him to do so, in exchange for their help  The recording sessions did not start until the afternoon as Rodgers, who attended late-night parties, was not accustomed to work in early mornings  The schedule was also difficult for Madonna, who recalled that she used to "go to the swim club on the Upper West Side and go swimming and walk from there to the recording studio  It was impossible for me to reach there at morning " Rodgers recalled that Madonna was a hard worker and incredibly tenacious  He commented: "I am always amazed by Madonna's incredible judgement when it comes to making pop records  I've never seen anyone do it better, and that's the truth  When we did that album, it was the perfect union, and I knew it from the first day in the studio  The thing between us, man, it was sexual, it was passionate, it was creativity     it was pop "Jason Corsaro, the record's audio engineer, persuaded Rodgers to use digital recording, a new technique at the time which Corsaro believed was going to be the future of recording  To ensure this, Corsaro used a Sony 3324 24-track digital tape recorder and a Sony F1 two-track during the mixing of the tracks  Madonna recorded the lead parts of the songs in a small, wooden, high-ceilinged piano room at the back of Studio C, also known as Power Station's "R&B room"  Corsaro then placed gobos around her while using the top capsule of a stereo AKG C24 tube microphone, with a Schoeps microphone preamplifier and a Pultec equalizer  Once the tracks met with everybody's approval, Robert Sabino added the keyboard parts, playing mostly a Sequential Circuits Prophet-5, as well as some Rhodes piano and acoustic piano, while Rodgers also played a Synclavier  Madonna, although not required, was present every minute of the recording sessions and the mixing process, Corsaro commented: "Nile was there most of the time, but she was there all of the time  She never left" 

Packaging and title
The cover sleeve and images were shot by Steven Meisel, who would become a regular collaborator with Madonna, in a suite at the St  Regis New York  Madonna wanted the album title to make provocative link between her own religious name—Madonna as the Catholic title for Jesus' mother Mary—and the Christian concept of the virgin birth  With the title song alluding to this concept, Madonna wanted the album cover to have mixed messages as well  Author Graham Thompson described that "reclining on a satin sheet, with a bouquet on her lap and wearing a wedding dress, a closer inspection reveals Madonna's image as highly fetishized and sexualized " He added that the heavy make-up, pouting lips, and despoiled hair, along with the tight-fitting bustier and full-length gloves, turned Madonna's image into a figure not of virtue, but of desire  This point, according to Thompson, is further emphasized by the belt she is wearing, the wording on which is just visible as "Boy Toy"  He added: "The image was ambiguous and was based upon the fact that Madonna's appeal at that point of her career was not presenting herself just as an object of desire, but also as a desiring female subject" Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic commented that the "Steven Meisel-shot cover     was as key to her reinvention as the music of the album itself " William McKeen, author of Rock and roll is here to stay: an anthology, felt that the image was another trigger and testament to the fact that Madonna was the last word on fashion for women and young girls of that era, the epitome of cool  Costume designer Arianne Phillips commented of the Like a Virgin look: "This was one of the most shocking, liberating and influential moments in pop culture/fashion history     Fashion has never been the same " Madonna herself declared: "I have always loved to play cat and mouse with the conventional stereotypes  My Like a Virgin album cover is a classic example  People were thinking who was I pretending to be—the Virgin Mary or the whore? These were the two extreme images of women I had known vividly, and remembered from childhood, and I wanted to play with them  I wanted to see if I can merge them together, Virgin Mary and the whore as one and all  The photo was a statement of independence, if you wanna be a virgin, you are welcome  But if you wanna be a whore, it's your fucking right to be so "

Composition
According to Taraborrelli, "Madonna and Rodgers' collective energy—she wanting to score with a smash second album and he wanting to be the producer to give it to her—drove the production of Like a Virgin with great precision " Madonna also collaborated with her former boyfriend Steve Bray, who co-wrote many of the album's songs  Reflecting on the music composition for the album, Bray noted: "I've always kind of made the rib cage and the skeleton of the songs already—she's there for the last things like the eyebrows and the haircut " The opening track "Material Girl" was written by Peter Brown and Robert Rans  Madonna explained that the concept of the song was similar to her life's situation at that time  According to her, the song was provocative, hence she was attracted to it  "Material Girl" incorporated new wave music and consists of synth arrangements with a robotic voice repeating the hook  The lyrics identify with materialism, with Madonna asking for a rich and affluent life, rather than romance and relationships  Written by Madonna and Steve Bray, "Angel" is the second track on the album  It was one of the first songs developed for the project and, according to Madonna, was inspired by a girl who is saved by, and subsequently falls in love with an angel  "Angel" consists of a three-chord ascending hook, which serves as the verse and chorus  It has vocal harmonies beneath the main chorus and the lyrics repeat the angel-like image of Madonna's savior  The title track "Like a Virgin" was written by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly  Steinberg said that the song was inspired by his personal experiences of romance  It was chosen for Madonna by Michael Ostin of Warner Bros  Records, after listening to a demo sung by Kelly  However, Rodgers initially felt that the song did not have a good enough hook and was not suitable for Madonna, but subsequently changed his opinion after the hook was stuck in his mind  He credits Madonna with recognizing the song's potential: "I handed my apology to Madonna and said, 'you know     if it's so catchy that it stayed in my head for four days, it must be something  So let's do it '" "Like a Virgin" is a dance-oriented song, composed of two hooks  Madonna's voice is heard in a high register while a continuous arrangement of drums are heard along the bassline  According to author Rikky Rooksby, the lyrics of the song are ambiguous and consist of hidden innuendo  In sexual terms, the lyrics can be interpreted in different ways for different people In "Over and Over", Madonna sings about determination despite disappointments  The song consists of instrumentation from drums, synths and has a three-chord progression  An emotional moment occurred in the recording studio when Madonna covered the 1978 Rose Royce song "Love Don't Live Here Anymore"  Rodgers recalled: "Madonna had never performed with a live orchestra before  I was very much into doing everything live, so I just said, 'Madonna, you go out there and sing and we will follow you ' At first Madonna was hesitant, but the live setting ended up producing memorable results  She sang and she was overcome with emotions and she started crying, but I left it on the record " The song features Madonna's vocals supported by acoustic guitars and synth strings, with Thompson playing the drum in the second verse  Towards the end, Madonna emotes in the voice of a soul singer "Dress You Up" was the last track to be added to the album as it was submitted late by songwriters Andrea LaRusso and Peggy Stanziale  Although Rodgers rejected it as he felt there was no time to compose a melody and record it for the album, Madonna pushed for the song's inclusion on Like a Virgin, as she particularly liked its lyrics  The song is a drum beat-driven dance track featuring instrumentation of guitars and vocals from a choir  The lyrics are an extended metaphor for fashion and sex, comparing dressing up with passion  "Shoo-Bee-Doo" contains homage to Motown music  Beginning with a slow introduction, the song is in the doo-wop genre and resembles the songs of early Sixties girl groups like The Shirelles or The Crystals  The saxophone breakdown is played by Lenny Pickett  The lyrics discuss relationship problems, and are phrased as clichés in the coda  "Pretender" starts with the chorus and then moves to the verse  It talks about seduction and the insecurity felt by a woman who feels that things are moving too quickly for her with her man  "Stay" is the final track on the album  Using triple-rhythms and double-tracked vocals, the song includes a noise resembling someone slapping a microphone and a spoken sequence which fades away in the end 
"Into the Groove" was added as a bonus track in the 1985 international reissue of Like a Virgin  Madonna's inspiration behind the song was the dance floor, and she wrote it while watching a handsome Puerto Rican man across her balcony  Initially written for her friend Mark Kamins, Madonna later decided to use it in the soundtrack of her 1985 film Desperately Seeking Susan  Unlike the other songs on Like a Virgin, "Into the Groove" was recorded at Sigma Sound Studios, and produced by Madonna and Stephen Bray  Madonna's friend Erika Belle was present during the recording and watched the whole process  In Andrew Morton's Madonna biography, she noted that at one point of the recording, Bray was facing difficulties with the bridge of the song, as the melody thought by him was not syncing with the rest of the composition  Undeterred by his obvious difficulties, Madonna stepped up to the microphone and sang the words "Live out your fantasy here with me"  Bray's problem was solved; Belle remembered the experience as: "[The song] seemed to come out of her, I was awestruck " The song consists of instrumentation from drums, percussion, congas and whistles  Madonna's voice is double-tracked in the chorus  The lyrics are simple, and written as an invitation to dance with the singer, with sexual innuendos and undertones in the meaning 

Promotion
Live performances
Madonna debuted the first single "Like a Virgin" at the first MTV Video Music Awards on September 14, 1984, where she appeared on stage atop a giant wedding cake dressed in a wedding dress, adorned with the infamous "Boy Toy" belt buckle, and veil  The climax of her risqué performance found her masturbating and rolling around on the stage  The performance is noted as one of the iconic performance in MTV's history  On December 13, 1984, Madonna performed "Like a Virgin" on BBC One's program Top of the Pops, wearing punky torn tights, a vivid pink wig, religious accessories and layered mesh tops  It was later voted as the second best Top of the Pops performance of all time  She also appeared at the 1985 Live Aid charity concert, where she performed "Into the Groove" The album was further promoted on her first headlining tour, The Virgin Tour, which only visited cities in the United States and Canada  Early on there were plans to schedule dates in England and Japan due to Madonna's large fan base in both countries  However, the final schedule did not reflect the idea  In the end several more US dates were added and moved to larger concert venues due to overwhelmingly strong ticket sales  Madonna's performance on the tour was described by Taraborrelli as "full of excitement", singing songs from her debut album as well as Like a Virgin, and asking the audience "Will you marry me?" The costumes included colorful new wave jackets for "Holiday" and white wedding gowns similar to the one worn in her "Like a Virgin" music video  Referring to her Detroit roots and contemporary artist Michael Jackson, Madonna sang a verse of "Billie Jean" during "Like a Virgin" The Virgin Tour was a success and collected a total of more than US$5 million  During a 2009 interview with Rolling Stone, interviewer Austin Scaggs asked Madonna regarding her feelings and emotions during the tour, since it was the first time she was playing in arenas  Madonna replied saying,

That whole tour was crazy, because I went from playing CBGB and the Mudd Club to playing sporting arenas  I played a small theater in Seattle, and the girls had flap skirts on and the tights cut off below their knees and lace gloves and rosaries and bows in their hair and big hoop earrings  I was like, 'This is insane!' After Seattle, all of the shows were moved to arenas  I've never done a bus tour  Everyone says they are really fun 

Singles
"Like a Virgin" was released as the lead single from the album in late 1984  It received positive reviews from contemporary critics, who frequently called it one of Madonna's defining songs  It became her first number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100, while reaching the top of the charts in Australia, Canada and Japan and the top-ten of other countries  The song was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on January 10, 1985, for shipping a million copies across United States – the requirement for a gold single prior to 1989  The music video portrayed Madonna sailing down the riverways of Venice in a gondola, as well as roaming around a palace wearing a white wedding dress  With the video, scholars noted Madonna's portrayal of a sexually independent woman, the symbolism of the appearance of a man with lion's mask to that of Saint Mark, and compared the eroticism of the video to the vitality of the city of Venice "Material Girl" was the second single from the album, released in November 1984  Critics have frequently noted "Material Girl" and "Like a Virgin" as the songs that made Madonna an icon  The song was a commercial success, reaching the top-five in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Ireland, Japan and United Kingdom  It reached position two on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States  The music video was a mimicry of Marilyn Monroe's performance of the song "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" from the 1953 film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes  The mimicked scenes are interspersed with scenes of a Hollywood producer trying to win the heart of an actress, played by Madonna herself  Discovering that, contrary to her song, the young woman was not impressed by money and expensive gifts, he pretended to be penniless and succeeded in taking her out on a date "Angel" was the third released single from the album, in April 1985  Critics gave mixed review of the song, with one group denoting it as a classic while the others felt it was sub-par compared to the other Madonna singles  "Angel" became Madonna's fifth consecutive top-five single on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached the top of its dance chart "Into the Groove"  was released as a single in Europe, Asia and South America in July 1985  The song was appreciated by contemporary critics as well as authors, who have frequently called it "Madonna's first great single"  "Into the Groove" reached the top of the charts in Australia, Belgium, Ireland, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, where it was Madonna's first number-one single  In the United States, the song was only available as the B-side of the 12-inch single of "Angel", therefore it was ineligible to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 at the time  It reached number one on the US Hot Dance Club Play chart where it was listed as a double-sided single with "Angel"  In Australia and Canada, the song also was released as a double-sided single with, "Angel" 
"Dress You Up" was the last single from the album  Critics reacted positively to the dance-pop nature of the track  "Dress You Up" became Madonna's sixth consecutive top-five single in the United States  It also reached the top-ten in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and the United Kingdom  The music video for the single is taken from the live performance from The Virgin Tour, filmed in Detroit Two further singles were released internationally from the album  "Over and Over" was released in late 1985 exclusively in Italy 
"Love Don't Live Here Anymore" was released in early 1986 exclusively in Japan 

Critical reception
According to Q magazine, Like a Virgin was the album that "propelled [Madonna] into the stratosphere – and rightly so  The songs are smart, funny, sexy and irresistible " Taraborrelli said, "It was Like a Virgin which reflected Madonna as a more versatile and artistic performer and vocals on this album being reflectively sharper in contrast to her early works in the music industry " Michael Paoletta from Billboard commented that the songs on the album sustain a "fevered dance-rock momentum"  In his review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine commented, "Overall, the album adds up to less than the sum of its parts—partially because the singles are so good, but also because on the first album, she stunned with style and a certain joy  Here, the calculation is apparent, and while that's part of Madonna's essence—even something that makes her fun—it throws the record's balance off a little too much for it to be consistent, even if it justifiably made her a star " Debby Miller from Rolling Stone preferred Madonna's debut album over Like a Virgin  In The Village Voice, Robert Christgau was also lukewarm towards the record, writing "[Madonna's] so sure of herself she's asking men and women both to get the hots for the calculating bitch who sells the fantasy even while she bids for the sincerity market where long-term superstars ply their trade  And to make the music less mechanical, she's hired Nile Rodgers, who I won't blame for making it less catchy "Jim Farber from Entertainment Weekly said that "In addition to raising the Madonna/whore ante with songs like the title cut, Virgin cradled the kind of '80s hits ("Dress You Up") built to transcend the Dynasty era " Alfred Soto from Stylus Magazine remembered the first time that he heard the songs from the album and commented, "Lots of critics think something similar occurred when Madonna followed her eponymous debut with Like a Virgin, helmed by Nile Rodgers with all the fixin's—too calculated next to the 'raw passion' of the debut  This is nonsense; it misses how Madonna conflated notions of spontaneity and calculation  Rodgers is the ideal collaborator " Stephen Holden from The New York Times said: "With a tough-cookie voice that's both coy and streetwise, Madonna's singing harks back to the rock-and-roll girl-group tradition that preceded the Beatles  But where girl groups, from the Shirelles to the Ronettes, worshipfully extolled their boyfriends' cars, haircuts and rebel poses, Madonna's point of view is decidedly more self-interested  In matters of love, she is a comparison shopper with a shrewd sense of her own market value  The words 'shiny and new' describe not only the way the love-smitten singer feels in the title song but the sound of the album "Matt Damsker from the Los Angeles Times commented: "Madonna's beating vibrato sometimes makes her sound so robotic in the album " Lou Papineau, while writing for The Providence Journal, said that "In Like a Virgin, Madonna proves she's shallow, but spunky " Sal Cinquemani from Slant Magazine gave a positive review, saying "Though not as innovative as her debut, Like a Virgin stands as one of the most definitive pop artifacts from the indulgent Reagan Era  The mid-tempo ballad 'Shoo-Bee-Doo' and a soulful cover of Rose Royce's 'Love Don't Live Here Anymore' proved Madonna could churn out more than just novelty hits, while the sugary 'Angel' and the irresistible 'Dress You Up' contributed to the singer's record-breaking list of consecutive Top 5 hits (16 in all)  The retro-infused 'Stay' and the percussive 'Over and Over' are the album's hidden gems " Ed Stevenson from People felt that "Madonna does have a sense of humor, though she is buried under so many layers of self-parody it's hard to tell sometimes     She is backed on this by the reliable rhythmic touch of veteran Nile Rodgers, whose contributions have helped her create a tolerable bit of fluff  Hugo Mistry from the Chicago Tribune felt that "Like a Virgin was Madonna's breakthrough, playing off her self-conscious campiness with a series of hot dance tracks, attention-grabbing lyrics and steamy videos "

Commercial performance
Like a Virgin was recorded and finished by September 1984, but the release of the album was held up, much to Madonna's frustration, by the continuing sales of her debut album, which was approaching two million sales in the United States  Like a Virgin debuted at number 70 on the Billboard 200 issued for December 1, 1984  The album reached the top ten of the Billboard 200 on December 8, 1984, and after one month reached the top of the chart on February 9, 1985, where it stayed for three weeks  It also reached a peak of ten on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart  After 14 weeks, the album sold 3 5 million copies  By July 1985, Like a Virgin became the first album by a female artist to be certified for sales of five million units in the United States  It was eventually certified ten times platinum (diamond) by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), for shipment of ten million copies of the album  It placed at three on the year-end chart for 1985, with Madonna becoming the top pop artist for the year  After the advent of the Nielsen SoundScan era in 1991, the album sold a further 574,000 copies  It sold additional 882,000 units at the BMG Music Club, which are not counted by the Nielsen SoundScan  In Canada, the album debuted at number 78 on the RPM Albums Chart, on November 10, 1984  It reached a peak of number three, on February 16, 1985  The album was present for a total of 74 weeks on the chart, and was certified diamond by the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA), for shipment of one million copies of the album  Like a Virgin ranked sixth on the RPM Top 100 Albums for 1985  As of June 1986, the album sold more than 750,000 units in Latin America In the United Kingdom, Like a Virgin debuted at number 74 on the UK Albums Chart, on January 12, 1985  However, the album fluctuated on the chart for the next eight months and it was only in September that it finally reached the top of the chart  It spent two alternative weeks at the top (21st Sept and 12th Oct 1985), and a total of 152 weeks on the chart  The album was certified three times platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and has sold over a million copies there  In France, the album debuted at number five on the French Albums Chart on October 6, 1985, staying there for eight weeks, then descending down the chart  It was certified two times platinum by the Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique (SNEP) for shipment of 600,000 copies  In Australia, the album debuted and peaked at two on the Kent Music Report albums chart, and was certified seven times platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for shipment of 490,000 copies of the album  It reached the top of the New Zealand Albums Chart for three consecutive weeks and was certified five times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RIANZ) for shipment of 75,000 copies  Elsewhere, Like a Virgin reached number one in Germany, the Netherlands and Spain, while peaking within the top five in many other countries, including Austria, Japan, Sweden and Switzerland  It also became Madonna's first number-one album on the European Top 100 Albums, reaching the summit on November 23, 1985, for two weeks, and sold over 2 million copies across Europe at the end of the 1985 year  Like a Virgin has sold more than 21 million copies worldwide and became one of the best-selling albums of all time 

Legacy
After the release of Like a Virgin, Stephen Holden commented in The New York Times: "No phenomenon illustrates more pointedly how pop music history seems to run in cycles than the overnight success of the 24-year-old pop siren known as Madonna  The month before Christmas, Madonna's second album, Like a Virgin sold more than two million copies  Teen-agers were lining up in stores to purchase the album the way their parents had lined up to buy Beatles records in the late 60's " Madonna proved she was not a one-hit wonder with the release of the album which sold 12 million copies worldwide at the time of its release  In 2016, Billboard ranked at number nine in the list of Certified Diamond Albums From Worst to Best  Like a Virgin was ranked fifth in a Billboard poll of albums of the decade—the highest peak by a female performer  In 2023, the Library of Congress added the album to the National Recording Registry for preservation in the United States, for being an "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" recording 
Taraborrelli felt that "Like a Virgin is really a portrait of Madonna's uncanny pop instincts empowered by her impatient zeal for creative growth and her innate knack for crafting a good record " He added that the success of the album made it clear what was Madonna's real persona  "She was a street-smart dance queen with the sexy allure of Marilyn Monroe, the coy iciness of Marlene Dietrich and the cutting and protective glibness of a modern Mae West"  Although the album received mixed reviews, Taraborrelli believed that the "mere fact that at the time of its release so many couldn't resist commenting on the record was a testament to the continuous, growing fascination with Madonna     Every important artist has at least one album in his or her career whose critical and commercial success becomes the artist's magic moment; for Madonna, Like a Virgin was just such a defining moment "Chris Smith, author of 101 Albums That Changed Popular Music, believed that it was with Like a Virgin that Madonna was able to steal the spotlight towards herself  She asserted her sexuality as only male rock stars had done before, moving well beyond the limited confines of being a pop artist, to becoming a focal point for nationwide discussions of power relationships in the areas of sex, race, gender, religion, and other divisive social topics  Her songs became a lightning rod for both criticism by conservatives and imitation by the younger female population  Consequence of Sound ranked the album at number two on "The 10 Greatest Sophomore Albums of All Time," calling it the album that "carved out the throne   that would be Madonna's forever: the Queen of Pop "

Track listing
All tracks produced by Nile Rodgers, except "Into the Groove" produced by Madonna and Stephen Bray 

Personnel
Credits adapted from the album's liner notes 

Charts
Certifications and sales
See also
Notes
Passage 2:
Chapter II (Ashanti album)
Chapter II is the second studio album by American singer and songwriter Ashanti  It was released by Murder Inc  and Island Def Jam on July 1, 2003 in the United States  Ashanti reteamed with Murder Inc  head Irv Gotti and producer Chink Santana to work on the album  Chapter II features a guest appearance by rapper Ja Rule, Chink Santana, and Gunnz  Critical reception towards the album was generally mixed, with critics commending the album's autobiographical lyrics, and its fun yet light nature, while other critics felt Chapter II lacked creativity and personality and relied too heavily on the formula of her debut album (2002) 
Upon its release, the album debut at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart with first-week sales of 326,000 units  It also reached the top ten in Canada, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom  Chapter II was eventually certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America in August 2003 and gained gold status in Japan and the United Kingdom  At the 46th Annual Grammy Awards, it earned Ashanti three nominations for Best Contemporary R&B Album, Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, and Best R&B Song  Chapter II spawned three singles, including the Billboard Hot 100 number two song "Rock wit U (Awww Baby)", the R&B ballad "Rain on Me" and "Breakup 2 Makeup (Remix)" 

Promotion
Murder Inc  selected "Rock wit U (Awww Baby)," which they considered a continuation from her debut single "Foolish" (2002), to be released as the album's first single from Chapter 2  Issued on May 19, 2003, the song became a commercial success stateside and Ashanti's third solo top ten hit  It peaked at number two on the US Billboard Hot 100, while reaching number four on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart  Internationally, it was a moderate success, reaching the top five in Canada and Japan, the top ten in the United Kingdom, top twenty in Australia, and the top forty in Ireland, New Zealand, and Switzerland The album's second single "Rain on Me", was released on August 11, 2003  It peaked at number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 and number two on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart  Elsewhere, it reached the top twenty in Belgium and the United Kingdom  In 2004, "Rain on Me" earned Ashanti a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance  In 2004, a remix version of "Breakup 2 Makeup" featuring labelmate Black Child was released as a single  It served as the lead single from Ashanti's remix compilation album Collectables by Ashanti, released in 2005, reaching number 76 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs 

Critical reception
Chapter II received mixed reviews from music critics  At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 51, based on 11 reviews, indicating "mixed or average" reviews  The New York Times writer Kelefa Sanneh remarked that Chapter II "isn't perfect, but once you edit out the skits (which are, without exception, excruciating), you're left with an album that's graceful, beguiling and above all, light, in the best sense of the word " People magazine noted that "the singer's sophomore CD, though, proves wrong those who thought she would be a one-hit-album wonder  Chapter II, which continues the same hip-hop soul theme as her self-titled debut, is the equivalent of a good beach read: It's easy, breezy listening that doesn't require much brainpower "Billboard wrote that Chapter II "doesn't stray too far from its predecessor" and complimented the autobiographical songs on the album  Ernest Hardy from Rolling Stone found that the "album is filled with the same beat-driven, slickly produced midtempo tracks and ballads that made up her debut [and] the disc's best moments have a decidedly old-school feel to them [   ] Still, dullard schoolgirl insights into love and heartache dominate the album; add some boring between-song skits about 'haters,' and Chapter II wears thin long before its halfway mark " While he complimented Ashanti for her writing credits on the album, Entertainment Weekly journalist Tom Sinclair felt that "Chapter II is too mired in tired R&B conventions to achieve true magnificence "Allmusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine found that "the songs have about as much personality as Ashanti's voice, but that actually is a point in its favor, since it keeps everything on an even keel and makes Gotti and Santana's stylish production the star  They are the secret ingredients that make Chapter II good romantic mood music for the summer " Alexa Camp from Slant Magazine wrote that "the album's got some great tunes, but they'd be better suited for someone like Mary J  Blige, whom Shany & Co  bite off " Robert Christgau gave Chapter II a "C" rating in his review for The Village Voice, calling it a "pathologically modest follow-up " PopMatters from Maurice Bottomley assured that "Chapter 2 is not going to feature as any scribe's R&B album of the year "

Commercial performance
In the United States, Chapter II debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 326,000 units sold  While it became Ashanti's second chart topper, it was a considerable decline from her previous effort Ashanti, which had opened to sales of 502,500 units in April 2002  In total, it remained on the Billboard 200 chart for 30 consecutive weeks  In addition, it reached the top position on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums chart, where it stayed at the top spot for two consecutive weeks  On August 14, 2003, The album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)  Towards the end of 2003, Billboard ranked the album at number 54 and 27 respectively on its Billboard 200 and Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums year end chart lists  By January 2005, Chapter II had sold 1 5 million copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan Elsewhere, Chapter II reached the top five on the Canadian and UK Singles Chart  It was certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), indicating sales in excess of 100,000 copies, and also went gold in Japan  In Switzerland, it reached the top ten, debuting and peaking at number nine on the Swiss Albums Chart, making it Ashanti's highest-charting album to date  Chapter II also entered the top 20 in Australia and Germany  To date, the album has sold 3 million copies worldwide 

Track listing
Samples
"Intro (Medley)" contains samples of Ashanti tracks "Foolish", "Happy", "Down 4 U" (with Ja Rule, Charli Baltimore & Vita), "Baby" and "Mesmerize" (with Ja Rule) 
"Breakup 2 Makeup" contains a sample of "I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little More Baby" by Barry White 
"Rain on Me" contains a sample of "Look of Love" by Isaac Hayes 
"Then Ya Gone" contains samples of "Ain't I Been Good to You" by The Isley Brothers, and "One Day" by UGK 
"Feel So Good" contains a sample of "Playing Your Game, Baby" by Barry White 
"The Story of 2" contains a sample of "Dream Maker" by Rick James 
"Sweet Baby" contains a sample of "I'm Glad You're Mine" by Al Green 
"U Say I Say" contains a sample of "Never Enough" by Groove Theory 
"I Found Lovin'" is a cover of the same-titled song by Fatback Band 

Personnel
Charts
Certifications
See also
List of Billboard 200 number-one albums of 2003
List of Billboard number-one R&B albums of 2003
Passage 3:
Chapter II (Benga album)
Chapter II is the third studio album by British record producer Benga  The album was released on 6 May 2013 through Sony Music  It entered the UK Albums Chart at number 93 

Background and development
The album was produced from late 2011 to 2013  On 30 November 2011, Benga and Youngman performed at 1Xtra Live  They premiered "Running" live from Bristol  The first official single from the album was "I Will Never Change", released in March 2012  In June 2012, Benga and P Money performed a live version of "High Speed" on BBC Radio 1Xtra in Maida Vale Studios  Benga himself provided vocoded vocals  Several singles released throughout 2012 were omitted from the album: "Icon", "Pour Your Love", "We're Coming Out" and "Open Your Eyes"  However, "Pour Your Love" (released on 24 August 2012) is the only song so far to chart in the United Kingdom, charting at number 189 in the UK Singles Chart 
A series of three heavier songs advertised as "club singles" were released throughout December 2012: "We're Coming Out", "Open Your Eyes" and "To Hell and Back"  The latter is the only one to feature on the album  The album's initial release date was set to be 22 April 2013, but it was delayed by two weeks  Benga supported Example on his 2013 arena tour around the United Kingdom, with Youngman providing vocals for his "Benga Live" sets  Several songs from the album were performed on tour, including "Choose 1"; "Smile"; "Getting 42"; "To Hell and Back"; "I Will Never Change"; and "Forefather", which got its live debut at the Manchester Arena on March 1 with a live PA from Kano  "Smile" features uncredited vocals from Charli XCX 

Singles
"I Will Never Change" is the album's lead single  It was released on 16 March 2012  The track was the first to be written on the album, and its upload on UKF has over one and a half million YouTube views  The official video premiered on Benga's Vevo on 5 April 2013 at a total length of two minutes and one second  The video features the song's waveform being created in stop motion out of 960 differently sized vinyls 
"To Hell and Back" is the second single from the album  It was released on 17 December 2012  On Example's 2013 arena tour, P Money performed a live PA which doesn't feature on the studio version of the track 
"Forefather" with Kano is the third single from the album  It was released on 7 March 2013 and entered the UK Singles Chart at number 123  The official video premiered on Benga's Vevo on 10 March 2013 at a total length of three minutes and thirty-eight seconds  The video compares Benga and Kano's lifestyles in 2003, 2008 and 2013: showing that although their success has changed their surroundings, their music is still "sounding like some old-school KA"  It is the only explicit track on the album 

Track listing
Personnel
Credits adapted from Chapter II album liner notes 
Adegbenga "Benga" Adejumo – mixing, engineering, producer (all tracks), vocals (11)
Autumn Rowe - vocals (8)
Ayo Simpson - engineering (14)
Charlotte Emma "Charli XCX" Aitchison - vocals (2)
Daniel "Danny C" Caim - vocal recording (11)
Daniel Ledinsky - backing vocals (14)
Jack Tarrant - mixing, engineering (8, 14)
Kane "Kano" Robinson - vocals (4)
Michael "Mikey J" Asante - vocal recording, vocal mixing (4)
Paris "P Money" Moore-Williams - vocals (11)
Rowan "Route 94" Jones - co-producer (2)
Rudie Edwards - vocals (14)
Sam Frank - vocals, saxophone (10)
Simon "Youngman" Smith - vocals (6, 13)
Stuart Hawkes - mastering (all tracks)

Chart performance
Weekly charts
Release history
Passage 4:
Rock wit U (Awww Baby)
"Rock wit U (Awww Baby)" is a song by American R&B singer Ashanti  Written by her along with Irv Gotti and Chink Santana for her second studio album, Chapter II (2003), and produced by Gotti and Santana, the song was released by Murder Inc  on May 19, 2003, as the lead single from Chapter II, peaked at number two on the US Billboard Hot 100 for one week and became her first international hit from her second album, reaching number 7 in the UK and number 19 in Australia 

Music video
Directed by Paul Hunter and filmed in Miami in early May 2003, the music video for "Rock wit U (Awww Baby)" features Ashanti at a beach with her boyfriend while they flirt in bed together and driving down the road in a Jeep  In some scenes, the boyfriend watches Ashanti dance for him in the house and behind some trees at night  There is also a scene where she rides on an elephant in the water  The video was nominated at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards for Best R&B Video 

Samples
The song was sampled for British rapper Aitch's single "Baby"  The single was released on 10 March 2022  It debuted on the UK Official Singles Top 100 on 18 March 2022, placing at number 2 

Track listings
Notes

^[a]  denotes additional producer

Credits and personnel
Credits lifted from the liner notes of Chapter II 

Charts
Certifications
Release history
Passage 5:
Guillotine IV (The Final Chapter)
"Guillotine IV (The Final Chapter)" is the second single from Falling in Reverse's third album Just Like You  It is the fourth and final installment of the Guillotine series that was started by Ronnie Radke when he was the frontman of Escape the Fate  Ronnie Radke sang the first song, "The Guillotine", from Escape the Fate's Dying Is Your Latest Fashion; and Craig Mabbit sang "This War Is Ours (The Guillotine II)" and "The Aftermath (The Guillotine III)" from Escape the Fate's This War Is Ours and their self-titled album, respectively 

Personnel
Falling in ReverseRonnie Radke – lead vocals
Jacky Vincent – lead guitar, backing vocals
Derek Jones – rhythm guitar, backing vocals
Ryan Seaman – drums, percussion, backing vocalsAdditionalCharles Kallaghan Massabo – bass
Passage 6:
Capítulo II: Brinca
Capítulo II: Brinca (English: Chapter II: Jump) is the second studio album by Mexican-American recording artist DJ Kane  It was released on September 13, 2005 by EMI Latin 

Track listing
Passage 7:
Ashanti (singer)
Ashanti Shequoiya Douglas (born October 13, 1980) is an American singer, songwriter and actress  She was first discovered as a teenager and later signed to Murder Inc  Records in 2002  That year, she was featured on Fat Joe's "What's Luv?" and Ja Rule's "Always on Time", both of which became two of the biggest hit songs of 2002  She became the first female artist to occupy the top two positions on the U S  Billboard Hot 100 chart simultaneously with "Foolish" and "What's Luv?" at numbers one and two, respectively 
In 2002, Ashanti released her eponymous debut album, which sold over 505,000 copies throughout the U S  in its first week of release  The album earned her many awards, including eight Billboard Music Awards, two American Music Awards, and a Grammy Award in 2003 for Best Contemporary R&B Album  The album has since been certified triple platinum in the United States and sold six million copies worldwide by the end of 2003  The lead single for the album, "Foolish", was a critical and commercial success; it reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100  With "Foolish", she became the second artist (after The Beatles) to have their first three chart entries in the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 simultaneously  Ashanti wrote and provided background vocals for Jennifer Lopez's "Ain't It Funny (Murder Remix)", which also reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 In 2003, Ashanti released her second album, Chapter II, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, with first-week sales of 326,000 copies in the U S  The album went platinum, selling over 1 5 million copies in the U S  since its release  The album's singles, "Rock wit U (Awww Baby)" and "Rain on Me", were both commercial successes, peaking at number two and number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, respectively  Chapter II was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary R&B Album, and "Rock wit U (Awww Baby)" and "Rain on Me" were each nominated in the categories of Best R&B Song and Best Female R&B Vocal Performance  In November 2003, Ashanti released a Christmas album titled Ashanti's Christmas, which was a modest commercial success 
In 2004, Ashanti released her third studio album, Concrete Rose, the title of which took on Tupac Shakur's pseudonym "The Rose That Grew from Concrete"  The album debuted at number seven in the U S , with first-week sales of 254,000 copies, and became her third platinum-certified album  The first single, "Only U", reached number thirteen on the Billboard Hot 100 and became her biggest hit in the United Kingdom, peaking at number two  A second single, the ballad "Don't Let Them", garnered little chart success after Def Jam refused to fund a music video due to Irv Gotti's legal troubles during his money laundering trial  Her subsequent albums include The Declaration (2008) and Braveheart (2014), the latter of which was released independently, on Ashanti's record label, Written Entertainment 
Aside from music, Ashanti has also acted in various productions  In 2005, she made her feature film debut in Coach Carter alongside Samuel L  Jackson  She also starred as Dorothy Gale in the made-for-television film The Muppets' Wizard of Oz, which attracted nearly 8 million viewers when it premiered  She has since appeared in the films John Tucker Must Die (2006) and Resident Evil: Extinction (2007)  Throughout her career, Ashanti has sold nearly 15 million records worldwide 

Early life
Ashanti Douglas was born on October 13, 1980 in Glen Cove, New York  Her mother, Tina Douglas, is African-American and a former dance teacher, her father, Ken-Kaide Thomas Douglas, is also African-American and a former singer  She is the oldest of her parents' children, with a younger sister named Kenashia "Shia" Douglas  Ashanti's mother named her after the Ashanti Empire in Ghana; in this nation, women had power and influence, and Tina wanted Ashanti to follow that model  Her grandfather, James, was a civil rights activist who was associated with Martin Luther King Jr  in the 1960s Ashanti's mother discovered her full singing potential when she overheard Ashanti singing Mary J  Blige's "Reminisce" at age 12 (after the song was released on Ashanti's birthday)  While attending high school, she began to write songs  As a teenager, she performed in a local talent show and at several small festivals  She got her first taste of acting as a child extra in Spike Lee's Malcolm X (1992) and in Ted Demme's Who's the Man?  She also had a couple of minor appearances in music videos, such as KRS-One's "MC's Act Like They Don't Know" as well as 8-Off's "Ghetto Girl" Ashanti struggled to find success as a singer after being courted by several record labels, including Bad Boy and Jive  Despite this, she continued to perform in and around New York and began hanging out at the Murder Inc  recording studio, hoping for a big break 

Career
2001–2003: Ashanti, Chapter II and Ashanti's Christmas
Ashanti was first noticed by Irv Gotti because of her vocal skills  He asked her to pen hooks for his rap artists and to perform with them in duets  Ashanti provided the melodic response to their call  Ashanti was first featured as a background vocalist on rapper Big Pun's song "How We Roll"  In the same year, Ashanti was featured on fellow labelmate Cadillac Tah's singles "Pov City Anthem" and "Just Like a Thug"  She also appeared on the 2001 The Fast and the Furious soundtrack as a featured artist on Vita's 2001 hip hop remake of Madonna's "Justify My Love" and on the solo track "When a Man Does Wrong"  She was then featured on Fat Joe's "What's Luv?" and Ja Rule's "Always on Time"  "What's Luv?" and "Always on Time" were released simultaneously and became two of the biggest hit songs of 2002  Ashanti became the first female to occupy the top two positions on the U S  Billboard Hot 100 chart simultaneously when "Always on Time" and "What's Luv?" were at numbers one and two, respectively 
Following the success of her collaborations with Ja Rule and Fat Joe, Ashanti released her debut single, "Foolish", which contains a sample of the 1983 song "Stay with Me" by DeBarge (also used by The Notorious B I G  in his 1995 single "One More Chance", and by Big L in "MVP")  This is her biggest success to date, spending ten weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100  She became the second artist (after The Beatles) to have their first three chart entries in the top ten of the Hot 100 simultaneously  Ashanti's self-titled debut album, Ashanti, was released on Irv Gotti's Murder Inc  record label in April 2002  It debuted at number one on the U S  Billboard 200 albums chart  The album has been certified triple platinum in the United States and sold six million copies worldwide  Ashanti wrote the album's twelve tracks, most of which were written on the spot in the studio  Ashanti's follow-up singles, "Happy" and "Baby", were not as successful as her debut single but peaked inside the top ten and top twenty in the U S , respectively  Ashanti's debut album earned her many awards, including eight Billboard Music Awards, two American Music Awards, and a Grammy Award in 2003 for Best Contemporary R&B Album  Ashanti was the first artist to win Best Contemporary R&B Album before the category was last awarded in 2011  She was nominated as Best New Artist and "Foolish" was nominated in the Best Female R&B Vocal Performance category  She also received a Comet Award and two Soul Train Music Awards that same year 
Ashanti became the subject of controversy when it was announced that she would receive the Soul Train Aretha Franklin Award for "Entertainer of the Year", a high school student took offense and started an online petition against her, explaining to The Seattle Times that she was too new to deserve the award  Nearly 30,000 people agreed with him, signing the petition  Many said that established artists such as Mary J  Blige and Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott or critically acclaimed singers like Alicia Keys and India Arie were more deserving of an award that carries the name of a musical legend  Despite the petition, the Soul Train committee and Don Cornelius stuck by their decision  Ashanti was applauded by her musical peers as she entered the Pasadena Civic Auditorium to accept her award and she was supported onstage by Patti LaBelle, who stated "she's a baby and we have to support our babies "Just before the release of her second album, Ashanti headlined VH1 Divas Duets alongside Whitney Houston, Chaka Khan, Beyoncé and Lisa Marie Presley  During the concert, she performed duets with the Isley Brothers and Stevie Wonder, and participated in the all-star finale performance of Wonder's "Higher Ground "In July 2003, Ashanti released her second album, Chapter II, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, with first-week sales of 326,000 copies in the U S  The album went platinum, selling over 1 5  a million copies in the U S  Chapter II's first single, "Rock wit U (Awww Baby)", became a hit, peaking at number two on the Billboard Hot 100  Its video, which showed Ashanti in a bikini frolicking on a beach and riding an elephant, was nominated for two 2003 MTV Video Music Awards  A remix of the song contains interpolations of Michael Jackson's "Rock with You"  The second single, "Rain on Me", reached the number seven spot on the Hot 100 and number two on the Hot 100 R&B Songs chart  Chapter II was nominated for a 2004 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary R&B Album, and "Rock wit U (Awww Baby)" and "Rain on Me" were nominated in the categories of Best R&B Song and Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, respectively  In the "Rain on Me," mini-movie music video—directed by Hype Williams and co-starring Larenz Tate—Ashanti portrays a troubled young woman in an abusive relationship  She received a Lifetime Channel Achievement Award for her message speaking out against domestic violence  That same year, she began dating rapper Nelly In November 2003, Ashanti released a Christmas album titled Ashanti's Christmas  It contained 10 Christmas songs and was a modest commercial success and sold just around 100,000 units in the U S  The album peaked at No  160 in the Billboard charts 

2004–2007: Concrete Rose, Collectibles by Ashanti and acting
Before Concrete Rose was released, Ashanti did some major promotion for her single "Only U", when she premiered it at the 2004 Vibe Music Awards  She featured on "Wonderful"—with Ja Rule and R  Kelly—that year, which peaked at number five in the U S  and at number one in the UK  In December 2004, Ashanti released her third studio album, Concrete Rose, the title of which took on Tupac Shakur's pseudonym "The Rose That Grew from Concrete"  The album debuted at number seven in the U S , with first-week sales of 254,000 copies, and eventually became her third platinum-certified album  The first single, "Only U", reached number thirteen on the Billboard Hot 100 and became her biggest hit in the United Kingdom, peaking at number two  A second single, the ballad "Don't Let Them", garnered little chart success after Def Jam refused to fund a music video due to Irv Gotti's legal troubles during his money laundering trial  The single was released only in the U S , where it failed to chart, and the UK, where it reached the lower end of the top forty  After the release of Concrete Rose, Ashanti released the DVD Ashanti: The Making of a Star, which was available only for a limited time  The deluxe DVD includes an exclusive photo and video shoot footage, music from the albums Ashanti, Chapter II and Concrete Rose, special concert footage, unreleased childhood school performances, and behind-the-scenes interviews with family, friends, and fans 
In 2005, Ashanti focused more on her acting career, making her feature film acting debut in the film Coach Carter alongside Samuel L  Jackson, as well as starring as Dorothy Gale in the made-for-television film The Muppets' Wizard of Oz, which pulled in nearly 8 million viewers when it premiered  She sang "When I'm with You" for the film which was nominated for a Primetime Emmy in the Outstanding Music and Lyrics category  In Coach Carter, she played a pregnant teenager named Kyra who has to decide whether or not to abort her unborn child  The movie opened at number-one at the U S  box office, eventually grossing $67  million domestically  Later in 2005, Ashanti was invited to Oprah Winfrey's Legends Ball, which honored some of the most influential and legendary African American women of the twentieth century in the fields of art, entertainment, and civil rights  In December 2005, Ashanti released a remix album of Concrete Rose titled Collectables by Ashanti  The album was an opportunity for her to fulfill her contract with Def Jam (and have the option of working with another label)  It did not fare well on the charts 
In 2006, she starred in the teen comedy John Tucker Must Die, which opened and peaked at number three at the U S  box office (competing with Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Miami Vice) and grossed $68,818,076 worldwide  In 2007, she played a supporting role in the action film Resident Evil: Extinction (2007) 

2008–2010: The Declaration, departure from The Inc  and The Wiz
Her fourth studio album, The Declaration, was released on June 3, 2008,  and sold 86,000 units its first week of release, which were the lowest first-week sales for any of Ashanti's studio albums  In mid-2007, MTV News reported that the first single from The Declaration was "Switch", which was produced by Shy Carter and released digitally in the United States on July 24, 2007  It was later reported that "Switch" may not be included on the album's track listing, and that the first single would be "Hey Baby (After the Club)" it was released to radio and digital outlets on October 16  The song, which does not appear on the U S  editions of the album, peaked at number eighty-seven on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart  "The Way That I Love You", was released to radio and digital outlets in January 2008, and was referred to as the "first single" in press material and media reports  It reached number two on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and number thirty-seven on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Ashanti's first song to reach the top forty since "Only U" in 2004  "Body On Me" was recorded not only for Ashanti's The Declaration, but also for Nelly's fifth studio album Brass Knuckles  The track is produced by Akon and Giorgio Tuinfort  It went to number one on Billboard's Hot Videoclip Tracks chart in its first week, becoming the first number-one single from Nelly's album "Good Good" was released to urban radio stations on July 16, 2008  The song contains elements of Elton John's 1974 single "Bennie and the Jets", and has the same melody arrangement as Michael Jackson's "The Girl Is Mine"  In July 2008, Ashanti was named an ambassador of tourism for Nassau County, Long Island 
In May 2009, Irv Gotti announced that he was officially releasing Ashanti from The Inc  Records, stating that "The relationship has run its course  The chemistry of what's needed — we're in two totally different places  You're talking to somebody that took her and shaped and molded her and put her out there for the world, and it blew up  We [hold the record] for the [fastest] selling debut by a female R&B artist — 503 [thousand]  We did it! My views and philosophies and her views and philosophies are not meeting up " Gotti also admitted that he and Ashanti have not spoken to each other in a long time  A representative for Ashanti did not respond  On September 24, 2009, Ashanti announced her fifth studio album would be released from her new label, Written Entertainment 
Ashanti headlined the cast of The Wiz in the New York City Center Encores! Summer Stars staging from June 12 to July 5, 2009  Ashanti's role as Dorothy has since received mixed reviews from critics as most praised her vocals but was less pleased with her acting ability  BET and Entertainment Weekly both praised the singer's performance as The New York Post and New York Times gave lukewarm reviews  Though the first night was sold out, some of the other shows were unable to follow its success  On October 27, 2008, Ashanti took part in The Yellow Brick Road Not Taken, a one night only concert to celebrate the fifth anniversary of Wicked, featuring songs written by Stephen Schwartz, that were cut from the show 

2011–2014: Hiatus and Braveheart
After a four-year hiatus, Ashanti released the song "Never Too Far Away", which was featured in Morgan Creek's film Dream House starring Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz with Naomi Watts  The lead single from her fifth studio album, "The Woman You Love" featuring American rapper Busta Rhymes, was released online on December 15, 2011  Ashanti teamed up with Meek Mill and French Montana for the second single "No One Greater", which was produced by 7 Aurelius, Irv Gotti and Chink Santana  In April 2013, she released another single called "Never Should Have", which later won "Best Independent R&B/Soul Performance" at the 2013 Soul Train Awards  A music video for the track was also released In November 2012, it was reported that she had landed her first series regular role in the seventh season of Army Wives, playing Latasha Montclair  The series was canceled on September 24, 2013  In the fall of 2013, she appeared in a guest spot on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit alongside Clay Aiken and Taylor Hicks  She also starred in the Lifetime film Christmas in the City which premiered on December 7, 2013 In August 2013, Ashanti announced her plans to once again work with Ja Rule, who'd been released from prison in July of that year following a six-year sentence stemming from a gun charge  On January 8, 2014, she revealed the official cover art and release date for Braveheart, her fifth album, which was released on March 4, 2014  In January 2014, Ashanti shot the video for the official first single from Braveheart titled "I Got It" featuring Rick Ross  The video was shot in Miami, Florida, and was directed by Eif Rivera  In July, Ashanti announced that the second official single from BraveHeart would be "Early in the Morning" featuring French Montana  Upon release, the album garnered favorable reviews, with music critics describing Braveheart's sound as an "evolution of R&B" and praising the themes of empowerment but criticizing the romantic clichés and lack of interesting moments on the album  On the charts, Braveheart opened at number ten in the U S  Billboard 200, becoming Ashanti's fifth consecutive top-ten album, as well as her first Independent Albums chart-topper  It also debuted in the top thirty of the UK R&B Albums Chart and top-forty of the UK Indie Albums Chart 

2015–present: Current activities and upcoming seventh studio album
In 2015, she announced that she had worked on new music for her seventh album, with an unknown release date  Ashanti collaborated with Michelle Obama for her #Let'sMove campaign to spread awareness of drinking water with her new video and song "Let's Go" released in 2015  In 2016, she collaborated on the song "Seven Day Love" included in the album "Inzombia" by Canadian singer Belly  She has also worked with numerous artists, including Sia, Alicia Keys, John Legend, Queen Latifah, Usher and Kelly Clarkson to interpret the songs of the Broadway musical "Hamilton" for the compilation "The Hamilton Mixtape" In 2017, Ashanti announced her seventh studio album, revealing it would be released in 2018  She denied this in June 2018, confirming the future release of an album in collaboration with rapper Ja Rule  Between 2017 and 2018 she returned to the music scene with several collaborations including the single "Say Less" with Ty Dolla Sign, the track "The Road" by Machel Montano, and the song "Start This Shit Off Right" with Mack Maine, from the album "Tha Carter V" by Lil Wayne Ashanti released the collaboration "Pretty Little Thing" with Afro B in August 2019  She also featured on the soundtrack of the film Stuck, which she produced  In November, Ashanti guest-starred as herself in two episodes of the third season of The CW's Dynasty reboot: "Mother, I'm At La Mirage" and "Something Desperate" In January 2021, Ashanti released her single "2:35 (I Want You)" On March 10, 2022, Ashanti's single "Rock wit U (Awww Baby)" was heavily sampled for British rapper Aitch's single "Baby" In October 2022, Ashanti was featured on Diddy’s “Gotta Move On” remix which also features Bryson Tiller and Yung Miami 

Artistry
Ashanti has a lyric soprano voice type  Critics have referred to her voice as "pretty" and her soprano as "sultry" and "sweet but slight"  Jason Birchmeier of AllMusic noted her reputation for using her "swooning voice" in duets with Big Pun, Fat Joe, and Ja Rule  As a young girl, Ashanti was influenced by Ella Fitzgerald, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Prince, and Tupac Shakur, but she cites Mary J  Blige as the main reason she wanted to pursue a singing career  Further musical influences include Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey, Madonna, Smokey Robinson, Donna Summer, and Blue Magic 

Philanthropy
In 2003, Ashanti partnered with LidRock and the San Francisco-based Family Violence Prevention Fund (FVPF) to raise awareness about the issue of domestic violence during National Domestic Violence Awareness Month and to distribute the "Rain on Me" mini-movie using LidRock's unique platform  Proceeds from the $5 mini-disc went towards helping to stop domestic violence  Ashanti also recorded a public service announcement that appeared in more than 4,000 film screens and reached millions of people  Ashanti also gives back by raising money for sickle cell research and she is active in helping the Make-A-Wish Foundation stating, "I'll go and do just about anything for them " In 2005, Ashanti helped by recording public service announcement and raising money for the Southeast Asia tsunami disaster  Later that year, she helped raise money for the Hurricane Katrina victims and storm evacuees In 2008, Ashanti, along with others celebrities, taped a PSA to help stop violence and discrimination towards the LGBT community in response to the death of Lawrence King, an eighth-grader at E O  Green Junior High School, who was shot because of his sexual orientation and gender expression  That same year, she launched a special on-line campaign called "I Declare Me   " with Wal-Mart  The campaign's core is a very personal focus on the self-definition and empowerment of women across the United States, with its home base at Ashanti's official website  The campaign creates a safe and inclusive on-line space to for women to share testimonies on the site  Participants are able to openly declare their own breakthroughs, revelations, struggles and victories in every life area they choose: career, birth, death, relationships, and personal situations  "I Declare Me   " also invites women to a virtual discussion with Ashanti on such issues as voter registration, teen obesity, and other concerns facing women today 
In September 2009, Ashanti, along with other artists such as Mariah Carey, Beyoncé, Mary J  Blige, Rihanna, Fergie, Sheryl Crow, Miley Cyrus, Melissa Etheridge, Natasha Bedingfield, Keyshia Cole, Ciara, Leona Lewis, LeAnn Rimes and Carrie Underwood, teamed up for the song "Just Stand Up!"  The charity tune for cancer was conceived by Antonio "L A " Reid, who produced it with longtime creative colleague Babyface  All 15 singers (along with Nicole Scherzinger) shared the stage to perform the song live on September 5, 2008, during the "Stand Up to Cancer" television special, which aired simultaneously on ABC, NBC and CBS, and helped raise $100 million for cancer research  As a result of SU2C fund raising endeavors, the SU2C scientific advisory committee, overseen by the American Association for Cancer Research, was able to award 73 6 million dollars towards novel, groundbreaking cancer research in 2009 In November 2009, Ashanti joined the crew of ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition  In the episode, which aired on January 24, 2010, the singer assisted in the rebuilding of the Powell Family home in Buffalo, New York   The efforts from the show expanded significantly to include not just the family home but the entire neighborhood surrounding it  In 2013, Ashanti featured on the 19-track compilation album Songs for a Healthier America, a collaborative project by the Partnership for a Healthier America, whose honorary chair is Michelle Obama, and Hip Hop Public Health  Her song "Just Believe" also featured Artie Green, Gerry Gunn, Robbie Nova and Chauncey Hawkins  Additionally, she is affiliated with the Jumpstart reading program, the Tupperware Brand and the Boys and Girls Club of America 

Personal life
On January 1, 2003, Ashanti met rapper Nelly at a press conference for the 2003 Grammy Awards, and the two later began dating  They ended their relationship after a decade together  In 2023, they reunited and got back together 

Discography
Studio albumsAshanti (2002)
Chapter II (2003)
Ashanti's Christmas (2003)
Concrete Rose (2004)
The Declaration (2008)
Braveheart (2014)

Filmography
Film
Television
Theater
See also
List of awards and nominations received by Ashanti



ground_truth: October 13, 1980