The album debut at number seven on the Billboard 200 chart in December 2004 with first-week sales of 254,000 units. Concrete Rose was certified Platinum by the RIAA on January 14, 2005.
Concrete Rose received mixed reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 47, based on 10 reviews, which indicates "mixed or average" reviews.
Chart performance
Concrete Rose debuted at number seven on the Billboard 200 album chart in December 2004 and Billboard's Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums chart at number one with first-week sales of 254,000 units sold. The album was certified Platinum by the RIAA on January 14, 2005 and remained on the Billboard 200 albums chart for 20 weeks. As of December 2005, Concrete Rose has sold over 1 million copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan.[11]
"Turn It Up" featuring Ja Rule was originally intended to be the first single but was used as a Buzz single, as the label later decided to release "Only U" instead. The first single from the album "Only U" reached number thirteen on Billboard Hot 100 and number ten Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. The single became Ashanti's 13th Top 40 hit Stateside. It was also successful internationally, it reached the top five in the United Kingdom and Ireland, the top ten in Japan, the top twenty in New Zealand, Switzerland, Germany, and the top forty in Australia and France.
Although the album was successful and certified platinum by January 2005, it was all over shadowed by issues with The Inc and Def Jam. Label issues delayed the release of a second single. When it came down to either, "Don't Let Them" or "Don't Leave Me Alone", Ashanti chose her personal favorite and came out of pocket to deliver a music video. The single was only released in the US, where it failed to chart and reaching Number 38 in the UK. "Don't Let Them" was never promoted by the label and was the final single off Concrete Rose.
