Ashanti and Musiq leads winners at Soul Train Awards

<br>PASADENA, Calif. (AP) _ Ashanti and Musiq took top honors, while Mariah Carey and LL Cool J received career achievement awards, at the 17th annual Soul Train Awards. <br><br>Ashanti won best female

Monday, March 3rd 2003, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) _ Ashanti and Musiq took top honors, while Mariah Carey and LL Cool J received career achievement awards, at the 17th annual Soul Train Awards.

Ashanti won best female R&B/Soul Single Saturday for ``Foolish'' and best album for ``Ashanti,'' beating out works by fellow Grammy winners Erykah Badu and India.Arie.

Musiq won for best male R&B/Soul Single for the second year in a row with ``Dontchange.'' He won best album in the same category with ``Juslisen,'' beating Maxwell, Justin Timberlake and last year's winner Usher.

``I feel very, very very good,'' Musiq said. ``I feel honored and I feel grateful.''

``Bump, Bump, Bump,'' by B2K Featuring P. Diddy, won in the best single by a group or duo category, while B2K won for their self-titled album in the same category.

Queen Latifah and Arsenio Hall co-hosted the event at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, which featured award presenters Baby Face, Jennifer Lopez and Chris Rock. Carey and LL Cool J each won the Quincy Jones Award for Outstanding Career Achievement.

Rapper Nelly won the Sammy Davis Jr. Entertainer of the Year Award.

``We've only being doing this a short amount of time, and you don't think you'll be receiving awards like that so early on in your career,'' Nelly said.

The Soul Train Music Awards celebrates artists in R&B, hip-hop, rap and gospel music. The awards are chosen by a group of radio station professionals, talent managers and performers.

The event was taped for a future syndicated broadcast that aired in some markets Saturday.