Former divas experiencing slumps in careers

How soon they forget.

Just three years ago, Ashanti and Tweet were the new female faces of R&B, offering a light-voiced alternative to the heavy shriekers of soul like Mariah, Whitney and Mary J.

When their debut albums were released, on the same day in 2002, they battled it out for No. 1 on Billboard’s Top 200 album chart. Armed with better promotion, Ashanti took the top perch while Tweet snuck in at No. 2.

Ashanti sold 3.5 million copies of her first CD and 1.5 million of her second. Tweet moved 860,000 copies of her debut, “Southern Hummingbird.”

Fast-forward to today:

Ashanti’s latest CD, “Concrete Rose,” has been able to move only about 800,000 copies after five months in the marketplace.

Meanwhile, Tweet’s second CD, the sheepishly titled “It’s Me Again,” has sold just over 100,000 copies since its March 22 release.

Ashanti hasn’t been able to sustain sales for several reasons.

First, she has gradually worn down the initial buzz that hummed around her early collaborations with rappers like Ja Rule, Fat Joe and Notorious B.I.G.

The thunder of that formula has been stolen by Ciara, who married a similarly lilting R&B vocal to Lil’ Jon’s now-dominant crunk sound. Ciara’s debut, “Goodies,” has sold more than 1.7 million copies and stands at No. 15 on the Billboard Top 200.

Ashanti also has lost ground to music’s latest one-named R&B crush, Amerie, whose new album “Touch” debuted at No. 5 on this week’s chart.

And there’s a corporate problem. Ashanti’s label, The Inc., has been besieged by the mounting legal issues of its boss, Irv Gotti, who was indicted last month on charges of laundering more than $1 million of drug money.

Tweet’s album had its own corporate craziness. She was signed originally to Elektra Records, which was folded into the Atlantic Records Group last year. Right after that, most everyone Tweet had worked with got canned.

It didn’t help that radio barely gave her a chance. The wittily smutty single off her first album, “Oops … Up Over My Head,” was a smash, but it was a novelty item that didn’t auger well for a follow-up.

The single from the new CD, “Turn Da Lights Off,” only got to No. 39 on R&B radio.