She may be new to reality television as the latest addition to Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Atlanta, but Kandi Burruss is no stranger to the entertainment business. A Grammy-winning songwriter, member of the ’90s group Xscape and solo artist, Burruss has written songs for major artist including Mariah Carey, ‘N Sync, Alicia Keys and TLC — just to name a few. She’s also recently worked with a familiar face: Her castmate (and aspiring country singer) Kim Zolciak. “You’ll see, it’s hot,” Burruss says of their collaboration, which is documented on the show.
Turns out, Zolciak also influenced Burruss, who is working on a new solo album. “I have a song called ‘Fly Above’ [on the solo album], and the first day I met Kim she was telling me how everybody hates on her and just dogs her out. But she’s like, ‘I’m above all that.’ And I was like, ‘Ooh that’s a good title.’ So, I wrote the song the next day.”
Calling from Atlanta, Burruss was also happy to dish about some of her more high-profile collaborations — and tell the stories behind the songs you may know and not even realize she wrote. –Brian Orloff
5. “No Scrubs” by TLC: “When I got the track from [producer] She’kspere, I was riding in the car and listening to the track and was hanging out with one of my friends,” she says. “I had this boyfriend or this guy I had dated and I felt like he wasn’t doing anything. He was always in the clubs and he didn’t have any money. [He was] buying drinks for people and I’m like, ‘Where did you get all the money to do that?’ I was just making a joke about that. I still have the envelope that I wrote the original song on.”
4. “Don’t Think I’m Not” by Kandi Burruss: “Don’t Think I’m Not” was, once again, about an ex-boyfriend,” Burruss says. “I get the best songs out of relationships. You know when you think your boyfriend’s cheating or whatever? I was like, ‘Okay, don’t think I can’t do the same thing that you’re doing.’ When you’re out doing your thing, I’m out doing my thing, too.’”
3. “Jane Doe” by Alicia Keys: “When I met her, Alicia was so cool. We’re still cool now but the thing about her that I love is her down-to-earth nature. I can sing and I can write, but I can’t actually produce or play instruments. And I remember she was like, ‘You don’t know how to use the drum machine?’ I had no idea what I was doing.”
2. “Bills, Bills, Bills” by Destiny’s Child: “Bills, Bills, Bills” is another inspiration from a relationship. She’kspere actually came up with the hook, the ‘Can you pay my bills / Can you pay my telephone bills?’ When I came to the girls [in Destiny's Child], they did help contribute. But a lot of stuff I was giving them was actually from my relationship. A lot of times, in a lot of my records, there will be very specific lines that people are relating to that are actual situations that happened.”
1. “Just Kickin’ It” by Xscape: “‘Just Kickin’ It” was one of my all-time favorites because that was the song that put us on the map. I was scared to lead and Jermaine [Dupri] chose me to lead the record because it’s that deep, heavy voice and my voice is deeper than the rest of the girls. When he decided to make that the single for us, I was like, ‘No, no, pick one of the other songs,’ because I was so afraid to be the one out in the front. [But] it went to No. 1 and stayed No. 1 for a while.”
Quantrell Colbert/Bravo
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