Post by Angella on Sept 21, 2006 15:00:20 GMT -5
Kandi: Taste The Rainbow
By: Coryn Brown
September 20, 2006
Picture Kandi Burruss, the svelte brown skinned former young buck of Xscape, lurking in the hallway of your apartment complex, scorned, launching random expletives at your front door, waiting to face the physical embodiment of her female intuition: you’re with another woman.
As a general rule, don’t give Kandi a reason to fear. The things that scares some runs a line of brass knuckles through her spine i.e. carnival rides, the truth…
“In this song called ‘Knock, Knock’—I was standing outside this dude’s door who I felt was trying to play me. I thought he had a girl in the crib so I was basically like, ‘you need to bring your butt out of there.’ But when you listen to the song it’s like, did this really happen?”
So after an hour and a half spent outside the apartment in an emotional boil over you - an unidentified rapper/songwriter boyfriend of six months - and her - your extracurricular activity - no one answers.
“I was a grown woman when I did it and it didn’t make no sense but yes I did it. I knew he was [cheating] and I thought at that moment somebody was there so I was like, ok, well I’m going to prove my point. He’s going to come out sooner or later. The funny thing about it is we’re still friends and just recently he says to me, ‘I was in there but there wasn’t no girl. I just wasn’t coming out because I wanted to prove a point and let you to see what it’s like to stand outside.’”
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Comment (2) When Kandi left Xscape in the late 90s, she penned a batch of tracks that would initiate a wave of neo-feminist women and empowered R&B, putting men around the country up in arms. “Bills, Bills, Bills” and “Bugaboo” had guys calling Destiny’s Child materialistic and petty. TLC’s Grammy winning single “No Scrubs” prompted the release of “No Pigeons,” a counter attack to the ego deflating score co-written by Kandi and former band mate Tameka “Tiny” Cottle. Then in 2000, the singer released "Hey", Kandi, her solo effort off Columbia Records. The album peaked at number 72 on the Billboard 200, posing the idea that her most noted musical work wouldn’t be hers to sing.
In the studios of Atlanta, Kandi needs to make a choice. “Knock, Knock” is a contender for a spot on her yet untitled sophomore LP, but it’s only one in a bundle of finished tracks where cameos abound from Monica to Akon—her label mate on UpFront Records—all of whom raise their voices against her six-year-old ghost.
The album will be Kandi’s shot at redemption, a 12-track proclamation that she is enough to sell her own music. And given the fact that some of the most prominent ladies of R&B have sung her songs, Kandi’s biggest competition is herself.
In 1993, at age sixteen, Kandi, along with Tiny and sisters LeTocha and Tamika Scott released their first single “Just Kicking It” off their debut album, Hummin', Comin' At 'Cha on So So Def Records, establishing themselves as four girls from around the way that could harmonize tighter than established contemporaries. Still, a number of things led to the disbandment of Xscape. The petty: someone in the group steals Kandi’s diary out of her purse while on tour. The complicated: inept management of the group finds the label profiting more than the talent. Fights break out among the girls, specifically LeTocha and Kandi, over the group’s inefficient helming by their manager who also happens to be LeTocha’s boyfriend. During negotiations for their third record, Traces Of My Lipstick, LeTocha works out a solo deal without telling members of the band who ultimately find out through word of mouth. Lipstick is the group’s final record before Xscape is released from So So Def and the creative crafting of Jermaine Dupri, the man responsible for turning their hits into R&B classics.
But even after the group separated, problems would arise again in a 2005 reunion album shelved by Warner Brothers despite good reception to its first single “What’s Up” from the soundtrack to the movie ATL. No one mentions the reunion to Kandi, though she claims, during the time she spoke to Tiny everyday. Kandi finds out through Brandon of Jagged Edge who extends the invitation to reunite on behalf of the girls. She agrees on the condition that she write five songs and gets an executive producer credit on the album. Xscape finds Kandi’s replacement.
“It wasn’t me trying to pull rank but I felt like I’ve written enough songs for other female groups for me to get at least five songs on my own group. I thought it was a smart idea, especially if there was no Jermaine. He was the one who set the tone for our records. But they weren’t feeling that so I was like cool, then I ain’t got to do it. I’ll definitely tell anybody, we defeated ourselves. All three of our albums went platinum but we just couldn’t get along.”
What followed a career trail of Top 40 singles was a quiet dissolve into musical space. Kandi became an industry mainstay penning number one songs for other artists. But after years of borrowing song concepts from her life for the likes of Mariah Carey, Pink and Alicia Keys, in 2000 the songwriter released Hey Kandi to tepid reviews and colder record sales. Her first single, “Don’t Think I’m Not,” fared decently in pop music, taken on as a sort of R&B exile after peaking at number 32 on soul music charts.
“I went through this whole phase where I cut all my hair off, I didn’t know if I wanted to sing anymore. ‘I’ll just stay in the background; this is easier. You don’t have to worry about people liking you.’ When you have success as a writer and consistently as a group then it comes to you and you can’t do it, it’s like, damn what am I doing wrong?”
But as Kandi narrows down the right tracks for her comeback, she knows the album is a lucky second chance to debut in the legacy of Xscape, past the Beyonces, face to face with her own songwriting feeding other people’s success.
“I never sky dived before. But what’s the other one where you laying flat and you’re connected to somebody else?” Some amusement parks have them. At Six Flags Great Adventures, it’s called the "Dare Devil Dive". You lie on a platform, harnessed to a device that promises to make you fly. When you’re ready you pull the chord and free fall from the top at 60 mph, hit your lowest point, 157 feet down, then rise.
“It’s definitely scary. The day I tried it the group was performing at some amusement park. I had my eyes closed but then I was like no, I want to do it again with my eyes open the whole way down so I did it back to back. I think my thing is, I always want to have this feeling that nothing can make me feel like I’m afraid. But I atleast have to do it twice.”
KANDI QUOTES FROM www.sandrarose.com
CREDITS TO SANDRAROSE
_VIBE
By: Coryn Brown
September 20, 2006
Picture Kandi Burruss, the svelte brown skinned former young buck of Xscape, lurking in the hallway of your apartment complex, scorned, launching random expletives at your front door, waiting to face the physical embodiment of her female intuition: you’re with another woman.
As a general rule, don’t give Kandi a reason to fear. The things that scares some runs a line of brass knuckles through her spine i.e. carnival rides, the truth…
“In this song called ‘Knock, Knock’—I was standing outside this dude’s door who I felt was trying to play me. I thought he had a girl in the crib so I was basically like, ‘you need to bring your butt out of there.’ But when you listen to the song it’s like, did this really happen?”
So after an hour and a half spent outside the apartment in an emotional boil over you - an unidentified rapper/songwriter boyfriend of six months - and her - your extracurricular activity - no one answers.
“I was a grown woman when I did it and it didn’t make no sense but yes I did it. I knew he was [cheating] and I thought at that moment somebody was there so I was like, ok, well I’m going to prove my point. He’s going to come out sooner or later. The funny thing about it is we’re still friends and just recently he says to me, ‘I was in there but there wasn’t no girl. I just wasn’t coming out because I wanted to prove a point and let you to see what it’s like to stand outside.’”
Comment (2) When Kandi left Xscape in the late 90s, she penned a batch of tracks that would initiate a wave of neo-feminist women and empowered R&B, putting men around the country up in arms. “Bills, Bills, Bills” and “Bugaboo” had guys calling Destiny’s Child materialistic and petty. TLC’s Grammy winning single “No Scrubs” prompted the release of “No Pigeons,” a counter attack to the ego deflating score co-written by Kandi and former band mate Tameka “Tiny” Cottle. Then in 2000, the singer released "Hey", Kandi, her solo effort off Columbia Records. The album peaked at number 72 on the Billboard 200, posing the idea that her most noted musical work wouldn’t be hers to sing.
In the studios of Atlanta, Kandi needs to make a choice. “Knock, Knock” is a contender for a spot on her yet untitled sophomore LP, but it’s only one in a bundle of finished tracks where cameos abound from Monica to Akon—her label mate on UpFront Records—all of whom raise their voices against her six-year-old ghost.
The album will be Kandi’s shot at redemption, a 12-track proclamation that she is enough to sell her own music. And given the fact that some of the most prominent ladies of R&B have sung her songs, Kandi’s biggest competition is herself.
In 1993, at age sixteen, Kandi, along with Tiny and sisters LeTocha and Tamika Scott released their first single “Just Kicking It” off their debut album, Hummin', Comin' At 'Cha on So So Def Records, establishing themselves as four girls from around the way that could harmonize tighter than established contemporaries. Still, a number of things led to the disbandment of Xscape. The petty: someone in the group steals Kandi’s diary out of her purse while on tour. The complicated: inept management of the group finds the label profiting more than the talent. Fights break out among the girls, specifically LeTocha and Kandi, over the group’s inefficient helming by their manager who also happens to be LeTocha’s boyfriend. During negotiations for their third record, Traces Of My Lipstick, LeTocha works out a solo deal without telling members of the band who ultimately find out through word of mouth. Lipstick is the group’s final record before Xscape is released from So So Def and the creative crafting of Jermaine Dupri, the man responsible for turning their hits into R&B classics.
But even after the group separated, problems would arise again in a 2005 reunion album shelved by Warner Brothers despite good reception to its first single “What’s Up” from the soundtrack to the movie ATL. No one mentions the reunion to Kandi, though she claims, during the time she spoke to Tiny everyday. Kandi finds out through Brandon of Jagged Edge who extends the invitation to reunite on behalf of the girls. She agrees on the condition that she write five songs and gets an executive producer credit on the album. Xscape finds Kandi’s replacement.
“It wasn’t me trying to pull rank but I felt like I’ve written enough songs for other female groups for me to get at least five songs on my own group. I thought it was a smart idea, especially if there was no Jermaine. He was the one who set the tone for our records. But they weren’t feeling that so I was like cool, then I ain’t got to do it. I’ll definitely tell anybody, we defeated ourselves. All three of our albums went platinum but we just couldn’t get along.”
What followed a career trail of Top 40 singles was a quiet dissolve into musical space. Kandi became an industry mainstay penning number one songs for other artists. But after years of borrowing song concepts from her life for the likes of Mariah Carey, Pink and Alicia Keys, in 2000 the songwriter released Hey Kandi to tepid reviews and colder record sales. Her first single, “Don’t Think I’m Not,” fared decently in pop music, taken on as a sort of R&B exile after peaking at number 32 on soul music charts.
“I went through this whole phase where I cut all my hair off, I didn’t know if I wanted to sing anymore. ‘I’ll just stay in the background; this is easier. You don’t have to worry about people liking you.’ When you have success as a writer and consistently as a group then it comes to you and you can’t do it, it’s like, damn what am I doing wrong?”
But as Kandi narrows down the right tracks for her comeback, she knows the album is a lucky second chance to debut in the legacy of Xscape, past the Beyonces, face to face with her own songwriting feeding other people’s success.
“I never sky dived before. But what’s the other one where you laying flat and you’re connected to somebody else?” Some amusement parks have them. At Six Flags Great Adventures, it’s called the "Dare Devil Dive". You lie on a platform, harnessed to a device that promises to make you fly. When you’re ready you pull the chord and free fall from the top at 60 mph, hit your lowest point, 157 feet down, then rise.
“It’s definitely scary. The day I tried it the group was performing at some amusement park. I had my eyes closed but then I was like no, I want to do it again with my eyes open the whole way down so I did it back to back. I think my thing is, I always want to have this feeling that nothing can make me feel like I’m afraid. But I atleast have to do it twice.”
KANDI QUOTES FROM www.sandrarose.com
CREDITS TO SANDRAROSE
_VIBE