Kandi Burruss's Real Housewives Confessions

USmagazine.com:

When it comes to the entire Real Housewives franchise, there's only one REAL singer: Kandi Burress, a former member of Jermaine Dupri-produced '90s girl group, Xscape (one of my favorites! Remember this one?)


I recently caught up with the sassy single mother, 34, to talk about her second solo CD, Kandi Koated (out now) -- plus, behind-the-scenes dish such as her real thoughts on "Tardy For The Party," the surprise dance hit she penned for co-star Kim Zolciak!


UsMagazine.com: I've been listening to Kandi Koated a little bit and love it. It has a lot of the old Xscape sound to it.


Kandi Burress: That was on purpose.


US: It's a little different than "Fly Above," which was on the EP. So what did you try to do differently with this from the EP?


KB: I wanted it to be a real hot R&B album -- no borderline pop, borderline this, borderline that. So what I thought about was my favorite time in R&B, which of course was the Xscape era. I really wanted to give people all new songs, and songs that I kept, like "Fly Above," because I feel like it's such an uplifting, inspirational record.


US: And "I Just Know," right?


KB: Yes. "I Just Know" is such a beautiful ballad, and also one of the songs that was inspired by my relationship with AJ when we were together, so I decided to use it.


US: Right, that song came after the whole AJ tragedy, but how did that shape this? There's a lot of hopeful songs about love, too.


KB: This album, isn't just about my relationship with him -- it's about finding love, having love, losing love, and getting it back again. I wrote that song right after AJ and I broke up before he passed. But it was after he passed that I really felt the lyrics even more.


US: Which leads me to ask: Are you seeing anyone now, or what's going on? Have you found someone?


KB: Yeah, I'm dating.


US: Just dating around or is there one person?


KB: One person right now, but it's not an official relationship.


US: Anybody famous?


KB: Not at all. (Laughs)


US: Recently on the show you were preparing this tour with Kim. Did that tour ever happen?


KB: Yes, it did. We did three cities: Charlotte, Miami, and Orlando.


US: And what was that like?


KB: The performances were cool. Being on the tour bus together 24/7 was interesting. (Laughs)


US: Why, what happened? Were there wigs everywhere?


KB: Well, there's just a lot of energy with her and NeNe. NeNe ended up joining us from Orlando to Miami, and then all hell broke loose. I can't tell you any more than that.

US: A lot of people say that you're the brains behind the whole Kim phenomenon, and that she's not serious. What do you think? And also, do you think it tarnishes your reputation? She's not the greatest singer, let's admit it.

KB: Honestly, she may not be the greatest singer, but everybody loved the song "Tardy for the Party." So that has to say something good on my part. Now, as far as Kim is concerned, I think that she's just having fun. In her mind I feel that she really does feel that she's a singer.

US: Do you think that she takes herself seriously?

KB: No, that's what I'm saying, I think she just does it for fun. It's fun for her.

I think that Kandi hits it on the nail here. "Tardy for the Party" is just fun for Kim. The song works with the 'Housewives''s gay base and allows for Kim to pretend like she's a diva--whether you hate Kim or not, one can't deny that she fell face first into a hit single and clearly NeNe's a little jealous of that. Either way Kim (and her legion of fans) still needs to give more credit to Kandi for being the brains behind the whole operation.