Kandi – Interview

Want to get inside Kandi? We did just that. We caught her doing a radio show in New York and asked the indepth questions about scrubs, bills and why she can’t find a good man. read on>>>>>

How’s the tour?

It’s cool.

You’ve got Nelly, all the Cash Money clique, and Ja Rule. What’s it like fitting in?

I’m the only girl on the tour. (laughs) I didn’t know how people were going to respond to me, but they’ve been great.

It’s been a long time since you’ve really last performed, right?

Yeah. I mean, I was in Xscape before or whatever, but we stopped really performing with each other shortly after our third album dropped. We didn’t really get along together. Anyway, that is when I started pursuing another deal and writing songs for a demo, and “No Scrubs” was one of the songs I had on that demo. Of course that got done by TLC, and that is when I got my deal. But all of the sudden I was writing for other artists more than I was for myself.

How were the nerves performing?

I was nervous. I never performed all by myself before. That was scary.

Now you are the focus.

I know. I’ve gotten used to it. Even touring is different. Like when I was with Xscape and we’d be on the bus, there was a lounge on the back of the bus and one in the front. The lounge in the front is the one everyone sits in so everybody used to fight to have the lounge in the back to themselves and now I don’t have to do that. It’s all mine! (laughs)

Were you writing the demo to tracks?

Yeah. He (producer Shak’sphere) gave me the tracks for “No Scrubs”. I had the idea to a song about a scrub before I met him, and when I heard that track I was like, ‘That can be my no scrubs track.’ I have a notebook where I keep ideas or subjects I want to talk about.

When did you realize you had the knack to write songs?

I always felt I had it, but with Xscape I never had the opportunity. He (Jermaine Dupri) never let us. I showed with “No Scrubs” that I could write.

If you didn’t have the inner tension with the other girls in Xscape, which eventually broke the band up, would it be hard if you were still together because you couldn’t write your own songs?

Well, yeah. That was one of the problems that was starting to happen. We wanted more control, but we weren’t getting any say, so everyone in the group wanted to have some control of the group like putting our creativity on the album, but Jermaine wrote our music. We didn’t really have any say.

You would have outgrown that, either way.

Yeah, or else we would have had to come to some sort of agreement with Jermaine. There is no way in the world I could have kept going without any say on the record.

Speaking of writing, is Hey Kandi a personal album?

Yes. Most of the stuff on this record, well a lot of it anyway, is personal. Like if something happens in my life, like “Don’t Think I’m Not” has been in my head for years. I had this ex-boyfriend who used to always play around and thought I didn’t know. But you know woman’s intuition. Well, he was always out in the club doing whatever. So I told him, ‘That is cool,’ and that is when I wrote the hook. The rest came later. “What I’m Gon’ Do To You”, that was also written off the top of my head too.

What about “Pants On Fire”?

Well, that song came about in the studio and we were joking around in there and I was saying ‘liar liar pants on fire.’ Just messing around. And I was like, ‘Hey! That would be a good idea.’

How did “Easier” come about with Faith Evans?

Actually, that was written a long time ago. I tried to get that on the third Xscape album, but it was vetoed by Jermaine. So when I got working on my album, I knew it had to be on there because it meant a lot to me. I wrote a song for Faith on the Best Man soundtrack and that is when we first started talking. So I knew I wanted the song to be a duet and I knew she was the perfect person for it.
A lot of songs are about bad relationships. Has all that bad luck been all yours?

Yeah, it’s all me. (laughs)

Bad judgement? Are you getting better?

Bad judgement. I don’t know if I’m getting better yet. (starts laughing hysterically)

So can we look forward to some happier songs on the next album?

I have to write some happy songs because everybody says, ‘Your album is all about bad relationships,’ so I have to work on that. (laughs)

All I could think about is someone out there knows that those songs are about them, probably hoping no one else finds out who they are.

(laughs) They are out there.

Has anyone asked if it was about them?

Yes. A couple of guys actually. One guy was like, ‘I know you was upset but you didn’t have to write all those songs about me.’ I was like whatever. I told him if he thinks it’s about him then he must be a scrub. Another guy called me and we were talking and I told him I had to go and he said, ‘Were you talking about me on “Bug A Boo” (Destiny’s Child)?’ So I told him if he thinks he’s a bug a boo then quit calling. (laughs)

+ charlie craine