So, How Did Kandi Burruss End Up on That Fantastic Ariana Grande Album?
It all has something to do with the RHOA singer/songwriter's days as an R&B star.
In case you haven't noticed, Ariana Grande is out there slaying the game and she's doing it with a little help from Kandi Burruss. When Ariana dropped her latest alum, thank u, next, earlier this month, the world was quick to notice that the single, "Break Up With Your Girlfriend, I'm Bored," samples *NSYNC's "It Makes Me Ill" off 2000's No Strings Attached album, which was co-written and co-produced by Kandi.
And now The Real Housewives of Atlanta singer/songwriter is revealing how it all happened.
"I've known her manager Scooter Braun for years, way before he became a manager, [back to] when he was an intern for Jermaine Dupri at So So Def," the Xscape singer shared with Billboard. "It’s crazy how things come full circle with people that you’ve worked with over the years. So he reached out to let me know that they had sampled the song and they wanted to work out the publishing split. You can imagine that I was super excited about it! I was really happy. I'm thankful to the writers."
However, Kandi, who also wrote the epic "No Scrubs," is kind of surprised that they chose that particular song to sample all these years later, adding a new spin on the track's lyrics for the Ariana version. "I thought it was so dope. I would've never thought anybody would have sampled 'It Makes Me Ill' after all these years. I actually went and met with ['Break Up' co-writer Savan Kotecha] afterwards, who's an amazing writer and producer," she said.
And, for the record, Kandi loves "Makes Me Ill" (not that we blame her. It is a pretty awesome song..): "That was one of my favorite songs that I did back in the day, but it never was an official single for *NSYNC. So you never really expect songs that weren't the big single to really go on and do other things. But this is a major thing. I'm shocked! And to come out of the [Celebrity] Big Brother house after a month of being stuck in that house to another hit record is just...wow!" she said. "Things are really looking bright for me right now."
Below, Kandi dishes a bit more about her life as a singer/songwriter.
