Kandi Burruss’ Connection to TLC Began Long Before ‘No Scrubs’
Before becoming the longest-running cast member on The Real Housewives of Atlanta, XSCAPE member Kandi Burruss was already a successful force in the music industry. Outside of the success attained within her group, she wrote massive hits for the likes of TLC, Whitney Houston, Alicia Keys, Mariah Carey, and others. As fate would have it, she met Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes of TLC years before she penned their hit, “No Scrubs.”
Kandi Burruss met TLC’s Left Eye before signing with Jermaine Dupri
Burruss began taking a career in music seriously when began attending a performing arts high school. After becoming a member of the group XSCAPE while going to school, the group began performing at local shows around Atlanta in hopes of getting a record deal. At the time, Atlanta was becoming a major player in the music industry, with LaFace Records setting up shop in the area.
Eventually, Burruss ran into Left Eye, who had moved from Philadelphia to chase her musical dreams. She joined the group TLC, and was signed to LaFace Records with her group. “We even sang for Left Eye one time after they had came up and blew up, and we were like, ‘Maybe she can help us,’” Burruss explained. But it didn’t come to fruition at that time.
Eventually, they were the first official act to sign to Dupri’s So So Def Record Label. They remained there until the group disbanded in 1998.
She eventually gave TLC their hit single “No Scrubs”
While working on the third album with XSCAPE, Burruss says her group member LaTocha Scott revealed to the group that she was going solo. The group didn’t know how to continue as a trio, as Burruss and Scott typically split lead vocals. It was also unclear whether the label were open to a trio as Burruss explained in an interview with Shannon Sharpe that they were asked to wait on Scott to return, so the group was basically on a hiatus.
Burruss had to figure out how to earn money. She and her group member, Tameka “Tiny” Harris, joined forces as a singing and songwriting duo. The other member, Tameka Scott (LaTocha’s sister), remained loyal to LaTocha. Burruss knew that more money could be earned through publishing, so they took different songs they worked on to the label as demos for their joint project, or to potentially shop for other artists. As it turns out, L.A. Reid loved “No Scrubs” for TLC.
Kandi Burruss doesn’t regret giving TLC “No Scrubs”
“No Scrubs” was released in 1999. The song peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed there for four weeks. It charted in the top 10 of the Hot 100 for 17 consecutive weeks, holding the record for most weeks at No. 1 on the Rhythmic Top 40 with 15 weeks. Billboard also ranked the song at No. 2 on Billboard’s Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1999, coming behind Cher’s 1998 song “Believe.”
It became one of the group’s biggest singles of their career, and continues on rotation. Regarding whether or not she regrets giving the song away, she says she doesn’t. In fact, she says she wishes she began pitching songs she wrote earlier in her career because it turned out to be an extremely lucrative career path.
