In some interviews, Kandi Burruss reveals that her becoming a songwriter came out of fear that her career would be over following the end of Xscape in the mid ’90s. While they group was dealing with infighting and potentially splitting, she and Tiny decided to cut a demo tape just in case things went south and they wanted to move on as a duo. The tape included “No Scrubs,” a record LA Reid instantly pulled for TLC. Kandi explains that at the time, she did not think much of it and feared that the girls may not take the record because she was from a rivaling girl group. This proved to not be an issue, however and scored Kandi the biggest hit of her career. She got similar pushback from Mathew Knowles when brought out to Houston to write for Destiny’s Child because their groups were on the same label.
Kandi Burruss Penned Destiny’s Child ‘Bills Bills Bll’ and ‘Bugaboo”
After penning the massive hit “No Scrubs” for TLC, Kandi became a go-to for any act looking to top the charts. Destiny’s Child was a bubbling girl group with the Wyclef Hit “No, No, No” to their name when Kandi Burruss was brought in to help them write for their sophomore album. The session quickly turned awkward when Kandi realized that former Destiny’s Child member LaTavia Robinson was dating her ex-boyfriend, Jagged Edge frontman Brandon Casey.
Despite this, the professional soldiered on and helped the group write “Bills, Bills, Bills,” a song she says pulled inspiration from her time dating Casey. Kandi admits she did not tell LaTavia at the time that the lyrics were about Casey. Brandon has admitted in his own interviews that Jagged Edge hits “Promise” and “I Gotta Be” were actually inspired by his relationships with Kandi and LaTavia.
Kandi Burruss Received Credit For Ed Sheeran’s Shape Of You
Kandi Burruss extended her chart-topping catalog into the 2010s thanks to an initially uncredited sample on Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You.” Upon the songs release in 2017, fans quickly noted how the records bridge has the same melody from TLC’s hit “No Scrubs,” which was co-written by Kandi Burruss and Tameka “Tiny” Harris. While the situation could have easily turned nasty like other songwriting disputes (Robin Thicke vs the family of Mavin Gaye), Sheeran and his team opted to do the right thing and credit the ladies months after the song’s release. Kandi and Tiny posted a video of them celebrating the victory at a club and later that year performed “No Scrubs” for a VH1 special.
Kandi Burruss Claims Working With Boys II Men Was Her Worst Experience
Despite penning hits for N’Sync and Jagged Edge, Kandi could not seem to land one on another iconic boyband, Boyz II Men. The successful songwriter revealed in recent interviews that she was brought in to help the guys work on some music, but unfortunately, the egos did not allow them to be fruitful. Kandi says that the group had been very disrespectful to her and that they were some issues over song splits, meaning how much percentage of the song each person gets. In his own interview, Wanya Morris of Boyz II Men addressed this, saying that they are used to splitting songs evenly and found Kandi’s questions over splits to be concerning. He even taking a little dig at Kandi’s vocals, saying she was not as good as other famous songwriters from that time. Kandi maintains that she had respect for the guys as artists but did not enjoy working with them at all calling it her “worst experience” as a songwriter.
