Kandi talks to STACKS Magazine

Interview Kandi did for STACKS magazine.

STACKS Magazine was recently afforded the opportunity to chat it up with the lovely Kandi Buruss. Kandi’s been making major moves for a while now. Starting out as one fourth of the girl group Xscape, it wasn’t long before she began to spread her wings. As author of some of today’s biggest hits, a star on a hit reality show, and co-owner of a clothing boutique, TAGS – it’s safe to say that Kandi has established herself as a gifted singer, songwriter, producer, entrepreneur…and as the mastermind behind her own success.

What you might not know is that Kandi has other talents, she is very family oriented and is a little weird about some things. And, when it comes to music she makes it known that she does not limit herself…“it’s not just urban or R&B or whatever…I love all kinds of music… I feel like I can write anything.”

Continuing to keep her trail ablaze, the multi-talented Kandi has several irons in the fire and is certainly one to watch out for. Want to know how Kandi continues to stay financially stable, what she has going on now, and for the fellas – what she likes in a man? Keep reading!

Since we’re here at TAGS let’s start there. How did this venture come to fruition?
Well, my business partner, Peaches - we’ve been friends for a long time - she’s had stores that were successful and I used to love her style. Her stuff is so cute, but so reasonably priced so I was like Peaches we need to do a store…we need to do it! In my mind, I wanted to have another business outside of music that was making money.

At first she really didn’t want to go into business with friends ‘cause sometimes that can mess up friendships, but I feel like when you have a mutual respect and people are on top of their business you can make it work out. I kept bugging her about it and so finally she broke down. So, I came up with the name of the store…you know how everybody was saying poppin’ tags or whatever? So I was like “ooh we should call it poppin’ tags”! And, uh, she felt like that was too urban. So finally after a couple of years she came to me like are you serious?…you really wanna do it for real? I told her yeah. So we did it and here it is…TAGS! We’re talking about opening our second location now.

...any plans for expanding the store here locally or maybe regionally?
Well, first we talked about doing it locally, but we just opened the online shopping in February and that’s going well. The store itself is doing really well. We decided that we would probably do another one here in Atlanta before going to different cities. I’m kind of scared though because I’m one of those types of people that don’t like to jump too far out there. Financially I like to do things below my means all the time because I’m like okay I can still take risks, but I don’t know…I like to slow roll it.

So at the end of the day you want to make sure your foundation is still there...
Yes, exactly. This is my first time doing something like this so I’m a little nervous. She’s done it before so she knows. She’s had multiple stores at the same time before. She knows how to make it work. That’s why I’m so glad that I did a business with somebody who’s done it and done it successfully.

Kandi Koated Entertainment, which is your label - are you currently signed to Kandi Koated?
Yeah, I’m an artist under my own brand.

Do you have any other artists signed to your label or what’s the future for Kandi Koated?
Not yet. This year I definitely plan on developing an artist. I have two artists that I definitely want to do. One was shown on the show…the little girl they showed auditioning for me…love her. She is on her own. I love artist who have their own style before you get with them. They kind of know who they are. So love her. Then I have this other artist that I kind of want to develop from scratch. They’ve never really done it before…kind of like how Kim (Zolciak) was. So I have another person I want to work with like that.

Are you still working with Kim to help her get her music career off the ground?
Yeah. We’re going to go back into the studio to do something else. She needs another one to perform. We did some shows together…it’s time she get another song.

You had an album you were working on, B.L.O.G….
It never came out. That is what I was working on, on the show last year. There was an EP, but I’m still going to put the songs on the album with additional records.

So we can still expect B.L.O.G?
I’m not going to call it B.L.O.G. At first I was going to call it B.L.O.G because last year when A.J. and I decided to be a part of the show people was coming left and right with negative things to say on the blogs and there were things that inspired songs that I was writing on the record. But, then toward the end of the year, after A.J. passed away and different things happened, I just felt like you know what…I don’t want to go dwell on the negative. ‘Fly Above’ was more of a representation of where I’m at with me in my life right now. So I’mma call it ‘Fly Above’ because everything I went through I’m flying above it now.

Are you currently working with any other artists…singing, writing, or producing?
Hmm, let me see! Well you know I’m always gonna jump on a different rappers’ song every now and then (laughs). I did something for Wacka Flocka, but I don’t know if he’s keeping it yet. I can’t wait to see when Fantasia’s album comes out because there’s this one song we did that I love and I hope she keeps it.

Are you singing on it?
No, no. I just wrote it, but it’s beautiful! It’s a beautiful song and she does an outstanding job of singing it! So I hope they keep it on the album. I’ve mainly been focusing on my own stuff. The Wacka Flacka was only a few weeks ago. I like it too! I need to hear it! I don’t know how their label feels about it, you know.

Who are you working with on your album?
On my album so far, I have Tiny, Rasheeda - that’s my girl…she’s on there, Rick Ross, Gucci. I think that’s all for the guest appearances so far.

It’s a song that I did for Jaheim, that was supposed to be on his album that was sooo hot and at the last minute - they put me on it at the last minute - I think he wanted to change some things and they didn’t have time to change it before going to press it up so it ended up not being on the record. But, I love the song and I’m thinking about asking them to just let me use it for my album. There’s no point in letting a good song go to waste.


You certainly have a plethora of musical talents, do you have any other talents that we may not know about?
Actually, I think I can act better than I can sing!

Yeah. Well I’ve been out of it for a long time. I went to a performing arts high school, Tri Cities High School. I went for drama, not music. Which a lot of people would think - you know, I went to a performing arts school - she was singing all the time. No, I did music my 9th grade year and after that it was straight drama and theater. I think I’m really good at it. They showed me on the show doing that play for the ‘Pocketbook Monologues’, so that was little taste. But I feel like as far as dramatic acting, I love it…like LOVE IT! And I would love to do Broadway.

Can you tell us anything about what we can expect to see on the new season of RHOA?
I can’t talk a lot, but you’ll still see more about my personal life. You’ll see dating, you’ll see a situation with my daughter and her father…you know that whole situation. You know I talked about that last year, about being a single parent, but I guess you’ll get a little bit more insight on it this year. We’re early into taping so I don’t know where it’s going, but I know they want to get into that. But you’ll see me and Kim together more because we’re friends. Out of everybody on the cast she is the one that I am the coolest with. We actually take family vacations together and everything. We have definitely developed a friendship since last year and you’ll definitely see more of that and the music definitely.

You do a lot. What’s your motivation? Business wise?
Well, I am the main provider for my daughter and my mother. There is nobody else taking care of ‘us. It’s nobody I can run to. I am the go-to person pretty much in my family. Don’t get me wrong, I like being that person that they can depend on. I don’t look at it as a chore. It’s not a burden to me. I like it and I like being able to do for them. So, that motivates me to keep things happening. That’s one thing. Another thing is I always want to stay relevant and in order to do that you gotta keep things happening.

With that, we know that you are very family oriented. With everything that you have going on, how do you keep that balance to ensure that you have a healthy family life while still being able to do the things you need to do in order to support your family?
There are certain days that I block out and say “I’m not doing anything I’m spending time with my daughter”. Any little day that I have free, it’s spending time with Riley and her friends. I just try to make those times important for Riley. And my mom, I need to step up and do a little with mother-daughter day because sometimes my mom feels a little left out. My mom is one of those that can’t go a day without talking. So I have to call my mother everyday, like I’m a little kid or something. But, even with my aunts and my cousins – if I spend too much time away from them then I get heat about that. I have to spend time with my family ‘family. I don’t have one of the families – you know how some people they don’t see their cousins and aunties, my family is not like that. My mom is the youngest of 14 kids and it’s like a group of them where we’re kinda like – we were raised like sisters and brothers not like cousins. We constantly try to do stuff together. We don’t necessarily have to do reunions like some other people do because we see each other all the time.
Special thanks to Paula Witt/Tremedia