Source: Vibe
For the June and July issue of Vibe, the good folks at the magazine made the random decision to have four very controversial reality stars on their cover: Evelyn Lozada, Tamar Braxton, Chrissy Lampkin, and Kandi Burruss. With the hilarious header, “Meet Your New Role Models,” (sarcasm with a twinge of painful reality in their voice) the ladies, dressed in very little, smile for the cover of the “Swexy issue.”
While the cover and images might have the men smirking and smiling, the interview was allegedly meant to allow the women to explain their less than ladylike behavior on television. Inside the magazine, the ladies were asked about everything from Star Jones and the “Basketball Wives” petition, to show producers orchestrating the violence and drama. Check the highlights:
When asked about Star Jones and the petition to get “Basketball Wives” off of the air:
Evelyn: [Bursts into laughter] I think she’s going to have to get a whole lot of names. Actually, I like the petition and I like the controversy because I’ve learned controversy is good. But I think she’s irrelevant. And she’s using our coattails to get relevant again. Nobody gives a f**k about her.
Chrissy: Whatever Star Jones is feeling is a little deeper than what she sees. I think she has her own issues.
Kandi: She may not be violent, but I’m sure she goes off on people in her day-to-day. I just don’t think it’s fair to block somebody from getting money.
On the misconceptions about Evelyn and how they’re disappointed the positive aspects of their lives don’t get shown:
Evelyn: Yeah, I happen to be throwing a few things. It’s frustrating because, on the other hand, I’ve also done positive things like charities with kids. It’s unfortunate because those things don’t seem to mean anything.
Chrissy: It bothers me [too] because it’s not all of who I am. It’s a part of who I am. It’s also something that I’m working on because who am I to put my hands on somebody else?
Tamar: I just wanna address the biggest misconceptio
n with Evelyn. She’s not just beautiful on the outside; she’s a beautiful soul. I believe that people who want to make a difference in our community should be shown [doing so]. Sometimes, with our shows, you only see that [negative] side, but Evelyn will give you the shirt off of her back. Evelyn: It’s tough because if we were only doing positive things, people wouldn’t want us. But if I say, “Tamar, you’re a stupid f*****g b***h,” people love that.
Kandi: That’s because we’re a real life soap opera. You know how your family watched All My Children for 20 years? That’s what we are now.
On producers being the instigators of the violence you see:
VIBE: So you’re saying the producers orchestrated the violence?
Chrissy: Absolutely. They would go as far as telling the new girl, “Chrissy thinks she’s Queen Bee around here so we need you to step up because nobody here has a strong enough personality. We need you to shut it down.” They were feeding people this negative energy from the door. I have no reason to lie.Kandi: If [the producers] know this person and that person don’t get along, they’ll be like, “Okay, we want you guys to go to lunch.” They know if they have a conversation about what’s going on, something’s gonna jump off. But nobody can make you physically punch somebody in the face. We end up doing that to ourselves from people being real disrespectfu
l in the way they’re speaking to each other, pointing fingers all in people’s faces. Some people just can’t take that.
On regretting their actions AFTER the fact of course…
Chrissy: Absolutely. It’s like, why did I let them get me that angry? It’s compromising to your soul because I didn’t sign up for this, but I’ll be damned if I’m gonna allow somebody to make a fool of me because the cameras are rolling.
Evelyn: I do and [the bottle incident] was one of those things where I was like, “That was wrong.” The producers of the show could have edited that out but I take full responsibility. I mean, [Kenya] has kids at home.
And the big question: Does Evelyn’s daughter watch the show? And if so, what are her thoughts?
Evelyn: Yes, but if you know my daughter, you’ll know she doesn’t care about any of that. She’s very independent. She knows who mom is. And to her, mom is a character on a television show. [My daughter] knows that side of me because she’s seen both sides. The world hasn’t. But I take full responsibili
ty for everything that I’ve done. It’s all me. Tamar: This is what I’m saying—it’s not negative, because she learned from it. The beautiful part about it is that somebody can watch it and not make the same mistake. ’Cause sometimes when I watch Kandi, I wish I could be more like her. You’re never like, “Pop, pop, pop!”
Kandi: It takes a lot not to. The reason why I can be [so drama-free] on my show is that I wasn’t friends with [my castmates] before I got on the show. So anything they said didn’t matter to me. Tamar, you’re around your family, so you care.
Tamar: I mean, this is me, but if you family—cousin, brother, mother—you come at me crazy and I’m gon’ jump at you crazy.
Well all right. Not really sure what they were trying to do here, but it doesn’t give me an “ahaaaaa” moment or make me want to hug these women. In the end, after reading things over, they seem to want the controversy for the sake of getting paid, and want us to know, that hey, it is what it is. This is who they are and they’re indeed human. While it’s nice that they try to take responsibility for their own actions to an extent, they really don’t, because they turn around and say it’s the producers creating the drama. They probably are stewing the pot behind the scenes, but they’re not the ones forcing folks to fling bottles at people, stomp each other down in hotel rooms (over OTHER people’s business), and to be “popolicious” all the damn time. But I digress.
To read the interview in full, pick up the new June/July issue of Vibe, or you can go to their site and read the rest of what these chickenheads ladies had to say.
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