Source: WENN

Jermaine Durpri’s So So Def 20th anniversary celebration has come and gone, yet the drama surrounding it appears to linger on. A few weeks ago Bow Wow called out “Real Housewives of Atlanta” star Kandi Burruss for refusing to attend the reunion. Then, it came out that Kandi’s refusal had a lot to do with unresolved issues with certain members of her former group, Xscape. In a recent interview with Egypt Sherrod, LaTocha Scott expressed that she was unaware of the unfinished Xscape business that Kandi was referring to but urged her former group mate to put her pride aside because she was insulting the fans by refusing to reunite with the group. Now, in an interview with Big Tigger, for those who appear to have selective memory, Kandi is sharing exactly what her plight with Xscape is and why she would rather not revisit it.

“I’m just going to be honest and tell you, when it comes to my group, I don’t feel like all the members of my group, they don’t really have love for me like that. Tiny has love for me, but over the years people have told flat-out lies about me in public, dogged me, blamed me for everything that done went wrong in their life. To me, it’s just a situation where I feel like I don’t want to go back to that,” she said.

She also went on to express that one of her group members spread a foul rumor that she had some sort of sexual relationship with Jermaine Dupri’s father.

“At one point in my I felt like I would’ve been able to get past certain things, but to this day now, I have to see people try to say that I had sex with Jermaine’s father. That’s a flat out lie because one of the girls made it up. She knows she made it up. She said that just to make me look bad to people. She came back to apologize to me, but she never apologized in public. It’s not true. So people to this day still put that in blogs and say that about me and it’s not true. She purposely wanted me to look bad, for whatever reason. I don’t know why she was upset. When people do stuff to try to damage you or bring you down to the public, that’s hateful and I’m like, I don’t want to be around that. And then, just last year, some of them was still doing interviews saying that I did stupid stuff that I didn’t even do… I’m not that powerful. I cannot make people not play your record.”

Many presume that Kandi was mostly referring to LaTocha, as the majority of tension appears to exist between those two, but she never actually mentioned names. The “Prayed Up” singer also humorously pointed out that Bow Wow called her out for not attending the reunion, but never said anything about Tiny’s absence.

“I feel like he’s just focusing on me, and not saying nothing about her because he doesn’t want to get the smack down from Tip. That’s my first thought.”

Ha!

Check out Kandi’s full interview with Big Tigger on the next page. What are your thoughts on Kandi’s response?

Source: WENN

Producer, Jermaine Dupri recently hit up the Power 105.1 studios for an interview with the hosts of The Breakfast Club. During his interview, JD promoted his upcoming So So Def Reunion tour, addressed how he feels about Kandi Burruss refusing to participate in the tour and responded to some antique rumors regarding his love life, including that back-fence talk about him cheating on Janet Jackson.

On Bow Wow going in on Kandi about the reunion and Xscape beef: 

“Bow Wow is like a So So Def rider, he’s like my son, so he’s gonna say something the second someone says something about me. It’s 15 artists performing though, we ain’t gonna let one person stop that show”.

“The way I designed Xscape, Kandi sang all the leads on the records. When you got three other people that want to sing, and you keep giving this one person all the leads… If the designer of the music was making a person sing, that makes those other three singers like ‘Yo, when we gonna get leads?’ When we got to ‘Who Can I Run To?’ I started making sure Tiny was singing the leads and Kandi was like in the back. When Kandi started falling to the back, the problems even got worse.”

On whether or not he dated Kandi Burruss:

“I would never date her. I never said nothing about dating her… I mean she’s a reality star now, so you gotta watch out.”

On his Janet Jackson tattoo:

“Janet’s a part of my life that means a lot. I’m tattoo’ed up by the way, not to mention every part of me is tattoo’ed. Before I had the [Janet] tattoo, my mother said ‘Why you got all these white people on you that you don’t know?’  That’s a crazy question if somebody ask you that. I got Al Capone, I got Scarface, I got all these people on me… It just hit me one day, I date somebody that’s famous, let me make a tattoo.”

On rumors that he cheated on Janet:

“Oh, yeah? So what, that’s what you heard? People just make up anything, right? It sounds good. We was together nine years, that’s a long time. That’s like marriage. I’m a young dude, I’m gonna leave it at that. You know what I mean? I’m a young dude in the entertainment business.My life is crazy sometimes.”

Boy, bye.

Peep Jermaine’s interview on the next page. What do you think of his explanation? 

Source: Egypt Said So

Last month we told you that former Xscape singer, LaTocha Scott had been added to the cast of TV One reality show, “R&B Divas”. Many have been anticipating LaTocha’s return to the spotlight, as there are many unanswered questions surrounding what went wrong with Xscape and whether or not the ladies had smoothed out their differences. In a recent interview with Egypt Said So, LaTocha revealed some interesting details regarding which former group members she’s still at odds with and why.

LaTocha interestingly revealed that although she and her sister Tamika are cool with Tiny, she can’t say the same “Real Housewives of Atlanta” star Kandi Burruss. “Not very cool,” was the singer’s response when asked where she and her sisters’s relationships with Kandi currently stood. Back when Kandi announced that she would not be participating in the So So Def Reunion, she shared with Big Tigger that her beef wasn’t with Jermaine Duprri, but that she would not be particiapting because of some  unfinished Xscape business. When asked exactly what unfinished business Kandi was referring to, Latocha responded:

“My thing is the only unfinished business I can think of is the fact that we didn’t go onto the other albums that we were supposed to do. Other than that, I don’t understand where the unfinished business comes in at. I don’t know what she’s talking about.”

“We talk,” she went on. “I mean times you know…we kind of spread out. Everyone found out what life was like outside of the group so I don’t know. You know when she says unfinished business, I would have to talk to her.”

The singer also revealed that she would very much enjoy doing a reunion with Xscape and that she believes they owe it to the fans to work things out.

“Oh I would love to do a reunion with Xscape… I think we owe it to the fans, to the people. They put us all here. You know we’re successful and people were calling us because of what the fans allowed us to do and that’s the scene. You know the universe opened up for us in ’93. We were able to sign to So So Def very early on. We worked hard and to be here now, it’s like 20 years later, who can even say that?”

“But this is the thing. I don’t know why people want to continue to hold on to the negative. I think we’ve all progressed in life, you know, everybody’s doing their thing. Big ups to Tiny and Kandi for standing in their lane with the television show. It’s great for them. And I just don’t understand why we have to keep going back to the negative. I want to move forward. I want to see 20 years, you know what I’m saying? This whole 20 year reunion is big for me, but to say you’re not going to do it because you feel like we have unfinished business is…I don’t want to say it’s insulting to the fans, but it’s like come on, it’s not even about that. Let’s get out of self and let’s think about what we did for music.”

What do you think of this? Should Kandi just let go of the past and move on?

Jazmine Denise is a news writer for Madame Noire. Follow her on Twitter @jazminedenise.

Making it in the music industry as a solo artist is hard enough but when there are two or more people in a group, tensions are bound to arise because mo’ money plus mo’ people equal mo’ problems. Although they made beautiful music together, these 15 popular rap and R&B groups just couldn’t set aside their differences in the long run.

Arrested Development

Afrocentric alternative hip-hop group Arrested Development became very popular in the early 90′s. Founded by Speech and his former best friend, DJ Headliner, along with Dionne Farris and spiritual leader Baba Oje, they are best known for their song “Everyday People.” In 1993 the group won Grammys for Best New Artist and Best Rap Performance. They were also tapped by Spike Lee to record a song for his “Malcolm X” biopic that same year. However, Arrested Development never eclipsed the success they had with their debut album. Their sophomore album was panned by critics and shortly after that the group broke up due to “creative differences.” The band patched things up four years later but things were never the same as they struggled to reclaim their popularity in the U.S. Today, the group continues to tour internationally and released their 10th album in 2012.

TV One’s reality show “R&B Divas” was a proven hit last season. One thing that really caused it to stand out among the clutter of the heap of reality shows that television networks dish out is that it was one of the few shows that actually documented the lives of real celebrities. You know, people who were famous prior to being featured on a reality show. It appears that TV One is taking full advantage of that unique aspect of the show and are continuing to build on it. According to a press statement released by the station, they will be building upon that spectacular star power by adding soulful songstress Angie Stone and founding Xscape member, LaTocha Scott to the season two cast. The ladies will be joining the show’s original cast members, Faith Evans, Nicci Gilbert-Daniels, Monifah Carter, Syleena Johnson and Keke Wyatt.

As you may already know, this isn’t Angie’s first reality television experience. Years ago she appeared on VH1′s “Celebrity Fit Club 4″. Since then, she has launched a full-fleged campaign entitled FACE (Fearless African Americans Connected and Empowered), in an effort to “inspire behavioral changes in African Americans, who are disproportionately affected by diabetes,” which is an illness Angie was also diagnosed with back in 1999.

Since LaTocha’s Xscape days, she has acted as the pen behind various songs that appeared on popular movie soundtracks, in addition to launching the Goldyn Girl Foundation, which is an organization with the goal of cultivating self-love and self-esteem in young women. She is currently preparing for the release of her debut solo album as well as penning a tell-all book about her experiences during her time with R&B girl group Xscape.

The two new additions to the cast are sure to mix things up a bit and is certainly a way to add potential drama to the storyline. This is looking like an excellent formula for reality television. I’m sure many are curious and excited to see both Angie and LaTocha returning to the spotlight.

The new season is set to premiere around the Spring of 2013.

What do you think of LaTocha and Angie being added to the cast?

Photo courtesy of WENN

Jazmine Denise is a news writer for Madame Noire. Follow her on Twitter @jazminedenise

Source(s): WENN, Bossip

TLC’s latest reality show, The Sisterhood hasn’t even aired its second episode and drama is already brewing. If you’re a bit in the dark as to what this show is about, the storyline follows the lives of some fairly prominent preachers’ wives in Atlanta. What kind of drama could possibly be going down already on a show that follows a bunch of church ladies, you ask? Well, it seems that one of the wives, Ivy Couch was not 100% truthful in her mini-bio, which is displayed on the TLC website. You see, according to her bio, she’s a former member of 90’s R&B group Xscape.

“Most First Ladies do not have a colorful past like Ivy. As one of the members of girl group Xscape, Ivy lived the partying life of a pop star. But since meeting her husband Mark, pastor of the Emanuel Tabernacle Church, Ivy is singing a different tune. She is now a dutiful First Lady, wife, and mother to a one-year old son. However, her not-so-wholesome past helps Ivy relate to and connect with her inner city congregation.”

Of course, this would be all good and fine, except founding Xscape member, Kandi Burruss is saying that this isn’t completely true. The Real Housewives of Atlanta star recently took to her Twitter account to clear up any confusion.

“Got a lot of tweets bout Ivy from #Sisterhood. She was never on any Xscape albums. Xscape was gonna reunite without me & she was my replacement.”

According to popular blogger, Funky Dineva, Ivy was briefly a part of Xscape after Kandi Burruss signed over her rights to the group; however, her time with Xscape is rumored to be short lived due to her inability to get along with the sisters Latocha and Tamika. She is said to have publicly performed with the group once or twice. Since news broke, people have been ripping Ivy to shreds about being a Christian and a pastor’s wife and lying about something so miniscule. Ivy may have stretched the truth a little, but technically she was briefly a part of the group at one point. She wouldn’t be the first person to exaggerate on her resume and I’m sure she won’t be the last. Just maybe she did get some “pop star partying” in during her two-day career as a member of Xscape, y’all don’t know her life!

Joking, joking, but really, I think we should cut the woman some slack.

What do you think of Ivy’s exaggeration regarding her involvement with Xscape?

Jazmine Denise is a news writer for madamenoire.com. Follow her on Twitter @jazminedenise

While most girl groups from the ’90s have broken up, sometimes in an ugly manner (i.e., En Vogue) to find themselves in obscurity, the ladies of Xscape, (with the exception of Tamika Scott) have all been lucky enough to find their way on reality television. LaTocha Scott is the newest former member to have such “luck,” as she will join Tiny on VH1, but with her own program.

Scott’s show will follow the singer, who had the most formidable and memorable pipes in the famous group, as she tries to make her way back into the music industry to revive her career as a solo artist. On top of that, the show will also feature her family, and according to Theybf.com, she will also discuss how life changed for her after her years in Xscape, mentally, physically and spiritually. I’m sure it wasn’t easy, because Scott has tried to revamp the group multiple times to no avail. With Tiny and her sister Tamika, as well as with a new member, the ladies tried to redo Xscape, but broke up in 2005. And we all know that Scott was talking to the media about another hopeful reconciliation, which Kandi Burruss publicly said hell no to. But it seems like Scott is going to get her shine again one way or the other. And if not on TV, possibly in music again, because she also just released a new Christmas song called “Missing You This Christmas” that I’m sure her fans will love.

I think I probably would have preferred to watch Scott on a classy show like “R&B Divas” and caught up with her that way since we all know that Vh1 likes to bring the rachet out of everyone for financial gain, but we wish her luck with this as-yet-to-be-titled project. We also hope it brings her the good publicity she’s looking for, and that it doesn’t expose us to a person we’re not too sure whether we’ll like or not (i.e., Kenya Moore’s behind on “Real Housewives of Atlanta. That girl was just the total opposite of what I thought she was going to be…*shakes head*). Question is, when the reality show finally debuts, will you watch?

Source: BE Magazine

We all know it’s slim pickings when it comes to good music in the industry so when you hear one of the hottest R&B groups from the ’90s could be reuniting it should be good news, if they can pull it off.

Former Xscape band member Latocha Scott recently caught up with BE Magazine to talk about life since the group disbanded and when they asked the singer if she’d be up for getting the girls back together to record new music, she said she was definitely down.

“I would LOVE for that to happen!” she told the magazine. I know Tiny she hit me like a week ago like you know lets talk and do lunch, so I may put that bug in her ear and see how she feels about it. My sister Tameka is always down so that’s her, as far as Kandi, I haven’t spoken to her, but you never know. I mean I don’t know if she would BE willing to do a reunion, I know she busy with her businesses and things. But as far as the group is concerned I would definitely wanna do something. I’m thinking about including the girls on one of my songs for my album. I think it would BE great. I think we owe our fans that as well.”

Earlier this year, Kandi said almost the same thing about the group getting back together during an appearance on “Watch What Happens Live” with Andy Cohen. Though Kandi didn’t say there was any bad blood between her and her former group members, she did say that she hadn’t spoken to half of them in a long while and she seemed a lot less enthusiastic, or perhaps maybe optimistic, about a reunion than LaTocha, saying it wasn’t too likely. With all of the other things Kandi has going on that don’t cause her to perform (unless you consider her participation in the “Real Housewives of Atlanta” acting), I’m sure she’d much rather being on the business side of the entertainment industry instead of the artist. But all is not lost yet, maybe Xscape’s fans can convince them to get back together.

Do you want to see Xscape reunite?

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fanpop.com

Though times have certainly changed and we rarely see groups anymore, the groups of yesteryear live on and we sing their songs like they just came out yesterday. When a group broke up, they gave a simple excuse similar to, “Oh, we just wanted to do something different.”  Maybe…or maybe not. Check out the real reason some of our favorite groups broke up…

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