Source: Kevin Mazur / Getty
On May 18, Kelly Rowland released an EP, The Kelly Rowland Edition. The story behind that is, the 38-year-old singer worked on the EP with the help of young writers and producers cultivated at the Red Bull Studios in Los Angeles, all in one week. This week, a behind-the-scenes studio sessions video was released showing them coming up with a number of tracks that appear on the project, including “Don’t You Worry,” “See Me” and “Diamonds.” When asked going in what concepts she had in mind to give the team some direction, she briefly opened up about this idea that she was always in someone’s shadow. (That shadow, of course, belongs to Beyoncé.)
“The elephant in the room for me has always been second best,” she said. “That’s actually the first time I’ve said that out loud.”
Speaking on what motivated her to share that, the former Destiny’s Child star said she felt good vibes with the group.
“I think what kind of took me back was how comfortable I felt in the room to be so transparent,” she said. “It’s got to feel right, and everybody feels like that in here.”
A few years ago, rapper 2 Chainz ruffled some feathers with that whole “sangin’ in the background” belief about Kelly when he used her as a punch line on DJ Khaled’s “You Don’t Want These Problems.”
We the best / Khaled tried to told yah /Truuu/ You just second best /Kelly Rowland [haha I’m just playin’ babe]
But in 2013, Rowland addressed that elephant in the room herself, doing so on her controversial hit, “Dirty Laundry.”
While my sister was on stage, killing it like a motherf–ker/I was enraged, feeling it like a motherf–ker/Bird in a cage, you would never know what I was dealing with/Went our separate ways, but I was happy she was killing it/Bittersweet, she was up, I was down/No lie, I feel good for her, but what do I do now?/Forget the records, off the record, I was going through some bullsh-t/Post Survivor, she on fire, who wanna hear my bullsh-t?
Kelly has said though that despite being seen as the second best to her best friend, and it causing her to check out of their friendship for a short while, their bond has only grown stronger because of the support and love they show one another.
“I think the people wanted those stories for years, and that’s just so sad on them because it’s not like that,” she said. “It’s so crazy, and I just think it’s so sad that we live in a world where people don’t want to see women get along and encourage and empower each other, and that’s what we do for each other.”
Check out her brief thoughts at the 2:00 mark below:
