Songoftheday 6/6/22 -Now I don't have to question where you were last night, 'cause I already know what you will say I already know you'll lie...

 

 

"Don't Think I'm Not" - Kandi

from the album Hey Kandi (2000)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #24 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 17

 

Today's song comes from R&B singer/songwriter Kandi Burriss, who was a member of the female vocal group Xscape through the 1990's, scoring five top ten pop crossover hits, including two from their third album Traces Of My Lipstick, "The Arms Of The One That Loves You" and "My Little Secret" in 1998.  After that album Burriss left for a solo career, billed as just "Kandi". She was already well-known by then as a songwriter, co-writing many big hits including the Grammy-winning #1 for TLC "No Scrubs". Kandi also featured on rapper Sole's top-40 hit "4,5,6" at the close of 1999. So expectations were high on the release of her debut solo set on Columbia Records, Hey Kandi. The lead single from the album, "Don't Think I'm Not", was written by Kandi with producer and frequent collaborator Kevin "She'kspere" Briggs along with Katrina Willis and Bernard Edwards Jr.. Using a sample of Issac Hayes' instrumental "Ike's Mood", Kandi confronts a cheating lover, and then proceeds to confess that she's doing the same thing when he's gone. There's no resolution to even if they are staying together, as the beat vacillates from a heartbreak ballad to a Miami-bass groove like songs like "My Boo". Surprisingly, the record did better on the pop charts that at R&B...

"Don't Think I'm Not" became Kandi's second top-40 hit (and first as a solo lead artist) in October of 2000. The song climbed to #32 on Billboard magazine's R&B chart, while peaking at #4 on the dance-oriented Rhythmic radio format list. Internationally, the single was a top ten success in New Zealand (#7) and the UK (#9), and made the top-40 in Australia (#16), Canada (#17), the Netherlands (#22), and Ireland (#40). The Hey Kandi album, released in September of that year, rose to #72 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, and #32 on the R&B Albums list. 

A second single from the record, "Cheatin' On Me", also written with Briggs, stalled down at #92 on the R&B chart, and with the album only spending two months on the chart (compared to Xscape's work), she was let go from Columbia. 

After stepping back from the limelight to write music, Kandi came back in 2009 with a five-song EP (extended play single) Fly Above, which spent a single week at #197 on the Billboard 200. After that promise she signed with Asylum Records, where she put out Kandi Koated a year later. First single "Leave U" put Burruss back on the R&B chart at #84, followed by "Me And U", which topped out at #66. In 2014, Kandi placed at #30 on the older-skewing Adult R&B radio chart with the stand-alone single "Forever Love" with Q Parker from the musical A Mother's Love. 

But Kandi's profile has been mostly due to her numerous television gigs, including The Real Housewives Of Atlanta (writing Kim Zolciak's "Tardy To The Party" in the process), spin-off The Kandi Party, Celebrity Big Brother, and most notably winning the second season of The Masked Singer in the U.S. version. In 2020, Kandi released "Used To Love Me" with Todrick Hall and Precious. Kandi will be back on the series in a featured role.

(6/10)

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Here's Kandi doing "Don't Think I'm Not" on Top Of The Pops in England...

Up tomorrow: DC singer has broken-up problems.