‘Someone Close to Her Got Ahold of It’: Kandi Burruss Suspects Former Xscape Singer LaTocha Scott of Stealing Her Diary and Leaking Details About Her Romance with Jermaine Dupri
After years of speculation and whispers, Kandi Burruss finally addresses how some of her group members discovered her relationship with Jermaine Dupri back in the day.
Rumors about Kandi and Dupri’s relationship were a source of major tension within the group, fueling accusations of favoritism and mistrust. LaTocha Scott, in particular, alleged that Kandi was involved with Dupri to gain an edge in her career over the other group members, an allegation that strained the dynamics and eventually contributed to their breakup in 1998.
In a revealing segment from TV One’s “Uncensored” clip shared online, the “Real Housewives of Atlanta star” disclosed that she had confided in her then-best friends, Tameka “Tiny” Cottle Harris and Tamika Scott, about her relationship with the So So Def label head and producer. However, Tamika’s sister LaTocha Scott was left out of the loop.
Kandi said that her relationship with Jermaine started after the group’s second album, “Off the Hook,” was released.
Xscape was filming the music videos for “Who Can I Run Too” and “Do You Want To.”
“It was a double video, that’s when we first connected,” recalled. She said that while the two had started becoming close, no one knew because they were “around people being all flirty.”
Jermaine Dupri x Kandi Burruss (Xscape) in the studio. (So So Def) (90s) pic.twitter.com/jmrzjIjO3v
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“We was like totally just cool friends,” she said, “You couldn’t tell anything by sitting in a room with us. … It wasn’t a public relationship. It was very much so private.”
Burruss said they had worked on two albums before things turned romantic. But it was private to most, but not to her two group sisters. “Tiny and Tamika Scott, we used to share a lot of secrets with each other. The three of us. They knew from the beginning. They always knew. Tamika did not tell her sister, but she knew.”
LaTocha didn’t know until a fateful day on the tour when someone stole Burruss’ diary and shared the information.
“Now I can’t say that Tocha herself stole my diary, but somebody that was close to her definitely got a hold to it,” the Old Lady Gang restaurater said. “I used to journal every day. The people that I was close, Tamika and Tiny, they had no reason to take the diary because they already knew.”
According to Kandi, the diary had not only stuff about her relationship with Jermaine, but also something about a clandestine relationship that Tiny had “hooked up” with someone that she was not supposed to be with. This was the giveaway.
Once the Xscape ladies got into an argument on a tour bus, LaTocha brought up both relationships — leaving Kandi to suspect she was the one that stole the book.
“I’m livid,” she said about the news getting leaked. “But I can’t prove who took the diary. I had an idea. I felt like I knew who took it but I couldn’t prove it, so I couldn’t do anything about it.”
She added, “We in this little argument (as we always do in our little group arguments), and, uh, Tocha said something about or hinting towards the thing with Jermaine and I’m like ‘OK,’ but then later in the conversation she said something about Tiny.”
The coincidence was just too much for Kandi, “She knew it all of a sudden. Right after my diary stolen. It ain’t a damn coincidence. You could put two and two together. Even Tiny was like, ‘Oh, that’s some bullsh-t.”
In the past, Tamika did a radio interview where she claimed that the former “Real Housewives of Atlanta” star had slept with both Dupri and his dad, Michael Mauldin. She later apologized and admitted she made up the false story, in defense of her sister, LaTocha.
1998, Xscape had released their album “Traces of My Lipstick” and the group decided to call it quits.
Dupri told his side of the story in 2019 interview with “Uncensored,” saying he didn’t believe their relationship caused the group’s breakup. It was an internal rivalry between Tocha and Kandi regarding who got to lead the songs that tore Xscape apart, he claimed.
“I feel like my songs actually broke Xscape up,” the producer-turned-actor explained.
“Because Xscape was Tocha’s group. Whoever’s group it is that means they think they’re the lead singer,” he continued. “They meet Jermaine Dupri and Jermaine Dupri writes a song and he gives the song to Kandi, because Kandi’s voice sounds like mines … That created friction from jump without me even knowing.”
The full story will be on Kandis Burruss’ “Uncensored” episode that debuts on Sunday, July 7, at 9 pm on TVOne.