Kandi Burruss and Jermaine Dupri's Romance Was One of R&B's Best Kept "Little Secrets"

Singer, actor, and all-around Renaissance woman Kandi Burruss has been called many things, but a liar isn't one of them. At least, it ought not to be. Those who watched Kandi since she's been on The Real Housewives of Atlanta knows she's sometimes too honest and will fall out with anyone who doesn't follow the same code. Kandi's honesty is one reason she's maintained her status in the music industry since the 1990s. The other reason is largely due to her talent, which many of us can thank producer Jermaine Dupri for bringing to the masses.

Kandi and the rest of Xscape have long given Jermaine his flowers for signing them to So So Def Records and changing their lives forever. Over the years, though, Kandi and Jermaine have admitted their bond was more than just a manager-client relationship. In July 2024, Kandi shared more details about their short-lived romance on an episode of TV One's Uncensored. During the episode, she accused her former bandmate, LaTocha Scott, of stealing the diary Kandi used to document her and JD's love affair. Messy!

Since the former Bravo star's Uncensored episode, many have wondered how long she and Jermaine were "Just Kickin' It." Here's the scoop on the music powerhouses' relationship timeline!

Kandi and Jermaine met in their hometown of Atlanta, Ga. At the time, Kandi, Tamika Scott, LaTocha Scott, Tameka "Tiny" Cottle, and Tamera Coggins-Wynn had formed Xscape just one year prior. The group sang at Jermaine's 1991 birthday party; the rest was history. After hearing them sing, he eventually signed them to So So Def.

When Jermaine first signed Xscape, he and Kandi kept a professional relationship throughout Xscape's first two albums, "Hummin' Comin' at 'Cha" and "Off The Hook." Kandi said on Uncensored that she and Jermaine didn't start hooking up until after the second album wrapped. She said their first romantic exchange happened after the double music video for “Who Can I Run Too” and “Do You Want To.” However, even when things got hot and heavy, both Kandi and Jermaine opted to keep their romance under wraps.

"We was like totally just cool friends,” she explained on the show. “You couldn’t tell anything by sitting in a room with us. … It wasn’t a public relationship. It was very much so private.”

Jermaine and Kandi's romance fizzled around the same time she and the rest of the Xscape ladies parted ways. For years, their relationship remained a "little secret" until one of Kandi's group members, Tamika Scott, spilled the tea in 2007. Tamika revealed during an interview with Hot 97 that Kandi and Jermaine dated and claimed their relationship was what eventually broke the group up. She also accused Kandi of sleeping with Jermaine's dad, Michael Mauldin, something she has vehemently denied.

"I couldn't believe she would do me like that, I really couldn't," Kandi tearfully said in an interview with Unsung in 2015. "For her to do that, it just felt like she really had hatred for me and I just didn't want to deal with that no more. I was just like, 'uh uh,' and I was done."

Kandi and Tamika didn't speak for a decade after her interview. However, when Xscape decided to get back together in 2017, they made amends after Tamika apologized on their first Bravo reality show, Xscape: Still Kickin' It, and they've been on good terms ever since.

Jermaine said in an interview with Ebony that he felt his and Kandi's relationship caused unnecessary friction for Xscape. He said the drama between the group began after he gave Kandi the lead part in "Just Kickin' It" because he felt she sounded like him. The "Welcome to Atlanta" rapper said Kandi's group members continued thinking he was giving her special treatment after they started dating, though he claimed that was never the case. Still, the group disbanded in 1997 and took a decade-long hiatus.

“It wasn't nothing like that," he said. "I wasn't thinking nothing like that. I was thinking about the sound that I heard in my head.”

While Jermaine and Kandi's romantic relationship didn't last, their short time together greatly impacted her and her group's dynamics. In a 2023 appearance on Shannon Sharpe's Club Shay Shay, Kandi said that, despite Jermaine being in control of the group's career when they were dating, they never let their private matters get in the way of business. She also said it was "annoying" that Tamika and other naysayers suggested she wouldn't be successful had it not been for Jermaine.

"I go get the bag, and if I decide later on that we could hook up, then we hook up," Kandi said of dating in the industry. "They will always say that about a woman, which is so annoying."