Studio Magic

Hey!
Long time no see... I mean no blog. Ok, let me apologize for not blogging for so long. Things have been so hectic lately that I haven't been on top of my blogging duties. So I'm pulling out my DVD's of the last few weeks so I can remind myself of what happened.

Episode #6 The Alter Ego Shoot

Well let me say that NeNe had the great idea to bring us together to do the alter ego shoot. I'd always wanted to do it because I knew other artists who had done it already. Now when she first talked to me and Sheree about doing it, she said that she really thought I should be ghetto because I'm ghetto. LOL.... Whatever. Her saying that upset a lot of people. Honestly I really didn't care. To me ghetto is more of an attitude. She said she couldn't be ghetto because she is from Athens and that's not ghetto. I wasn't raised in a "ghetto" either. Being or acting ghetto to me is when you're loud, cursing in public, using a lot of slang, etc... Everybody knows what the stereotype for ghetto is so I don't have to break it down. She and I both (as well as the other ladies of the show) have all had a ghetto moment at some point. So like I said, whatever.

Now this episode is also the first time that Sheree and I hung out alone. People can say what they want about Sheree, but I think she's cool. I noticed a lot of people tweeted me about being shocked to see her cry when I was telling her about the accident my family was in. I think it was great getting to see that side of her. Speaking of the accident, I must say that was one of the scariest times of my life. Getting a call in the middle of the night and someone's telling you that you need to rush to the hospital is a horrible feeling. A.J.'s nephew Tony was only 13 years old and he was hanging out with my cousins Melvin (17) and Patrick (14), and also AJ's son BJ (15). On their way back to my house a drunk driver hit them head on. Tony was hurt the worst out of the four of them. The doctors were telling us that they didn't know if he was gonna make it. He was non-responsive for about two months and in the hospital for almost four full months. I'm glad to say that now he's home with his mother but he's still going through therapy and he hasn't been able to go back to school yet. Can you imagine being 13 years old and having to learn how to talk again or walk again? Tony is doing all of that and he has mad a lot of progress, thank God! Because of the accident there have been hundreds of thousands of dollars in hospital bills piling up on his family. If you have it in your heart to help, please go to www.prounitedfoundation.org and make a donation. The foundation was started by Tony's mother. Even if it's just a dollar it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

OK, back to the episode. I had fun during the photo shoot. NeNe did a great job directing me and I had fun directing her. They asked me to help Sheree with her photo and be her stand in. Sheree had a harder time being the bank robber than when she had to be the victim. People want her to be this hardcore chick but I don't know ... I'm just not getting that from her.

Episode #7 Hot Tracks and Catchy Hooks

So this is the episode when you first get to hear what Ii did to "Tardy For The Party." Kim gave me a copy of the original version of "Tardy" and I was thinking, 'What the hell am I gonna do to this???' I thought the title was good because it's memorable, but everything else about the song wasn't working to me. First off, I didn't feel that Kim should be singing country music. In my opinion country music is more about the melody and being able to deliver the emotion of the story in the song. With that being said, I feel that you need to be a stronger singer in order to be a great country artist. And if you're wondering, yes, I do listen to country music. Anyway, that's why I decided to switch her to dance music. To me dance music is about the hot track and catchy hook. In other words, you don't have to be a strong singer in order to pull it off.

I looked at this project as a challenge because I watched last season and I already knew what people had been saying about Kim as a singer. What people don't think about is that there are a lot of artists out there that may not be strong singers but have hit records. So I was not gonna be the "Dream Killer" in this situation. At the same time, if I couldn't pull it off then I knew people would look at me like I was whack, and I can not be attached to whackness. I'm great at coming up with lyrics and melody, but I do not play instruments. So in order to bring my idea to life I had to get help from Don Vito & Blade who are hot producers and my engineer Selasi who is great with all the studio tricks! I sang the idea I was hearing in my head, and Don Vito and Blade put a track around it. So boom! All we needed at that point was to get Kim in the studio and make the magic happen.

The major issue in this episode was the whole situation between Lisa and Sheree. I guess the fact that they both have a clothing line makes people want to turn it into a competition. I say good luck to them both. I actually just bought a store and it's called Tags Boutique. We will carry men and women's clothing. The address is 4500 West Village Smyrna, Ga. 30080 and we're tentatively scheduled to open mid-October. So come see me! Hopefully I can have both of their lines in my store ... hint hint. LOL!

Episode #8 Kim's Studio Visit

OK, first let me talk about Sheree's trainer, Cliff. He was hilarious. I've met him plenty of times. He actually trains a few of my friends. It cracked me up to see him doing that routine in the thong!!! He has a great personality and he's a great trainer.

Now, let's get to Kim coming over to record. So there was some misunderstanding. Kim was told that she was coming to my house to listen to the song and I was told that she was coming over to sing. So when I told her it was time to go in the booth and she said, "I'm not wanting to sing" I was thinking, 'What the hell you mean you're not wanting to sing???' I don't have a lot of time to waste, so don't even think about having me do a record for you and then try to back out of singing it. Her confidence was really broken down from last season. I had to really give her a pep talk and boost her confidence back up. It was really hard for her and having the cameras around was not helping the situation. She was nervous and she had to smoke a cigarette to calm down. After she sang and heard herself she broke down in tears. It was so unexpected. I didn't know that it would mean that much to her. Afterwards I was really glad that I did it.

Now when Kim told me that she didn't want NeNe on the song, it wasn't a real big shocker for me because they were having issues anyway. That's between them. I don't really care if it's one or both of them on the song.

As for the alter ego party, I really hate that Kim got hurt, but I don't feel like we should have moved the whole party outside just for her. That was a bit much. All the photos turned out great! Kudos to Derek Blanks!

Much love,
Kandi

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