Kandi Burruss Plans for Life Beyond 'Housewives of Atlanta'

The R&B singer chats about the new season of Housewives, her new show and her business ventures

Kandi Burruss is about her business. Not only does she have over a decade of experience in the music industry as a performer and Grammy Award-winning songwriter, she is also the star of hit reality television show Real Housewives of Atlanta. Not to mention, Burruss runs Tags, a boutique clothing store in Atlanta and is the creator of a new sex toy line Bedroom Kandi. And if that’s not enough business for you, Burruss is also the star of Bravo’s newest reality competition series The Kandi Factory.

Loop 21 caught up with Burruss in between studio times and business meetings to find out about the latest season of Real Housewives of Atlanta, set to premiere on Sunday, Nov. 6, her new spin-off and which housewife she wouldn’t mind going into the studio with.

Loop 21: How did the idea of a talent competition come about?

Kandi Burruss: I pitched the idea to Andy [Cohen] at Bravo this time last year. I had two ideas that I was talking to him about doing. Basically, so many people came up to me everyday after I helped Kim [Zolciack] on the show saying, ‘Oh, if you helped her I know you can help me.’ So I kind of pitched it to him like, ‘Hey, what if we did a show where we gave regular, every day people the opportunity to work with me and I can turn them into what is accepted as far as a major artist?’

...A lot of big artists who sell millions of records may not be the best singers in the world, but they have hot songs or they have the right image. So with The Kandi Factory we’re going to take the different people that we choose and help them get a new record, a new image, a new video and turn them into something. And hopefully I can live up to the challenge.

Loop 21: You’ve helped many careers from TLC to Lawrence. Who haven’t you worked with that you would like to?

Burruss: Mary J. Blige. I would love to work with her. I’ve always wanted to do something for Janet Jackson. I almost had the opportunity one time, but it didn’t go through. I love her. I always wanted to do Country so I’d love to do Carrie Underwood or Faith Hill but I just recently had the opportunity to work with Jo Dee Messina.