If you ever wondered what happens when two cultural icons get together at the ESSENCE Festival of Culture, then wonder no more. On day three of the ESSENCE Festival of Culture, the incomparable KeKe Palmer takes over the ESSENCE Stage for a live edition of her hit Wondery podcast, “Baby This is Keke Palmer,” with entertainment mogul and fellow multi-hyphenate queen, Kandi Burruss, as her special guest.
The conversation takes place just hours before Palmer and Burruss both hit the main stage for the ESSENCE Evening Concert Series to celebrate 30 years of the classic Waiting to Exhale soundtrack and honor late music icon, Quincy Jones, respectively. Before diving into the juicy conversation, the 31-year-old actress gives fans in attendance an exclusive sneak peek into her upcoming film, The Pickup, starring Palmer alongside Eddie Murphy and Pete Davidson and set to premiere Aug. 6 on Prime Video. Following the never-before-seen teaser, the legendary link-up between the two multi-hyphenate queens commences.
Seated like the bosses they are, the live podcast begins with the two almost quite literally gagging over each other’s limitless success. “You’ve been in the game since you were a teenager, and you’re still reinventing yourself. I’ve enjoyed watching every era of you,” Palmer tells the RHOA veteran. Burruss responds, “I know you’re not talking, KeKe! I actually feel like we are alike in a lot of ways. Some people get too big for certain things…but we don’t mind trying new things. We like being creative.”
“We’re going to get to the bag…and have fun doing it,” Palmer adds.
Explaining where her business mindset comes from, the Xscape singer says, “I don’t want to stay in one lane. I like being behind the scenes just like I like being the one on the stage sometimes. So as long as I can do both, I’m going to do both.”
“It does get boring too when you feel forced to do it,” the One of Them Days star says in agreement. “As a creative, I love doing different things because I want to express different things about myself. You’re not going to get the same vibe when I’m the main character in a movie. You have to keep things exciting for yourself.”
Palmer, mother of two-year-old son Leodis, jumps straight into seeking advice from the hard-working mother of four on how she balances motherhood with being a boss.
“I feel like it’s kind of important to put our kids to work early,” Burruss shares. “Even with [my nine-year-old] Ace, he’s already been acting at an early age. I just feel like if they are also busy and doing things, then they respect what we do. They don’t have to grow up to do what we’re doing, but at least we already put them in a position where they’re able to establish themselves. Because that’s the thing – you want to set your kids up to greatness. And then we have that mom guilt, so when you bring your kids to work with you and put them to work, then it’s all good.”
Although Burruss says her kids don’t have to follow in her footsteps, her daughter Riley seems to be doing that, starring in the new Bravo series, Next Gen NYC, one year following her mother’s departure from The Real Housewives of Atlanta. “When I first started [RHOA], Riley was only six years old. She’s 22, and now she’s on her own show.”
While the reality TV veteran shared 15 years of her life’s ups and downs, she says there are still “a lot” of misconceptions about her that remain today.
“I really don’t like to talk a lot,” Burruss shares. “I have to be in a mood to want to talk. And I know people are probably shocked because I do all ‘this’ [talking on a stage in front of a jam-packed crowd], but on a normal basis, I’m very laid back and chill. If I have to go somewhere I don’t really know a lot of people, I always feel weird and awkward.”
“I think that’s a misconception people have about me too,” Palmer reveals. “I always feel a little bit of weirdness around people, but that’s why I end up being extra.”
Even with that, the 49-year-old restaurateur says the most challenging part about reality TV was how much she overshared, only for people to still create their own narratives.
“I’m an open book. You ask me something and I’ll just say it. My mama [Joyce] will be like, ‘Why did you have to say that? You just have to tell everybody everything!’ But I just feel like if I say it myself, I don’t have to worry about anybody else trying to put me on blast. I always spill my own tea. Now what I don’t like is that I pretty much have been an open book about anything and everything. I hate when people make up something about me. I already told you…why are you adding stuff?’”
While Burruss is no longer part of RHOA, fans can catch her alongside both Riley and Mama Joyce on Amazon Live’s Generation Face-Off, where the trio explores various topics through the lens of three different generations.
“Riley is gen Z, my mom is a baby boomer, and I’m gen X,” Burruss shares. “And our opinions are so different. Realistically, everything ends up being a debate sometimes. It always turns personal…because my mom is a shade queen, but Riley can be too.”
In addition to being a singer, reality TV star, restaurant owner, actress, and even having her own Amazon shop, Burruss has been getting to the bag ever since giving us the 90s anthem defining what a “scrub” is and why no one should want one. Palmer picks the “No Scrubs” songwriter’s brain about the type of headspace she and co-writer, Tameka “Tiny” Harris, were in when creating such a timeless record.
“We were going through it at the time,” Burruss recalls. ”Our group [Xscape] was falling apart after our second album [Off the Hook], and I told Tiny we needed to figure out what we’re going to do. I was 19, and I had just bought a house, but my roof was about to fall apart,” From there, Burruss recalls the duo then beginning to write and record their own music as a duo called KAT – short for Kandi and Tiny. “No Scrubs” was one of the songs recorded, but once it landed in the hands of TLC…well, the rest is history. And Burruss has no regrets.
“It gave me the opportunity to start writing for other people because I always wanted to, but I didn’t know how. Because at the time, I was an artist, and some artists don’t want other artists to see their creative process,” she shares with Palmer. By “other people,” the music mogul means Destiny’s Child, who she worked with on their second album, The Writing’s on the Wall, and ended up with songwriting credits on hits including “Bills, Bills, Bills,” “Bug a Boo,” and “So Good.” Burruss then shouts out Tina Knowles, sharing how she recently discovered that the Knowles family matriarch also recalls how the experience was for Beyonce in her eye-opening memoir.
“Before I got my copy, [I] played the audiobook, and [Knowles] was talking about how we were working in the studio and how we helped Beyonce become a producer,” says Burruss. “It had me teary-eyed…I was about to cry listening to her talk about that experience because it was a great experience for me, but to hear her put it in her book, I was like, ‘Wow.’”
As one of the longest running housewives in the entire franchise, Burruss tells Palmer has no regrets there either. “If I wasn’t on RHOA, I wouldn’t have met Todd, which makes me think about all the other things I would have missed out on. I then wouldn’t have Ace…I wouldn’t have [my daughter] Blaze.” She also acknowledges the challenges that came with the platform. “It was tough, but I wouldn’t change it because I can go back and watch so many moments in my life. There were definitely a lot of things that felt like it was about to break me at times, but…you’re gonna have people that hate you, and you’re gonna have people that love you. You just gotta roll with it and keep pushing.”
Burruss herself would agree that arguably her toughest RHOA moment was Season 9’s infamous feud gone wrong with then-best friend Phaedra Parks, who made a last-minute return to the Bravo franchise this year. Though the tumultuous fallout happened nearly a decade ago, fans of the show, including Palmer, cannot help but wonder how the two continue to coexist within the same social circles in the Atlanta scene.
“We’ve been in the same rooms before, but there’s no reason for us to communicate. We just don’t interact. I’m not disrespectful, I don’t come in cussing anybody out or anything…it’s just, you just stay in your lane, and I’ll stay in my lane,” Burruss tells Palmer. “I don’t feel the need to fake it for the world in that situation.”
The Broadway producer also responds and then shuts down the recent social media chatter about the years-old debacle. “I see people online trying to change what happened. Obviously, y’all did not watch the show or y’all did not really pay attention to what happened. [But] I’m not here to re-explain it. I’m not here to bring it up some more.”
Perhaps the most talked-about RHOA feud to happen since the Burruss-Parks of it all is the Season 16 controversy between housewives veteran, Kenya Moore, and newcomer, Brit Eady. As a close friend of Moore, Palmer ends her Q&A asking Burruss her opinion of how the situation was handled, which she has been open and outspoken about.
“Here’s my thing: people are like, ‘Why are you upset?’ I’m supporting my friend. That’s my girl,” Burruss shares. “I think people don’t understand friendship. Y’all don’t understand that my friend can be wrong…but I can still have a conversation with her separately and not drag her publicly about something she did.”
Burruss clarifies though, that she believes both parties were at fault and the situation was ultimately mishandled. “At the end of the day, after seeing how it played out, it was wrong on both sides. I feel like you can’t take one off [the show] and not take the other off. I feel like that was wrong, and y’all can disagree with me, but that’s how I feel. And I’m definitely going to support my girl and say they didn’t even give her the opportunity to come back and apologize. Everybody else got chances to come back and apologize, you know? So why doesn’t she get that chance?”
You can check out more episodes of “Baby, This is KeKe Palmer” featuring Palmer and other special celebrity guests on YouTube, audio streaming platforms, or wherever you listen to other podcasts.