Kandi Burruss Talks 'If U Get Caught' — Her Dvsn Clap Back Collab with Tiny: 'Get Out of Here!'
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Rodin Eckenroth/FilmMagic Kandi Burruss
Kandi Burruss and Tameka "Tiny" Harris have a message for Dvsn: if you get caught cheating, they're cheating back!
The Xscape singers have collaborated on "If U Get Caught," a sassy new single that claps back at Dvsn's tune "If I Get Caught."
It was an idea that came to Burruss, 46, and Harris, 47, after they saw the internet ablaze with outrage over the Canadian R&B duo's controversial track upon its release last month.
"Everyone was calling them out for that song being so toxic," Burruss tells PEOPLE, noting how the Dvsn's song makes the case that cheating isn't a reason to end a happy relationship.
"Their whole message, like, nobody wants to hear the person they're in love with say, 'Oh, if I get caught, know that I still love you.' Like, what? If you don't get out of here..." the Real Housewives of Atlanta star says. So I was like, 'Well, who better to respond than two women who are great writers and can come with a good comeback?' "
Kandi Burruss and Tiny
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For the song, Burruss and Harris used the same instrumental taken from "If U Get Caught," which is built off a sample of JAY-Z's 2001 hit "Song Cry."
"Jermaine Dupri and Brian Michael Cox co-produced the song for them, and [Xscape] is from Jermaine's label So So Def, so I reached out to him and asked him to send me the track," Burruss. "He told Dvsn we were doing it, so they knew it was coming. We even sent it to them before we posted it."
The remix doesn't hold back, Burruss and Harris both putting Dvsn in their place. "If you get caught cheating, what makes you think I'll stay with you?" they ask in the song's chorus. "If you get caught cheating, what makes you think I won't too?"
"You can't keep lying and think that I ain't gon' get mine," Harris sings in her verse. "You know that two can play that game, I ain't goin' out lame."
Said Burruss of the writing process: "The cool thing about Tiny and I is we've been writing together for years, ever since 'No Scrubs,' which originally was a song we thought we were going to do before TLC recorded it. We're like sisters at this point, so we know how the other one works and we play off each other very well. When it comes to music, we kind of think the same way. Our vibes are similar, when it comes to lyric and melody. It just flows."
Warning: video contains profanity
The women have since dropped a fierce video for the song, co-directed by Kai Jones and Jammyra LauRance.
"We weren't intending to do a full-out video," Burruss explains to PEOPLE of the clip. "I called Tiny and was like, 'I'm going to have someone come film us recording the song in the studio,' thinking that would be the video, but then it ended up being a full production."
"Tiny was like, 'You can't never do anything regular. You always got to go above and beyond,' " Burruss says, laughing.
In the end, Jermaine liked the track, Burruss says — though made the case that Xscape's 1998 song "My Little Secret" was "way more toxic" than Dvsn's song. "I was like, 'That is so long ago, that doesn't count!'" Burruss jokes.
Prince Williams/Getty Images Nineteen85 and Daniel Daley of Dvsn
As for Dvsn, the group — made up of singer Daniel Daley and producer Nineteen85 — have defended "If I Get Caught," explaining that it's part of a bigger story that will be told on their upcoming album.
"The album's in story form. The part of the story where you have remorse and accountability, it just hasn't happened yet," Daley told Complex. "This is the moment of ego. This isn't the remorseful, 'oh baby, please' song."
They also pushed back at the notion that the song is toxic. "Toxic is the word thrown around anytime we get into topics that are a little taboo or conversations people don't want to have. Some of these things aren't necessarily toxic; they're just very real or uncomfortable," Nineteen85 told Rated R&B.
"Honesty should never be looked at as toxicity," Daley added, to the outlet. "I don't think that somebody being transparent about their flaws should be looked at as toxic. What's toxic is someone [with] a bunch of flaws acting like they have none."
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Either way, Burruss is just happy to be part of the conversation.
"A lot of other people have been doing response records to Dvsn's song as well, so it's been cool that we helped kick that off," she tells PEOPLE. "And doing it made Tiny and I want to do more music together. So it's a win for us all around."
"If U Get Caught" is available now wherever music is sold and streamed.
