Kandi Burruss is speaking out about Britney Spears’ claims that Justin Timberlake would sometimes put on a “blaccent” while talking to other artists.
Burruss, who co-wrote *NSYNC’s 2000 song “It Makes Me Ill,” weighed in on the trending topic and shared, “I don’t want anybody to, like, [put] down Justin because you’ve got to remember the times that we were going through at the time,” the “Real Housewives of Atlanta” star told Page Six exclusively at BravoCon 2023 on Friday. “That era of pop and R&B, it was a lot of boy bands that did, like, urban music, urban routines and dancing, the whole image. That was in at the time, and nobody was passing judgment.”
She also added that a lot of “people are getting canceled” these days for things that were not “a problem” years ago. “I just feel like that was young Justin. Leave him alone, y’all,” she said. “He was a really, really good guy.” As we previously reported, In Britney’s memoir the singer claimed JT, and the rest of his *NSYNC bandmates, were transfixed by Hip-Hop and made it a point to surround themselves with Black artists; Britney also said they often “tried too hard to fit in.”
Britney then recalls an experience she had with JT and Ginuwine while in New York City. She said during the run-in with the “Pony” singer, JT got a little too excited and awkwardly began speaking in slang and ebonics toward the R&B legend.
Michelle, via Britney, narrates, “One day, [Justin] and I were in New York, going to parts of town that I’d never been to before. Walking our way was a guy wearing a huge blinged-out medallion. He was flanked by two giant security guards. [Justin] got all excited and said so loud, ‘Oh yeah. Fo’ shizz. Fo’ shizz. Ginuwine what’s up homie?’”
She adds, “After Ginuwine walked away, Felicia did an impression of [Justin], ‘Oh yeah. Fo’ shizz. Fo’ shizz. Ginuwine…’ [Justin] wasn’t even embarrassed. He just took it and looked at her like, ‘F**k you.’”