XSCAPE : There’s More Singin’ Comin’ at ‘Cha

“Just Kickin’ It,” the first single by Xscape, has been one of the year’s biggest hits--a record that catapulted the Atlanta hip-hop vocal quartet into prominence.

So what could they possibly have against the song?

“It doesn’t show off our singing,” says Kandi Burruss, 17. “We didn’t want it as the first single. People listen to it and think we can’t sing.”

She has a point. “Just Kickin’ It” emphasizes slick production, male background singing, loping rhythms and languid mood rather than Xscape’s vocals.

Adds the group’s oldest member, 20-year-old LaTocha Scott: “We’re not glamour girls or polished beauty queens. We’re not selling sex. We’re singers. We started off singing in church. We can sing as well as any group out there.”

That’s no idle boast. Check out their debut album, “Hummin’ Comin’ at ‘Cha” on So So Def/Columbia Records--a pop Top 40 fixture since it came out nearly two months ago--and listen to such ballads as “Tonight” and “Understanding,” which is the next single. Those vocals are superior to anything on “Kickin’.”

Downplaying that song, Burruss stresses, is not meant as a rap against its producer, Jermaine Dupri. Without him the group, which originated at Atlanta’s Tri-City Performing Arts High School, might still be stuck in talent-show limbo, hoping for a break.

Dupri--also the creative force behind Kris Kross--first noticed Xscape nearly two years ago when they were still raw but promising. “He was busy with Kris Kross at the time,” Burruss says. “He said he was interested, but we never really thought he’d call us again.”

But he did, offering the group--which also includes Scott’s sister, Tamika, and Tameka Cottle, both 18--a record deal early this year. “At the time, we were going nowhere fast and were in an ugly hassle with a manager,” Scott recalls. “All these other producers were talking big and making promises and doing nothing. Jermaine really came through.”

Xscape’s next hurdle is touring, something Burruss approaches with mixed emotions.

“We haven’t done that much performing so I get very nervous about singing in front of a lot of people who pay good money to see us,” she says. “But I love the fact that people will be able to see that we can really sing.”