Kandi Burruss & Tamar Braxton Have an Awkward Moment During Essence Fest

Watching Tamar Braxton and Kandi Burruss try to play nice during a photo op may be one of the funniest things you see all day.

They were lined up on stage alongside greats like Brandy, Monica, and Missy Elliott -- who was awarded the Essence Icon Award -- for Essence Fest's Black Women in Music ceremony on Sunday ... and had an awkward little moment before cameras started flashing.

You can see in the clip, Tamar reaches across Monica to grab Kandi's hand to say hi ... but Kandi clearly wasn't here for it.

She also touched Monica's wrist ... but the "The Boy is Mine" singer was not down to fake a smile, it seems.

Tamar and Kandi's beef goes way back ... they ran in the same circles for decades, since they were both coming up as R&B artists at the same time.

In 2017, Kandi’s band Xscape went on tour with Tamar and Monica, and it turns out there was tension on the road.

When Kandi and Tamar were later on the same season of "Celebrity Big Brother," they both discussed their issues from tour.

Tamar said she was going through some personal and professional issues at the time and thought Kandi was sticking her nose where it didn't belong.

Meanwhile, Kandi claimed she and her group weren't being mean to Tamar ... but she had been interpreting it that way.

Since then, they've traded shots over the years. Tamar claimed Kandi and had threatened her, and Kandi called Tamar a "clown."