TLC: How America’s Most Favorite Girl Band Lost Its Magic

In 2017, the famous American girl band TLC started a Kickstarter fund for their final self-titled Album "TLC."

The thought that once-upon-a -time mighty TLC would fundraise to afford the production of an album may not make sense unless you go back in time to see what happened to arguably one of the most successful (ironic), iconic, popular, and best-selling American girl bands of all time.

This is the story of TLC

The original name of the group we know today as TLC was Second Nature, and comprised a trio of three girls wearing baggy clothes: Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins, Crystal Jones, and Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes.

Their manager at that time Perri “Pebbles” Reid was married to producer Antonio Reid who worked on their music. Pebbles felt the name Second Nature wasn’t catchier enough and suggested the group go with Tender Loving Care (TLC) drawn from the first letter of their first names.

There are different accounts on why Pebbles decided to drop Crystal from the group. One account, from Pebbles’s side was that Chrystal couldn’t sing. According to Chrystal, she was dropped because she asked to take the agreement Pebbles had asked the three girls to her mother for advice.

Around the same time, there was an R&B group called Damiane Dame, and one of their backup singers was Rozonda Ocelean Thomas. Thomas was known for her electrifying energy, beauty, and poise. She was signed up to replace Chrystal and nicknamed "Chilli" to maintain the group name TLC.

TLC became an instant success. Their music touched on hitherto taboo topics like rape culture, women empowerment, and AIDS. If you recall in the 1990s, Kenyans would jokingly say the acronym AIDS meant: "Aibu Imeingia Dunia Sasa." In America, TLC was a prominent advocate of safe sex as a way to averting AIDS. Left Eye would often wear “matharaita”, or condoms attached to her clothes and glasses to promote safe sex. This boldness and social awareness became a driving force in the growth of their popularity.

Meanwhile, while TLC was basking in the glory of their first Album, Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes was dating American Football wide receiver, Andre Rison, who played for the Atlanta Falcons. Their romance was the talk of the town. According to the Los Angeles Times, every magazine talked about tales of their romance. This relationship helped TLC's visibility as the more tabloids covered Left Eye, the more exposure the girl band had.

However, the ugly reality of the relationship would soon shock the world.

According to Rolling Stones, behind the smiles and incredible voice, and talent, Left Eye was in an abusive relationship. In addition, she was battling alcoholism, having had her first experiment with an adult beverage at fifteen.

The Chicago Tribune writes that one day Rison and Left Eye got into a heated argument,where Rison got physically abusive. To inflict revenge, Left Eye set his expensive sneakers on flames. However, the fire spread quickly and burned down Rison's $2 million mansion.

Left Eye was arrested on the charges of first-degree arson and fined $10,000.

While Left Eye was in the news for the wrong/right reasons, this publicity was helping TLC. To them, it was an opportunity to strike the iron when it was hot. Amidst the Left Eye drama, TLC released their second album Crazy Sexy Cool. This album included songs like No Scrubs and Waterfalls.

The song Waterfalls was personal for Left Eye. She played an instrumental role in its writing for she was dealing with relationship problems with Rison. The lyrics in Waterfalls touches on different topical issues. For example, the first stanza talks about a mother-and-son relationship. The son is chasing "waterfalls" (money and respect by dealing drugs), but his mother knows this will end in, cue it, premium tears.

Isitoshe,

The second stanza deals with a man's relationship with a woman. His "waterfall" is casual sex - he has a "natural obsession for temptation." This could mean he is cheating on someone, or the woman he is seeing is cheating on someone. Either way, he contracts HIV and dies ("three letters took him to his final resting place").

The Crazy Sexy Cool, to this day has sold over album 23 million copies. It is the best selling album in America by a girl band, and second internationally (to Spice Girls). The Chicago Tribune attributes the success of the album to the drama pitting Left Eye with Rison.

The irony is that while the album was breaking records in sales, the girls were broke. In fact people assumed TLC were swimming in cash. After winning the Record of year award at the 1996 Grammys, Chilli revealed something that shocked the world: the girls were broke! In an interview, she said:

"We have been in this business for five years, and we are broke as broke can be."

If TLC had relatives in Kenya, those relatives would have been texting and asking " Si utume kakitu na Ng'ombe ilizaa..."

With acuity of hindsight, TLC were scoring an own goal with the song Scrubs. There is a line where they say:

“If you don't have a car and you're walking

Oh yes son, I'm talking to you

If you live at home with your momma.”

The irony is that most of the group members lived with their mothers, and couldn’t afford to buy a car!

I will tell you why. Keep reading

Remember earlier I mentioned Chrystal said she was removed from the group because she wanted her mom to go over the contract with Pebbles? I kind of believe her.

The girls never read the fine print of their contract. All they wanted was to advance in the music business. They forgot that in the music business, it is not what you sing, but what you sign up for. When they signed their deal, the fine print read that management company led by Pebbles would take all the revenue and cater for all the expenses of the girls. Various reports say that Pebbles company made in the north of $100 million, while the girls received only $50,000.

The $50,000 is the money Left Eye used to pay for the property damages in the arson case. Lisa Lopes was dealing with health issues and whatever little money she got was spent on medical bills.

This admission by Chilli shocked America and the world. It was the first time the exploitation of musicians was being showcased to the world.

The girls asked Pebbles and her management company to review and improve the existing contract, but the company refused. The girls were adamant things had to change. Because of this stalemate and with creditors on their necks, TLC filed for Bankruptcy. In an interview with ABC News, T-Boz noted that the girls had to borrow $15,000 in order to file for bankruptcy. She said:

“We were so broke we could not afford to go broke. We had to borrow money so we could be recognized as broke”

The ensuing public outcry resulting from TLC accusations forced Pebbles to cut ties with the girl

band. And her marriage to Reid came to an end.

Sadly, conflict amongst the members became the order of the day. The three members were speaking from different pages. The beginning of the end was neigh for TLC. However, the group put their differences aside to work on the 1999 Album Fanmail which received 8 Grammy nominations in 2000.

In 2002, Lisa Lopes died in a deadly car crash in Honduras. She had gone there for a spiritual retreat to reconcile with her bandmates.

In Kiswahili there is a saying “Unyasi moja ukitoka nyumba haivunji. In the case of TLC, the death of Lisa Lopes affected the direction of the band, and they were never the same again.

In 2013, TLC’s biopic was released and received great reviews. One person who wasn’t impressed: Pebbles. She sued Viacom because the remaining members of TLC painted her in negative light. She was asking for $40M in damages. The case was settled out of court