Nicki Minaj is celebrating 15 years in the music business this year, and is riding high on the Billboard charts with her record-breaking number one smash hit single, “Super Freaky Girl“.
Nicki spoke to Jada Pinkett-Smith this week for publication Interview Magazine (Oct 18). During the interview, Nicki opened up about how she is balancing motherhood with being a super force in the music industry, whilst remaining true to her artistic legacy.
She also shared her views on what she thinks about the current state of the music industry today. “I wish there was some more singing. I remember listening to Monica’s first album, for instance, and I couldn’t put it down. Or, of course, ‘The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill‘.”
Nicki also touched on how she wishes the new era of rappers focused more on originality. “So many new artists are trying to become the person they looked up to instead of giving us a new flavor. And it’s irking the crap out of me!”, Nicki admits during the interview. “I know I could see so much talent in some of the new artists, females, males, whatever. But they lose me when I’m seeing the person who they are trying to be like or sound like more than I’m seeing who they are.”
While discussing the rappers that came before and inspired her to become a rapper herself, Nicki explains that each artist stood out and sounded much different to the next artist. “When I started falling in love with rap, I felt like everybody was their own unique thing. Whether it was the Jay-Z‘s and the DMX‘s or the Wu-Tang Clan‘s or the Nas‘s or the Pac‘s or the Biggies.”
“Even the female rappers, whether it was Eve, MC Lyte, who I’ve always loved, even Left Eye’s voice was so unique, to Salt-N-Pepa. [Lil] Kim and Foxy [Brown] never even sounded alike to me. Everyone had their own thing.”
Left Eye in the Calvin Klein Jeans campaign (1998)
Although we know Nicki has praised her inspirations in the past, it’s always a blessing to see her acknowledge Left Eye, as we know Left Eye gets heavily overlooked when it comes to the industry acknowledging legendry female rappers and respecting her work and talent.
Despite being a member of TLC, Left Eye still made sure her style and creativity stood out in the group and on features with other artists. If she was still here today, she would have loved Nicki Minaj — maybe even blessed us with a collaboration. One can dream.
The Atlanta-based LaFace Records had high hopes for their supergroup TLC after the multi-platinum success of their debut album, ‘Ooooooohhh… on the TLC tip‘ in 1992 and were keen to surpass the sales with the follow-up release, 1994’s ‘CrazySexyCool‘.
That diamond-certified album was led by the single that blessed the group with their first Billboard #1 single, “Creep“. However, the LaFace Records label head Antonio “L.A.” Reid was very close to not going ahead with the track as a single at all, after a few subpar attempts at funding a music video to bring the single to life.
TLC, L.A Reid and Pebbles (1992)
The first music video for “Creep” that Reid commissioned in 1994 was directed by Craig Henry (responsible for directing “Flavor In Ya Ear” by Craig Mack) and was shot on location in Atlanta. Not feeling satisfied with the outcome of the video he went ahead and hired Lionel C. Martin to shoot the second attempt in Los Angeles. Martin had previously directed TLC videos including the debut single, “Ain’t 2 Proud 2 Beg“, it’s follow-up, “What About Your Friends?“, and “Get It Up” from the Janet Jackson movie soundtrack, ‘Poetic Justice‘ in 1993.
After spending so much money on two music videos that didn’t do the single very much justice, Reid turned to his friend Sean “Diddy” Combs for some advice. Speaking with the Questlove Supreme podcast earlier this week, Reid admitted he was ready to pull the plug on the single release of “Creep” after feeling ’embarrassed’ about his failed attempts at securing a successful music video.
“We shot a video for “Creep” — it wasn’t very good. I was like, ‘damn’. So, we shot a second video for “Creep”, again wasn’t very good, so I was like, ‘fu*k, now I’m in trouble”, Reid reveals. “We shot two videos and they weren’t good and the world never saw them. I was embarrassed so I switched singles. “Creep” is no longer the single, so we’re gonna go with this song called “Kick Your Game” that Jermaine Dupri did”.
T-Boz, L.A Reid and Left Eye (1996)
Clive Davis, head of Arista Records and parent company to LaFace Records put his foot down after hearing Reid’s plan to change singles. “Hold it, hold it hold it! Why are you changing singles? What is this? What is behind this, you have to explain!” Dallas Austin, the producer of “Creep” was also unhappy with Reid not wanting to release his track as the first single. “He knew he had a great record, so I had to come clean”, Reid admits. “Well, truth be told, I made two horrible videos and I’m just too embarrassed to tell everybody. Clive just said, ‘get it right’.”
“So, I’m sitting with Diddy one day at the Helmsley Palace Hotel in New York, and I play him the TLC video that’s not good. He looks at me like, ‘oh my God, yo, this is horrible’, which does not make me feel any better about it”, Reid continues. “While I’m showing him the video on one television, on the other television was a video with Salt ‘N Pepa and En Vogue called “Whatta Man“, and it looks way better that our video. I looked at the video and said, ‘Who directed that?!’ It was Matthew Rolston. I called Matthew and asked him to do the “Creep” video — we got it right the third time. But we threw two videos away to get to the good one”.
When he was questioned if TLC had to pay back the costs for all of the music videos shot for “Creep”, Reid coyly responded. “Let’s look at it like this, we sell ten million albums — if you want the truth, I don’t know! That’s how I got my ass in trouble, because I didn’t know”, he admits. “I’m so good trying to make a great record, trying to get a great video, I’m spending people’s money and not realising it”.
While TLC held down the girl group side of the label, Outkast were the Kings of LaFace Records. Reid admits that hip-hop wasn’t his territory, so he put his faith in his artists like Outkast and Goodie Mob and what they brought to the table with guidance from Rico Wade of Organized Noize. When Outkast reached multi-platinum success with the ‘Stankonia‘ album, their working partnership became distanced before the next multi-platinum album was released, 2003’s ‘Speakerboxxx/The Love Below‘, which was a combination of two solo albums by the Outkast members, Big Boi and Andre 3000.
Chilli in Outkast’s “So Fresh So Clean” video
Similarities to this project were notable to the TLC solo album challenge that Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes had proposed to her group members Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins and Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas late in 1999, when Lopes felt her talent was not being utilised in the group the way she had wanted, so she wanted to present herself more freely with a solo project. Although her TLC sisters rejected the idea, Lopes continued her solo journey with the release of her debut solo album, ‘Supernova‘ in 2001, a project Reid admits he wasn’t blown away by.
Reid stated that the TLC solo challenge didn’t get very far as the group were stronger together as a unit. “T-Boz had made a couple of solo songs [“Touch Myself” (1996) and “My Getaway” (2000)], and it was pretty clear to me that it was the ensemble that was the magic”, Reid admits. “I love T-Boz — I love them all but I have a particular love for her style, that raspy voice, she was the only girl I’ve seen approach it like a guy — I just thought she was so dope. But it was the ensemble that was the winner there. Lisa made a solo album before she passed away — may she rest in peace, I miss her so much.”
“She made a solo album — I wasn’t blown away by it. I didn’t think it was incredible at all. It was the kind of music that — I should have loved it if it were good”, Reid states his thoughts on the ‘Supernova’ project. “It wasn’t something that was outside of my thing. The way I describe Goodie Mob as outside of my thing, so I have to defer to them. [‘Supernova’] wasn’t outside of my sweet spot, I just didn’t think it was great. Chilli didn’t actually try to make a solo record as far as I can remember until many, many years later. So that [solo challenge] didn’t get very far”.
Despite Reid’s dissatisfaction in the Lopes solo project, he released the album overseas in the UK, Australia and Japan. On Lisa’s birthday May 27, 2022, her youngest sister Reigndrop Lopes announced that the Lopes family were aiming to release the ‘Supernova’ album to streaming platforms on August 16 as Lisa had originally wanted.
TLC in 1994 (Dah Len)
Reid reveals the secret to how he brought out the best of each of the producers for the ‘CrazySexyCool’ album and that he took a step back from music production to focus on the business side of the label whilst his LaFace partner Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds continued with the writing and production side.
“I had all of the producers on ‘CrazySexyCool’ competing and they didn’t really know it. I had Dallas working on it first, he was the architect, then I go and play it for Jermaine Dupri and go, ‘I know you can beat this’, then he did his piece”, Reid admits. “Then Kenny is competitive. You don’t need to put a battery in Kenny’s back, he’s so competitive so he sent his songs in. And then, I went to Rico Wade last and said, ‘here’s what everybody else gave me, what you got?’
“And he came up with “Waterfalls“.
Would you have liked a TLC triple solo album? Did you like the early “Creep” videos?
TLC are celebrating their 30th anniversary in style this year. Fresh from an overseas tour in UK & Europe earlier this year, and a sold out tour in Hawaii last week, T-Boz and Chilli are ready to return down under in sunny Australia!
Ever since their first Australian venture back in 2014, the girls have become regulars in Oz, performing sold shows both solo and as part of the RNB Fridays lineups over the years. Their last Australian tour was as recent as 2018 for RNB Vine Days.
RNB Fridays has undergone a bit of a makeover this year and has changed the name of ‘Australia’s biggest party’ to Fridayz Live! TLC will be joining the party down under this November on the 4, 5, 6, 11 and 12. Tickets went on sale on August 12.
Joining TLC on the tour will be Macklemore, Shaggy, Ashanti, Craig David, Jay Sean, Lumidee, Dru Hill and Akon amongst others. Hosted by Fatman Scoop and radio personality Abbie Chatfield, whilst Havana Brown and Yo! Mafia will be behind the DJ decks.
Speaking to the Today Show this morning, Chilli explained how much she loves seeing a new generation of younger fans enjoying their music, 30 years later. “It touches both of us in a way, it’s hard to explain, it just pulls at your heartstrings to see little one’s [enjoying TLC music]”, Chilli said. “They weren’t even born when we first came out, in fact, they weren’t even thought about! It’s amazing.”
T-Boz explained how she feels when the reality sinks in that they have been rocking TLC for 30 years. “Everytime someone says it out loud it’s sounds like a whole other lifetime, like wow, three decades”, T-Boz exclaims. “But it’s still a blessing, to still be here selling out tours, doing shows and living life the way that we are, it’s a blessing”.
One of the many highlights in their 30 year career was being the focal point of fashion during the 90’s. “When we set out to do this originally in the beginning we would say things like, ‘we’re gonna be trendsetters, people are gonna dress like us’, but to see it actually come to fruition and happen is a whole other level”, T-Boz states. “We kinda ran the 90’s with the fashion. We would have Donna Karen and people like that would have our silk pajamas [from the ‘Creep’ video] up there like, this is where fashion is going. Just hearing things like that is amazing”.
“Even like the Spice Girls and Scary Spice [Mel B]”, Chilli adds, “it’s an honor that people want to dress like you or be inspired by you”.
Fridayz Live 2022 dates are:
NOVEMBER Friday 4 – Melbourne, Rod Laver Arena Saturday 5 – Perth, HBF Park Sunday 6 – Adelaide, Entertainment Centre Friday 11 – Brisbane, Showgrounds Saturday 12 – Sydney, Giants Stadium
On the 20th anniversary of the passing of the legendary Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, her sister Reigndrop Lopes took some time out to speak with Essence about her memories of Lisa and forthcoming plans the Lopes family have in store to keep Lisa’s memory alive.
Reigndrop informs the publication that she is still in the process of producing a biopic based on the life of her superstar sister, but she wants to place emphasis on the positive side of Lisa, who was a fun-loving sister-friend with a heart of gold.
Although Lisa was featured in the VH1 biopic, ‘CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story‘ in 2013, Reigndrop wants to go deeper into Lisa’s character with the individual biopic. “I just want to tell the real story,” Reigndrop says. “The story of how she grew up, how she became who she was and then her journey to change from who she was as to who she wanted to be.”
Reigndrop, Lisa & Ronald Lopes
The production team behind the Lisa Lopes biopic includes Elizabeth Hubbard, an executive producer for the Grammy and Oscar-winning ‘Summer of Soul’ documentary. No release date has been set as of yet for the work-in-progress project.
As for some new Left Eye music, Reigndrop assures fans that the Lopes family will indeed release some new music for the world to hear. “We do have some unreleased music. We will release it. I’m not sure if it’s going to be with an album, but we’ll definitely get it out for sure.”
Reigndrop posted a heartfelt tribute to her sister on the 20th anniversary of her passing, where she also teased that there was more Left Eye material to come. “20 Years ago you transcended & Left me The Legacy 2 B Continued… Eye Am My Sisters Keeper! There’s More 2 come!!! Eye Hope Eye Make You Proud! ENERGY NEVER DIES…”
Fans are still eagerly waiting for the Lopes family to release Lisa’s debut solo album, ‘Supernova‘ from 2001 which still remains globally unreleased and has no digital presence on streaming platforms. Reigndrop has previously stated that she wants to release the album at the right time and revealed that the family indeed own the masters to the album. “Timing is everything, it’s going to come out when it’s supposed to come out”, she told fans last year.
So, how does Reigndrop want Lisa to be remembered? “[What] I want the world to remember most is Lisa’s spirit. She was a giver,” Reigndrop says. “She loved to help the underdog. It’s like, if people weren’t drawn to you, she would be drawn to you just because of the fact that she just always saw something in you that other people didn’t.”
Reigndrop accepted a Lifetime Achievement award on behalf of Lisa earlier this year and we will hopefully look forward to seeing more Lisa Lopes attributed honors throughout the year on the 20th anniversary since she transcended.
Read more from Reigndrop’s Essence interview here.
Shop Reigndrop’s accessories dedicated to Lisa here.
Partial proceeds will go to the Lisa Lopes Foundation, which benefits families in need.
Leon@TLCArmy
TLC-Army.com 