Movies

Movies, Music

Classic TLC Hit Features on Captain Marvel Soundtrack

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One of the best achievements of Marvel’s ’90s-set Captain Marvel is the film’s ability to tap into that zeitgeist of the the decade without making it feel like frivolous nostalgia.

The first title film for a female superhero in the MCU succeeds in capturing an era when acts like Garbage and TLC and No Doubt were challenging the testosterone-heavy dominant sound of the early decade.

Captain Marvel makes use of one of TLC’s biggest hits, “Waterfalls.” This 1995 single was a perfect storm of radio-friendly grooves under poetic and timely lyrics highlighting the AIDS crisis, gang violence, and drug addiction.

It was particularly bolstered by its million-dollar music video directed by filmmaker F. Gary Gray, which visualized the song’s dramatic themes and had the group transform into literal waterfalls via some then-cutting-edge Terminator 2-style CGI.

Captain Marvel features far more advanced visual effects and less real-world drama, but its use of the song as Carol Danvers and Nick Fury drive into the desert toward danger feels nonetheless appropriate.

Captain Marvel is the first Marvel film in which the soundtrack serves more of a thematic purpose. It’s also worth telling that this was the first Marvel movie to be scored by a female composer.

These are the songs featured in Captain Marvel:

“Crazy on You” – Heart

“Kiss Me Deadly” – Lita Ford

“Whatta Man” – Salt-N-Pepa featuring En Vogue

“Connection” – Elastica

“Only Happy When It Rains” – Garbage

“Crush With Eyeliner” – REM

“Waterfalls” – TLC

“You Gotta Be” – Des’ree

“Come As You Are” – Nirvana

“Just A Girl” – No Doubt

“Man on the Moon” – REM

“Celebrity Skin” – Hole

Captain Marvel is out now!
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Movies, Review

TLC: In The Movies!

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Besides creating hit records, T-Boz, Left Eye and Chilli have always expressed their interests in acting since the beginning. Very early on in their careers, they have stated they wanted to see TLC toys on the market, a TLC cartoon and each member wanted to be in the movies one day!

We’re celebrating the many movie roles the ladies of TLC have been cast in over the years, both as a group and individually!

House Party 3 (1994)

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TLC made their feature-film debut in the 3rd instalment of the hit House Party comedy franchise along with the rap duo Kid N Play.

TLC played the role of a group called Sex As A Weapon, and performed at the end of the movie with Kid N Play in the song “Make Noize“.

 

Belly (1998)

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During TLC’s downtime between albums, Left Eye was a host for the MTV show The Cut, Chilli gave birth to her son Tron, and T-Boz decided to take up the opportunity to star in the Hype Williams movie Belly.

She played the role of Tionne, the girlfriend of Sincere (played by Nas). Tionne urged Sincere to drop the gang lifestyle and live a better life to have a future with his family.

 

 

Hav’Plenty (1998)

Chilli plays the cameo role of Kris in Tru Love, an in-film movie based on the story being told, based on an eventful weekend in the life of Lee Plenty.

She shares the hilarious cameo scene with Lauryn Hill, Nia Long, Mehki Phifer and Shemar Moore.

 

A Diva’s Christmas Carol (2000)

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Based on the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol, Vanessa Williams plays the role of Ebony Scrooge, an ego-driven pop singer who gets a reality check by three Christmas spirits.

Chilli plays the role of Marli Jacob, a member of Ebony’s girl group Desire. Marli died in a car crash and haunts Ebony in a bid to help her change her selfish ways!

Chilli / A Diva's Christmas Carol

Chilli performs an original song with the group called “Heartquake“.

 

 

Snow Day (2000)

In the Nickelodeon movie Snow Day, Chilli plays the cameo role of Mona, a friend of Laura Brandston, who is struggling to juggle a business career and family duties — an act which becomes more complicated when the storm forces her to simultaneously telecommute and harness the undisciplined energy of her youngest child.

An unexpected snowstorm buries Syracuse, New York, the kids celebrate a day off from school while their elders mourn the inconvenience.

 

 

Bamboozled (2000)

Bamboozled is a satirical comedy-drama film written and directed by Spike Lee about a modern televised minstrel show featuring black actors with blackface makeup and the resulting violent fallout from the show’s success.

Left Eye has an uncredited cameo in a club scene with co-star Savion Glover, filmed during an afterparty for the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards.

Despite never being able to fully fulfil her movie ambitions, Lisa once auditioned for a part in the movie Josie & The Pussycats, as did Aaliyah and Beyonce!

 

 

Love Song (2000)

Love Song is an MTV original movie. A privileged, black college student Camille (Monica) with a fiance falls in love with a white musician (Christian Kane) she meets on her 21st birthday.

Chilli plays the role of a house director.

 

 

Ticker (2001)

Grieving narcotics agent Ray Nettles (Tom Sizemore) and police Detective Art Rice (Nas) are assigned to investigate a series of horrific bombings that have rocked the city of San Francisco.

When Nettles discovers that these acts of terror are the work of notorious IRA agent Alex Swan (Dennis Hopper), he enlists the help of explosives expert Frank Glass (Steven Seagal).

Chilli plays the cameo role as Lilly, a friend of Art Rice, trying to earn a living for her baby.

 

 

CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story (2013)

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T-Boz and Chilli both served as executive producers for the timeless biopic about being part of one of the biggest girl groups in music history — from their own perspectives!

Drew Sidora was chosen to portray T-Boz; Keke Palmer as Chilli; and rapper Lil Mama played Left Eye. CrazySexyCool went on to become the highest rated original movie on VH1.

T-Boz and Chilli make an appearance at the end of the movie as themselves whilst recording the movies theme song, “Meant To Be“, produced and written by Ne-Yo.

 

Trolland / Trollz (2016)

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Fenn the Troll (Ja Rule) hates the Troll pastime of pranking, and is teased so much for it by Jarvik (T-Boz) and friends that he runs away. But when a long-suffering park ranger starts capturing the other Trolls, it’s up to Fenn to rescue his family and friends! Featuring an all star line-up including Jerry O’Connell, Dick Van Dyke and Chris Daughtry.

T-Boz has previously done voiceover work in an animation in 2014 for Black Dynamite.

 

Marshall (2017)

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Set in 1940, a young Thurgood Marshall (Chadwick Boseman) faces one of his greatest challenges while working as a lawyer for the NAACP. Marshall travels to conservative Connecticut when wealthy socialite Eleanor Strubing accuses black chauffeur Joseph Spell of sexual assault and attempted murder. He soon teams up with Sam Friedman (Josh Gad), a local Jewish lawyer who’s never handled a criminal case.

Zora Neale Hurston (Chilli) shows up briefly in a fun scene with Langston Hughes (Jussie Smollett). 

 

 

That’s a wrap, for now!

Whilst we wait for the ladies to take up more movie roles, you can catch T-Boz regularly playing the role of Sheila Watkins on Days Of Our Lives on NBC.

Chilli is working on her own healthy cooking show, Fix My Plate,  set to air in 2019.

Anniversary, Movies, Review

T-Boz Celebrates 20 Years of Belly with Nas at ComplexCon

Leon@TLCArmy Leave a comment

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In 1998, on November 4, a classic hip-hop movie was born. The music video director genius, Hype Williams, decided to make his feature-film debut, and with a little help from his musician friends, Belly became a cult classic, 20 years on.

To assist in telling the story, which follows the catastrophic web of drugs and money that spans from New York City to Jamaica, Hype carefully selected a handful of artists he knew would fulfill the roles, including Method Man & Ghostface Killah of Wu-Tang Clan.

DMX (who Hype insisted he play the role of Tommy instead of Jay-Z), Nas and the talented Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins, who was able to keep her own government name in the movie.

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Fast forwarding 20 years to present day, the movie has managed to stand the test of time.

ComplexCon invited the on-screen couple T-Boz and Nas, who play the characters Tionne and Sincere in the movie, to join the ComplexCon event to discuss the importance of Belly, two decades later, along with the director, Hype Williams.

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T-Boz informed the panel that Belly had achieved cult status, according to her peers. “It’s a big deal. That’s what I hear on the streets, that’s what everyone says to me. You know, Boyz N The Hood, Menace To Society and Belly is now added to that, so I thought that was pretty awesome“.

“It’s like Tionne said”, Nas co-signs. “It’s like a hood classic thing. That’s really a serious title to have. That’s better than anything we could ask for.”

Nas and T-Boz went on to thank Hype Willams for giving them the opportunity to star in the movie. “I just wanna say about Hype“, Tionne interjects, “it’s awesome  to have people who are visionaries and leaders, not followers.”

“Because if he had listened to everybody else and not did what was in his heart and what he wanted to do — he sparked off a lot of things for a lot of us, it takes people like that to make us thrive. He did some major stuff in this industry and he deserves all of his props“.

Nas echoed those sentiments. “Hype took a chance with us. He felt that we were the people that fit inside his vision. He could of got some top actors, everybody was a fan of his work, but he comes from music and he saw us. So, I appreciate him for that!“.

Touching on that undeniable chemistry Nas and T-Boz had on-screen, Nas shared his feelings on working with T! “This is T-Boz of TLC, like, the biggest group in the world!“, Nas exclaims. “Everyone liked TLC, like, each member, so I was lit because I get to have T-Boz as my girl, I was on fire! It was crazy! It was dope.“

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Belly didn’t go down well with the critics at the time it was released, but hip-hop fans ensured the movie achieved the success it deserved at the box office and in history.

Tionne received praise for being a Ride Or Die chick for her man, Sincere, when she pulled her gun out on gangsters in her house, sternly telling them to “get the fuck out of my house!“, and for having intellectual conversations with him to help him give up the drug life and enough was enough.

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Complex gave it’s verdict on how the roles were portrayed by the actors, and they gave T-Boz a very healthy grade B:

T-Boz, playing Sincere’s girlfriend and baby’s mother, is kinda good. She makes great concerned faces, like when Kionna is expressing concern about Buns during a heart-to-heart walk or when she visits Kionna in jail (a scene that works especially well because, like most of Belly’s best scenes, there’s no dialogue).

Elsewhere, she doesn’t sound like she’s reading from a teleprompter during her moments with Nas. (This is more than you can say about Nas.) It’s sweet when Sincere asks her if she loves him, and she says that of course she does. She also has great platinum-white hair.