TLC were honored with an exclusive Mural dedication and art expedition on October 9, 2022 in their home city of Atlanta, GA. The event served as part of Atlanta’s 2022 ELEVATE Open Spaces Art Festival.
Good As Burgers, Can I Kick Itand Press Play Entertainmentwere the hosts of the community block party and outdoor art mural dedication to multi-platinum, award-winning R&B recording group TLC. The event highlighted Atlanta’s music scene and art culture while bringing awareness to significant issues affecting the community.
This was the first public art mural dedicated to the legendary group in their hometown of Atlanta. As well as the mural unveiling event, there was also a free VIP Experience before the festivities. Creative agency CAN I KICK IT were the hosts of an interactive art and merchandise experience for VIP registrants featuring lots of TLC personal memorabilia, art pieces, merchandise and displays of other notable hip-hop artists from the Atlanta scene.
Attendees were treated to some performances by rapper Neshanycee and a special dance performance by the D4YL Kids, choreographed by the former TLC dancer Naeemah MC, who also did a phenomenal dance off performance!
BabyFaceBud presents TLC, Reigndrop and Snow with their gifts
Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins and Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas finally graced the stage after being introduced by King K of the Crown ME Empire served as the event MC host. Friends and peers of TLC took some time to pay homage to the legends including Inga S Willis, Shanti Das, Ian Burke, Ryan Cameron and Mayor of Atlanta Andre Dickens.
“It’s just crazy. I’m excited to see what this looks like,” Ian Burke told The Atlanta Voice. “New York immortalizes their heroes all the time, it’s about time that Atlanta follows suit. There are a lot of people that have influenced the nation worldwide. It’s important that our heroes are immortalized in this way.”
TLC and their closest friends and family with the mural revealArtist Shawn Stewart gifts his portrait to TLC
Long-time TLC fan Allon Plummer also spoke with the publication. “I’ve been a die-hard fan since I was a child, I am currently 37 years old and they were the first people I saw on VH1 and fell in love with them,” Plummer said. “This mural is another chapter in history. They have impacted everything from safe sex to how to stand up for your beliefs.”
TLC fan Allon Plummer & T-Boz
The talented BudBox creator De’Anthony aka BabyFaceBud presented a set of exclusive and individually personalized plaques to T-Boz, Chilli, and a 3rd plaque made for Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes was accepted by her sister, Reigndrop Lopes, and was gifted to Lisa’s best friend, Trena Smith and god daughter Jakia “Snow” Smith.
Talented artist Shawn Stewart presented an exclusive portrait of TLC on stage to T-Boz and Chilli, and vowed to create another portrait so that they don’t have to share the one he made. Another talented artist from Atlanta Jerell Gantt lent his talents to the event and commemorated the occasion with a unique set of TLC portraits. The resin portraits and prints are available to purchase HERE for a limited time.
T-Boz and Chilli (TLC)
The crowd cheered after a countdown to reveal the incredible TLC mural dedication, created by Dan Stone. The mural was based on the Seb Janiak futuristic photo shoot, which was used as the iconic front cover for their Grammy award-winning ‘FanMail‘ album in 1999.
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
Chilli sent the media into a frenzy earlier this week when she was spotted on a beautiful beach in Hawaii with ‘Boy Meets World‘ star Matthew Lawrence.
Despite the assumptions that they were romantically involved, the rumors were put to rest by a spokesperson for Chilli who stated that the two were just good friends enjoying the some time on the Hawaiian beach.
“TLC had a show in Hawaii,” a rep for Chilli told E! News. “They’ve been touring all summer and are heading to Australia soon. Matthew and Chilli are friends and were taking a moment to get some sun after the show. They weren’t by themselves there was a group with them.”
TLC had just completed a very successful string of dates in Hawaii last week on August 5, 6 & 7 at the Blaisdell Arena along with boy band New Kids On The Block.
Judging from the excitement they caused with their sold out shows which were rescheduled from dates in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the girls will be very happy to return to Hawaii again soon. “We had a blast and cannot wait to come back!”, Chilli posted on social media to the Hawaiian radio station, The Keola Show.
Leon@TLCArmy
TLC-Army.com 