TLC (band)

TLC
TLC (2016)
General information
Genre (s)	R&B , hip-hop
founding	1991 as 2nd Nature, 1991 as TLC , 2005
resolution	2003
Founding members
singing	Crystal Jones (until 1991)
singing	Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins
singing	Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes (until 2002, †)
Current occupation
singing	Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins
singing	Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas (since 1991)

TLC (short for T-Boz, Left Eye and Chilli or Tender Loving Care ) was an American R & B - and Hip-Hop - trio from Atlanta , the 1991 under the name 2nd Nature of Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins , Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes and Crystal Jones was founded. With the management change to Perri "Pebbles" Reid and their own music distribution, the trio renamed itself "TLC". With the signing of the record deal, Crystal Jones was replaced by Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas .

Band history

Quick success and negative headlines

The trio was founded in 1991 in Decatur (Georgia) near Atlanta. The name TLC originally stood for the name of the band members ( T IONNE, L isa, C rystal). After the departure of Crystal Jones, the name was either related to the nicknames of the current band members ( T -Boz, L eft Eye, C hilli) or interpreted as an acronym for Tender Loving Care ( English for "caresses"). She signed the LaFace Records label, which was founded shortly before by LA Reid and Babyface .

Her debut album Ooooooohhh… On the TLC Tip was released in February 1992. Within a very short time, the singles Ain't 2 Proud 2 Beg , What About Your Friends , Hat 2 Da Back , and Baby, Baby, Baby became a surprise success. The song Waterfalls became their biggest hit and catapulted the trio's second album, CrazySexyCool from November 1994, into the top chart positions worldwide . With the other hits Red Light Special , Creep and Diggin 'on You , TLC finally turned it into mega stars; In the United States alone, eleven million copies of the album were sold, which thus achieved diamond status .

While under the influence of alcohol, shortly before the album was released, Lopes set the sports shoes of her friend known as a professional athlete on fire, thereby starting a fire that burned down his property. Her sentence was five years probation, combined with an addiction treatment . Of the $ 75 million the album sales made, the three women only saw 50,000 each. The questioned LA Reid referred to the mother label Arista Records . When the Arista headquarters was rushed, the pack of TLC and Lopes' custodial cellmates gathered everything that had to do with TLC. Arista boss Clive Davis did not call the police and also promised to pay out another share.

Nevertheless, the group declared bankruptcy in 1995 . She stated that she was over-indebted. They received too low a percentage of the sale and had to pay for studio costs, a video shoot and their cloakroom. In addition, there were enormous insurance benefits as a result of the arson. First it went on tour in 1995 with Boyz II Men . Tionne Watkins was compromised and was known to have suffered from sickle cell anemia since childhood . LaFace suspected that the oath of disclosure was based on an “artistic declaration of bankruptcy” that Run DMC , Silk and others had already practiced for the purpose of terminating contracts. While the label railed that it was a deception and referred to the “extravagant lifestyle” of the trio, the public viewed a contract with eight percent royalties that was signed for eight albums - admittedly common, but without a success bonus passage - as a toggle contract. The legal situation was clear, because "[w] he takes the oath of disclosure in the states usually gets out of existing contracts without any problems and thus has the chance to negotiate better contractual terms". In fact, in April 1996, the contract was overturned by a bankruptcy court. The subsequent negotiations between the parties to the proceedings lasted until November 1996, and it was agreed not to disclose them.

Recent successes and more negative headlines

After 1996 the group put their finances in order, they could turn back to music in 1997, equipped with a better conditioned contract with LaFace. She initially wore out a few managers , but then found the right man in Bill Diggins ( Billy Idol , Johnny Rotten , Björk ). He introduced the routine of weekly financial reports. The studio stay in the summer of 1997 was overshadowed by the public denouncement of their producer Dallas Austin, because he demanded an outrageously high fee. It was spicy that Thomas has a son with him. Thereupon the group stopped work on the new album for an indefinite period and the individual members pursued their own cross-disciplinary plans for the time being. It wasn't until the huge amount of mail asking TLC to continue that fans were inspired, and in early 1999 the next album, FanMail, was released. This too quickly became a huge success, not least because of the two number one singles No Scrubs and Unpretty .

At the end of 1999, before a tour started, there were headlines within the group. Watkins and Thomas criticized Lopes because, in their opinion, she wanted to come to the fore. Lopes countered in public that everyone should record a solo album so that one could compare who had the real talent. The tour was completed. In January 2001 there was actually a break for purely musical solo activities this time. As soon as they were finished and all arguments (including with Austin) put aside, they found themselves back together in the studio. But the work had to be interrupted again because Watkins suffered from deterioration in health. On April 25, 2002, Lopes was killed in a traffic accident in Honduras . Thomas and Watkins then stated that the album would still be finished. It was released in November 2002 under the title 3D . Despite double platinum one could speak of a disappointing sales figure. In 2003 Watkins and Thomas announced the end of TLC - one last concert was announced for June. It was implemented in such a way that the two singers stood on the stage and Lopes' rap parts were played via video projection. The greatest hits album Now and Forever , released at the end of his career , only sold 20,000 copies.

Attempts to build on past successes

However, the remaining duo soon changed their minds, which were made public in November 2004. In 2005 the two started the reality show R U the Girl with T-Boz and Chilli , in which they were looking for someone to replace Lopes for some songs but not become a regular member. On September 20, Tiffany "O'so Krispie" Baker won the show. I Bet , their first song with TLC, was already on the Internet the following day, but did not enter the charts.

In 2009 Watkins and Thomas were back on the road as TLC. Anthology 20 was published in October 2013 . At the beginning of 2015 a fundraising campaign started in order to be able to record a fifth and supposedly really last album. The idea for this came up in the wake of the band documentation CrazySexyCool produced by the music channel VH1 , as it had once again been able to draw attention to TLC and many fans had asked over the years whether something new was to be expected. In their lucrative times, TLC had made itself available for charitable causes: the commitment to fight AIDS , the support of children with the rare disease lupus erythematosus , the help for the sickle cell sufferers of Watkins. In addition, Lopes had adopted a girl who was taken in by Lopes' family in 2002.

In 2015, Watkins and Thomas launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a new TLC album. The campaign ended successfully with proceeds of over $ 430,000. The album, simply titled "TLC", was released on June 30, 2017 and was accompanied by a world tour in autumn 2017.

style

At Allmusic , in an effort to describe the music, the styles of pop , hip-hop and soul (“urban soul”) are lined up one after the other, in another place contemporary R&B, pop and the mixed form New Jack Swing . Laut.de uses the terms hip-hop, rap , pop and soul to specify the TLC songs. In the biographical portrait of Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins, the terms R&B, funk and rap are used. Musikexpress reviewer Marcel Anders dispensed with style names in his TLC creative review and described the recipe for success as consisting of "catchy earwigs, frontal beats and frivolous lyrics".

Watkins and Thomas were responsible for the vocals. Lopes, on the other hand, for the raps, in which her cheeky and uncompromising manner was expressed, which significantly shaped the image of a strong, idiosyncratic, self-confident trio of women. Watkins contributed an unmistakably rough voice, while Thomas had a smooth voice. The latter also brought her experience as a former dancer with her, according to the biographies on biography.com .

Discography

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1992	Ooooooohhh… On the TLC Tip	-	-	-	-	US14th × 4 Quadruple platinum (73 weeks)US	First published: February 25, 1992
1994	CrazySexyCool	DE4 (50 weeks) DE	AT16 (16 weeks) AT	CH10 (24 weeks) CH	UK4th platinum (52 weeks)UK	US3 × 2 Diamond + double platinum (119 weeks)US	First published: November 15, 1994
1999	FanMail	DE7 (45 weeks) DE	AT17 (20 weeks) AT	CH11 (37 weeks) CH	UK7th platinum (59 weeks)UK	US1 × 6 Six-fold platinum (64 weeks)US	First published: February 23, 1999
2002	3D	DE46 (2 weeks) DE	-	CH47 (8 weeks) CH	UK45 (2 weeks) UK	US6th platinum (20 weeks)US	First published: November 12, 2002
2017	TLC	DE81 (1 week) DE	-	-	UK40 (1 week) UK	US38 (1 week) US	First published: June 30, 2017

Compilations

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
2003	Now and Forever: The Hits	-	-	-	UK86 silver (1 week)UK	US53 (12 weeks) US	First published: September 30, 2003
2007	The Very Best of TLC: Crazy Sexy Hits	-	-	-	UK57 (1 week) UK	-	First published: August 20, 2007
2013	20th	-	-	-	-	US12 (6 weeks) US	First published: October 15, 2013

more publishments

• 2006: Collections
• 2009: Playlist: The Very Best of TLC
• 2009: We Love TLC

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1992	Ain't 2 Proud 2 Beg Ooooooohhh… On the TLC Tip	-	-	-	UK13 (5 weeks) UK	US6th platinum (22 weeks)US	First published: January 22, 1992
	Baby-Baby-Baby Ooooooohhh… On the TLC Tip	-	-	-	UK55 (3 weeks) UK	US2 platinum (33 weeks)US	First published: April 29, 1992
	What About Your Friends Ooooooohhh… On the TLC Tip	-	-	-	UK59 (2 weeks) UK	US7th gold (27 weeks)US	First published: August 28, 1992
	Has 2 da Back Ooooooohhh… On the TLC Tip	-	-	-	-	US30 (15 weeks) US	First published: September 1992
1993	Get It Up Poetic Justice (OST)	-	-	-	-	US42 (17 weeks) US	First published: June 6, 1993
1994	Creep CrazySexyCool	DE39 (13 weeks) DE	-	CH26 (11 weeks) CH	UK6th silver (11 weeks)UK	US1 platinum (32 weeks)US	First published: October 31, 1994
1995	Red Light Special CrazySexyCool	-	-	-	UK18 (4 weeks) UK	US2 gold (22 weeks)US	First published: February 21, 1995
	Waterfalls CrazySexyCool	DE5 gold (23 weeks)DE	AT3 (12 weeks) AT	CH1 (27 weeks) CH	UK4th platinum (14 weeks)UK	US1 platinum (34 weeks)US	First published: May 29, 1995
	Diggin 'on You CrazySexyCool	DE46 (17 weeks) DE	-	CH29 (13 weeks) CH	UK18 (7 weeks) UK	US5 gold (20 weeks)US	First published: October 1995
1999	Silly Ho FanMail	-	-	-	-	US59 (9 weeks) US	First published: January 23, 1999 The B-side of No Scrubs
	No Scrubs FanMail	DE4 (25 weeks) DE	AT26 (9 weeks) AT	CH5 (27 weeks) CH	UK3 × 2 Double platinum (19 weeks)UK	US1 platinum (28 weeks)US	First published: January 23, 1999
	Unpretty FanMail	DE16 (14 weeks) DE	AT24 (8 weeks) AT	CH9 (15 weeks) CH	UK6th silver (11 weeks)UK	US1 gold (32 weeks)US	First published: July 9, 1999
	Dear Lie FanMail	DE37 (9 weeks) DE	-	CH29 (18 weeks) CH	UK31 (11 weeks) UK	US51 (7 weeks) US	First published: September 20, 1999
2002	Girl Talk 3D	DE79 (8 weeks) DE	-	CH96 (1 week) CH	UK30 (2 weeks) UK	US12 (14 weeks) US	First published: August 8, 2002
2003	Damaged 3D	-	-	-	-	US53 (4 weeks) US	First published: March 7, 2003

Further single releases

• 2000: What It Ain't ( Goodie Mob feat.TLC)
• 2002: Can You Hear Me ( Missy Elliott feat.TLC)
• 2003: Come Get Some ( feat.Lil 'Jon & Sean Paul )
• 2005: I Bet (feat. O'so Krispie)
• 2014: Gift Wrapped Kiss
• 2016: Haters
• 2016: Joyride
• 2017: Way Back ( feat.Snoop Dogg )

Chart placements as guest musicians

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
2013	Crooked Smile Born Sinner	-	-	-	-	US27 platinum (20 weeks)US	First published: June 4th, 2013 J. Cole feat. TLC

Awards for music sales

Golden record  Belgium 1999: for the album Fanmail  France 1999: for the album Fanmail 1999: for the single No Scrubs  Italy 2019: for the single No Scrubs  Japan 2002: for the single Ain't 2 Proud 2 Beg  New Zealand 1995: for the single Creep 1995: for the single Red Light Special 1996: for the single Diggin 'on You 1999: for the single Unpretty  Netherlands 1995: for the album Crazysexycool  Sweden 1999: for the single No Scrubs

Platinum record  Australia 1999: for the album Fanmail 1999: for the single No Scrubs 1999: for the single Unpretty  Belgium 1999: for the single No Scrubs  Europe 1996: for the album Crazysexycool 1999: for the album Fanmail  Japan 1996: for the album Crazysexycool 2002: for the album 3D 2003: for the album Now and Forever: The Hits  Canada 1993: for the album Ooooohhh… on The TLC Tip  New Zealand 1995: for the album Crazysexycool 1995: for the single Waterfalls 1999: for the album Fanmail 1999: for the single No Scrubs  Netherlands 2000: for the album Fanmail  Norway 1996: for the single Waterfalls  Sweden 2000: for the single Unpretty

4 × platinum record  Canada 1999: for the album Fanmail 8 × platinum record  Canada 1998: for the album Crazysexycool Diamond record  Japan 2002: for the album Fanmail

Note: Awards in countries from the chart tables or chart boxes can be found in these.

Country / Region	silver	gold	platinum	diamond	Sales	swell
Awards for music sales (country / region, awards, sales, sources)
Australia (ARIA)	-	-	3 × platinum3	-	210,000	aria.com.au
Belgium (BEA)	-	gold1	platinum1	-	75,000	ultratop.be
Germany (BVMI)	-	gold1	-	-	250,000	musikindustrie.de
Europe (IFPI)	-	-	2 × platinum2	-	(2,000,000)	ifpi.org ( Memento from October 15, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
France (SNEP)	-	2 × gold2	-	-	350,000	infodisc.fr snepmusique.com
Italy (FIMI)	-	gold1	-	-	25,000	fimi.it
Japan (RIAJ)	-	gold1	3 × platinum3	diamond1	1,800,000	riaj.or.jp
Canada (MC)	-	-	13 × platinum13	-	1,300,000	musiccanada.com
New Zealand (RMNZ)	-	4 × gold4th	4 × platinum4th	-	90,000	nztop40.co.nz
Netherlands (NVPI)	-	gold1	platinum1	-	130,000	nvpi.nl
Norway (IFPI)	-	-	platinum1	-	10,000	ifpi.no ( Memento from November 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
Sweden (IFPI)	-	gold1	platinum1	-	45,000	sverigetopplistan.se
United States (RIAA)	-	4 × gold4th	19 × platinum19th	diamond1	31,000,000	riaa.com
United Kingdom (BPI)	3 × silver3	-	5 × platinum5	-	1,980,000	bpi.co.uk
All in all	3 × silver3	16 × gold16	53 × platinum53	2 × diamond2

swell

1. ^ ^{A b c} Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins Biography. Singer (1970-). In: biography.com. A&E Television Networks, accessed November 28, 2015 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Tom Barnes: 12 Facts that Will Change the Way You Listen to TLC's 'CrazySexyCool'. In: mic.com. June 27, 2014, accessed November 28, 2015 . 
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j} Marcus Kagler: TLC - Biography. In: amoeba.com. Retrieved November 28, 2015 . 
4. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p} Steve Huey: TLC. Biography by Steve Huey. In: allmusic.com. Retrieved November 28, 2015 . 
5. ↑ Lisa Lopez [sic] . In: MusikWoche . The news magazine for the music industry. No. 50/1994 , December 12, 1994, Ticker, p. 10 .
6. ↑ ^{a b} Latifah Muhammad: TLC Member T-Boz Reveals Holding Clive Davis at Gunpoint. In: theboombox.com. October 22, 2009, accessed November 28, 2015 . 
7. ↑ Rob Sheffield: 20 Tips That Will Ruin Any Career . In: Rolling Stone . No. 102 , April 2003, 6. You always pay the bill, p. 46 ff .
8. ↑ ^{a b} TLC. Laut.de biography. In: laut.de. Retrieved November 28, 2015 . 
9. ^ Manfred Gillig-Degrave: Artistic bankruptcy declarations . In: MusikWoche . The news magazine for the music industry. No. 8/1996 , February 19, 1996, Apropos, p. 4 .
10. ^ ^{A b} Stefanie Bauer: Bankruptcy proceedings around TLC. Good chances for the bust trio . In: MusikWoche . The news magazine for the music industry. No. 17/1996 , April 22, 1996, This Week, p. 4 .
11. ↑ Beth Burkstrand: TLC Settles Suit, Setting Aside a Troubling Use of Bankruptcy. In: nytimes.com. November 25, 1996, accessed November 28, 2015 . 
12. ↑ Tim O'Shei: TLC Manager is 'No Scrub'. In: buffalo.com. July 5, 2015, accessed November 28, 2015 . 
13. ↑ TLC are going their separate ways for the time being. In: mediabiz.de. January 12, 2001, accessed November 28, 2015 . 
14. ↑ Death of a rebel . In: Musikexpress . No. 557 , June 2002, Extra, p. 7 .
15. ↑ TLC is looking for a new band member via casting show. In: mediabiz.de. November 19, 2004, accessed November 28, 2015 . 
16. ↑ Ryan Buxton: TLC's T-Boz and Chilli Talk Kickstarter, Left Eye and their Next and Final Album. In: huffingtonpost.com. January 19, 2015, accessed November 28, 2015 . 
17. ^ BMG Promotion Services (ed.): TLC . [approx. December], 2002 (3-page doctoral biography).
18. ↑ TLC's Kickstarter-Funded Album Is Set for Release This Year, Manager Says . In: Billboard . ( billboard.com [accessed July 1, 2017]).
19. ↑ Marcel Anders: TLC. 3D . In: Musikexpress . No. 563 , December 2002, plates, p. 64 .
20. ↑ Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes Biography. Rapper, Singer (1971-2002). In: biography.com. A&E Television Networks, accessed November 28, 2015 . 
21. ^ Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas Biography. Reality Television Star, Music Producer, Dancer, Singer (1971–). In: biography.com. A&E Television Networks, accessed November 28, 2015 . 
22. ↑ ^{a b c d} Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US

Web links

Commons : TLC  collection of images

• TLC at laut.de
• TLC at Allmusic (English)
• TLC at Discogs (English)