FEATURE:
The Lockdown Playlist
Remembering TLC’s Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes
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FOR this Lockdown Playlist…
I am putting together some of the best tracks from TLC. I am also including some Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes tracks. On 25th April, it marked nineteen years since the world lost a hugely important artist. I will end by bringing in an article published on 2002 that remembered the great Lopes. Here is some background information concerning a wonderful and much-missed talent:
“Lisa Nicole Lopes (May 27, 1971 – April 25, 2002), better known by her stage name Left Eye, was an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer and dancer. Lopes was a member of the R&B girl group TLC, alongside Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins and Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas. Besides rapping and singing backing vocals on TLC recordings, Lopes was one of the creative forces behind the group. She received more co-writing credits than the other members. She also designed the outfits and staging for the group and contributed to the group's image, album titles, artworks, and music videos. Through her work with TLC, Lopes won four Grammy Awards.
During her brief solo career, Lopes scored two US top 10 singles with "Not Tonight" and "U Know What's Up", as well as one UK number-one single with "Never Be the Same Again", the latter a collaboration with Melanie C of the British girl group Spice Girls. She also produced another girl group, Blaque, who scored a platinum album and two US top 10 hits. Lopes remains the only member of TLC to have released a solo album.
On April 25, 2002, Lopes was killed in a car crash while organizing charity work in Honduras. She swerved off the road to avoid hitting another vehicle, and was thrown from her car. She was working on a documentary at the time of her death, which was released as The Last Days of Left Eye and aired on VH1 in May 2007”.
In 2002, The New York Times ran an article that discussed the history and rise of TLC. To me, Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes was instrumental to their success:
“With a black stripe under her left eye and a reputation for volatility, Ms. Lopes was the catalyst and onstage focus for TLC. When the group titled its second album ''Crazysexycool'' in 1994, Ms. Lopes named herself ''crazy.'' That was the year she burned down the $1.3 million house belonging to her boyfriend, the football player Andre Rison. She pleaded guilty to first-degree arson and was sentenced to five years' probation and fined $10,000. She also entered an alcohol rehabilitation program.
''Drama comes in dozens and I know you love it,'' Ms. Lopes rapped in a song on her solo album, ''Supernova,'' which was released outside the United States in 2001.
In the 1990's, TLC reinvented the girl group for the hip-hop era, showing the way for groups like Destiny's Child. With sultry vocals and Ms. Lopes's sassy raps, TLC became one of the best-selling female groups of all time, selling more than 21 million albums in the United States. Its second and third albums, ''Crazysexycool'' and 1999's ''Fanmail,'' each won two Grammy Awards, for best R&B album and best R&B performance by a duo or group.
From the start, the three members of TLC presented themselves as independent women, promoting safe sex and self-reliance.
''Nobody can make me do what I don't want to,'' Ms. Lopes rapped on the group's 1992 debut album, ''Ooooooohhh . . . On the TLC Tip'' (LaFace). In early appearances, the women pinned condoms to baggy outfits, and Ms. Lopes wore one replacing a lens over her left eye.
Along with its songs about romance, TLC addressed crime and AIDS (in ''Waterfalls''), female self-esteem (''Unpretty'') and gang warfare and abusive relationships. Much of its material was by songwriters based in Atlanta, including Dallas Austin and Jermaine Dupri. Ms. Lopes wrote many of her own raps, often sharing songwriting credit.
Ms. Lopes was born in Philadelphia. She had described her father, who died when she was 17, as an alcoholic and disciplinarian. She is survived by her mother, Wanda D. Lopes, her siblings and a 10-year-old child she adopted last year.
She got her nickname when a boyfriend noted that her left eye was slightly larger than her right.
As a teenager, she moved to Atlanta to work with a rhythm-and-blues group. A talent scout, Ian Burke, auditioned her for a group he envisioned of streetwise, approachable girls. Mr. Burke, who now works for Ascap, recalled yesterday: ''All the girl groups that were out at the time were model-like individuals, like En Vogue. You would think, 'I don't know if I'll ever be able to land one of these girls”.
To remember Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes, this Lockdown Playlist combines the best tracks from her time in TLC, in addition to some of her solo work. TLC were very important to me when I was young. I was definitely drawn to Lopes as a performer. To remember her nineteen years after her death, here are songs with her upfront or in the mix with TLC. As you can hear, Lopes was…
QUITE a remarkable artist.