FEATURE:
Groovelines
TLC - Creep
__________
A classic song from 1994…
IN THIS PHOTO: TLC’s Tionne ‘T-Boz’ Watkins, Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes and Rozonda ‘Chilli’ Thomas
there is a bit of a bittersweet reason why I am featuring TLC’s Creep. Released on 31st October (appropriate given the title and link to Hallowe’en!), 1994, it is from their CrazySexyCool (1994) album. Often voted TLC’s best song. The main reason I want to examine Creep is that 27th May marks what would have been Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes’s fifty-fourth birthday. We lost her in 2002 when she died in a car crash. One of the greatest rappers of her generation, she was only thirty. It is heartbreaking thinking how far she could have gone. However, we can remember her incredible solo work and the phenomenal contribution to TLC’s catalogue. Creep was written and produced by the legendary Dallas Austin. Someone trying to write a song from a ‘female perspective’, Creep is TLC coming from the viewpoint of women who cheat on their unfaithful lovers. It is a bit awkward evoking Lopes’s name as she was opposed to the song and threatened to wear black tape over her mouth for the video. I do feel a bit bad. However, her contribution in the song is key and Creep is a song I have wanted to cover for a long time now. Creep was TLC’s first number one on the United States Billboard 100. A big reason to feature Creep is the remixes of 1996. That was when it was the single got its European debut/reissue. Included in the remixes was a rap verse written by Lopes which warns listeners of safe sex issue. I am going to get to some articles/features about the iconic Creep. A song widely played and loved to this day, it sounds so amazing. Lauded because of the narrative where women were taking control – something not that common of music in the 1990s -, the video is seen as one of the most memorable of all time. The outfits and pyjamas that TLC wore for the video created a stir. The pyjamas (they look like they silk outfits to be fair) created a sales surge. Some have noted how the camera angles used during the video and the outfits worn by the band members suggested sexual availability. There is so much when it comes to unpacking the video.
There were two versions of the Creep video shot before the final one came about. TLC were unhappy with the videos. I want to grab the below from Wikipedia and their research about the actual Creep video, as it provides some really interesting background. One of the defining music videos of the 1990s. One that has definitely influenced so many artists. Before coming to some features about Creep, it is worth getting to know a bit more about a music video that had some setbacks along the way:
“Expecting to show a new and more-mature side visually, TLC were in Los Angeles discussing the project when they saw a Matthew Rolston-directed music video for Salt-N-Pepa. Thomas said, "We were looking at it and said, 'Whoever did this video has to do the "Creep" video.' We fell in love with the way it was shot.” She said several times the video they had watched was "Whatta Man", however, during an interview with MTV in 1995, the show said it was "None of Your Business", a video also shot by Rolston that has more visual similarities to the final "Creep" video. Lopes recalled how adamant they were about redoing the video as they were returning to the music scene. When their management suggested having the video re-edited, the group declined and reached out to Rolston to schedule an August 1994 shoot in Los Angeles.
Rolston brought his team including make-up artist, wardrobe-hair stylist, dancers and choreographer, but had a few creative conflicts with the group. One involved the original routine created by Watkins, who had choreographed most of the group's early videos. She remembered Rolston's choreographer, Frank Gatson Jr., "locked" the girls out from providing ideas as they were practicing the new dance moves. The trio eventually dropped Gatson because they thought his version was not their "style of dancing", though two of his moves were adapted in the final clip. "To me, I didn't even think about, 'Well, can I really choreograph?' I was just like, 'Let me do my thing.' I just like to dance and I know when I like what I see. I like different kinds of stuff", Watkins stated. The "bend-down-and-jump-up" dance that appeared in the video was created by Watkins to "Foe Life", a song by rapper Mack 10, her spouse from 2000 to 2004.
Another dispute between TLC and Rolston was over their wardrobe. The director was interested in "tight and sexy" lingerie looks for them while they only liked baggy tomboy clothes. Combining the two, the girls ended up in bright colored, flowing silk pajamas "that took on an edge when all but one button was unbuttoned and wind machines were turned on high." Each custom-made outfit cost more than US$1,000. Thomas also talked about their exhaustion on the set: "People don't realize that for video shoots you have to wake up at like 5 in the morning for your call time. So when we did that part at the very end of the video where we're talking to the camera and looking all silly, we were so tired. But sometimes that ends up being your best shots." Eventually, she called Rolston's final product "excellent", while Lopes said that after two failed attempts the director finally gave them a "real video".
I will move to a Stereogum feature version. Before that, this article from 2015 grabbed me. There is not a great deal written about Creep. I think it deserves a lot more focus and love. However, the pieces written about it are interesting. Many might not know about TLC and CrazySexyCool:
“As I mentioned in my piece on the Gin Blossoms for 1994 Week, it’s strange to recall how slow the music industry moved back in those days. A song could still be popular years after its initial release and no one batted an eye—in fact, they’d probably still be singing along to it. These circumstances played an active role in my discovery of TLC, through the chart-topping success of both “Creep” and “Waterfalls” in 1995. At the time I had no idea about the larger implications behind each song, but that certainly didn’t keep me from singing the hook to “Creep” any chance I got.
Coming during the midst of the ’90s R&B renaissance, TLC’s reinvention from soulful hip-hop act to sultry powerhouse was sparked partially by Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes’ stint in rehab, as well as a stronger focus on the trio’s pop elements. With the emphasis put on the husky vocals of Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins and Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas, writer and producer Dallas Austin—who deals in pop hooks and Texas cities exclusively—played to their strengths. Which, to the detriment of Left Eye, isn’t razor sharp rapping.
Though it was originally released in 1994, when “Creep” topped the Billboard charts in January 1995 it signaled the started of TLC’s reign over R&B. As T-Boz would later note, the song was inspired by her own experience being stuck in a bizarre love triangle, and Austin pulled all the right facts to turn “Creep” into a powerful declaration that would cement the group’s new image. Gone were the oversized suspenders and glasses with a condom over the eye, replaced with silky pajamas and amped-up agency.
“Creep” would go on to mark the start of TLC’s ascendance to becoming the best selling all-girl group in the United States. After the promotional cycle for CrazySexyCool came to an end the band would have a pair of Grammys under its belt and a lot of inner turmoil to work through—due mostly to Left Eye being wildly underrepresented on its Grammy-winning album. When it returned five years later with FanMail, the band had another new look, a couple more chart-toppers (“No Scrubs” and “Unpretty”), and a newly unified vision. It proved that TLC was far more durable than a trend or any one single, all because it wasn’t afraid to creep toward its goals”.
I am going to wrap up with Stereogum and their The Number Ones feature. Creep was at the top of the U.S. chart for a month in 1995. I have edited the article down. However, I would advise people to read the whole thing. It is really compelling reading about the lead-up to Creep and how TLC came together and evolved. Some of the details about the song. The impact it created:
“None of the members of TLC had a hand in writing “Creep,” though T-Boz later said that the lyrics were inspired by a situation in her own romantic life. The whole TLC saga is its own kind of ethical, emotional mess. It’s the story of three women who came into the music business young and who were ruthlessly exploited by their handlers, to the point where they were barely making any money even when they were one of the most popular groups on the planet. By the time their story was over, one of those three young women hadn’t survived. And yet the actual music that TLC made during their brief run is glorious. TLC left behind a small catalog of gleaming, audacious pop. In their day, TLC sounded futuristic. Today, they’re timeless.
TLC’s 1992 debut album Ooooooohhh… On The TLC Tip was a bright little pop explosion. The three members of TLC wore outlandish day-glo clothes; Left Eye famously wore a condom over the left eye of her sunglasses, a safe-sex PSA that was also a ridiculous and indelible fashion statement. Even if the three members of TLC had been assembled by managers and producers, they radiated blissful camaraderie. All three members of the group had distinct voices and personas, but they all fit together beautifully. They seemed like they were great friends with each other, and it was impossible to listen to the album without wanting to be friends with them, too.
Ooooooohhh… On The TLC Tip went quadruple platinum, but the members of TLC barely saw any money. They eventually fired Pebbles as their manager, but they remained ensnared in an exploitative contract with Pebbitone. When TLC recorded their 1994 sophomore LP CrazySexyCool, Left Eye wasn’t in the studio much, since she was still going through court-ordered rehab for alcoholism. Dallas Austin had written “Creep” with TLC in mind. For a few months, he hadn’t even decided whether he liked the song, but it remained stuck in his head, and he eventually took it to the group. Left Eye never liked the song, and she refused to rap on it. Later on, she explained her objection: “I wasn’t down with the cheating on your man. For me, it’s ‘be faithful.’ I just didn’t know — is this the kind of message we should be sending out to people?… If a girl’s gonna catch her man cheating — this was my thing — instead of telling her to cheat back, why don’t we tell her to just leave?” Makes sense to me!
Unlike many of her ’90s R&B peers, T-Boz never went crazy with vocal runs. Instead, she sings “Creep” with a calm, confident depth. The warmth of T-Boz’s delivery is almost enough to convince you that the response of her “Creep” narrator is entirely reasonable, that it won’t lead to disaster. She slides over the track, describing fucked-up power dynamics with breezy no-big-deal calm: “If he knew the things I did, he couldn’t handle it/ And I choose to keep him protected.” Chilli’s backing vocals tenderly surround T-Boz’s voice, propping her up. “Creep” is jammed with sly little hooks, and T-Boz delivers those hooks with effortless panache. That’s just charisma at work. Only T-Boz could make retaliatory cheating sound cool. It takes a whole lot of pop-music magic to turn a squalid, complicated situation into a four-minute party jam, but TLC had that magic.
Maybe that coolness is why Left Eye didn’t want anything to do with “Creep.” Left Eye pushed against releasing “Creep” as a single, to the point where she threatened to wear tape over her mouth in the video. Eventually, she recorded a verse for Dallas Austin’s DARP Remix of “Creep,” and she used that verse to warn of the dangers of creeping: “Creepin’ is the number one item on the chart/ Rippin’ families apart, the leading cause of a broken heart/ Injuries can be fatal, may infect the prenatal/ HIV is often sleepin’ in a creepin’ cradle.”
In the end, Left Eye didn’t wear tape over her mouth in the “Creep” video — which is good, since the group ended up making three videos for the damn song. The label scrapped their first two stabs at the clip, including one with Boyz II Men director Lionel C. Martin. The third time for the “Creep” video was the charm. Working with Salt-N-Pepa director Matthew Rolston, TLC didn’t dramatize the “Creep” lyrics. Instead, TLC wore silk pajamas — a compromise between the tomboyish style that the group preferred and the sexy lingerie that their label wanted — and hit instantly-iconic synchronized dance moves, looking just as cool as they sounded. Even if you objected to the situation that “Creep” described, you probably still wished you were friends with TLC.
It took months for “Creep” to creep its way up the Hot 100 before it finally became TLC’s first #1 hit. A few days after “Creep” reached #1, CrazySexyCool was certified double platinum. It would go on to sell a whole lot more than two million records. TLC had plenty of hits on deck, and we’ll soon see them in this column again.
GRADE: 9/10”.
It is sad that Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes is not around to see the legacy she left. I wanted to mark what would have been her fifty-fourth birthday on 27th May. Even if she was uncomfortable with some aspects of Creep and its video, she was a big part of its success and durability. You can hear and feel its D.N.A. in music released from artists since 1994. Another song that will never sound dated, it will continue to inspire artists. It is among my favourite tracks of the 1990s. A defiant anthem with an original subject matter, no wonder it was such a success and acclaimed song. Over thirty years since it topped the U.S. chart, the sublime Creep…
STILL sounds untouchable and superb.