Looking back on the pop music of the 1990s, it’s easy to see why upstart girl group TLC found so much chart success. Not only was R&B the dominant pop sound during that era, but the talented trio of Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas, Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins and Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes were blazing a trail of female-first messaging through catchy tracks with a hip-hop edge. Rolling Stone recently described TLC’s 1999 No. 1 smash “No Scrubs” as “a nineties update of Aretha Franklin’s ‘Respect.’”
TLC’s decade-long stretch of hits ended, infamously, when the group’s firebrand rapper Lopes died in a car crash in Honduras in 2002. The group’s fourth studio album, 3D, was released months later and thought to be their last work, but this year Thomas and Watkins put out TLC, a 12-track collection that serves as a proper farewell—especially considering TLC’s fans contributed more than $400,000 through crowdsourcing to get the record made.
The duo plans to continue touring as TLC even if they’re not recording new music, keeping the catalog alive and well. Considering how influential their songs and style have been on the acts that have followed, TLC’s legacy is as solid as it gets. I Love the ’90s Tour with TLC, Rob Base, Coolio, Color Me Badd, Biz Markie & C+C Music Factory at the Downtown Las Vegas Events Center, July 21.
