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Page 1
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T-Boz and Chilli give the lowdown on new tracks, new producers ...
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Page 2
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Remembering, but moving on: 'Lisa isn't here — that's reality' ...
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Page 3
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New album nerves, solo project plans, TLC 50 years on ...
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-- SuChin Pak
To prepare for my interview with TLC, I dug out my copy of Crazysexycool. Just looking at the cover takes me back to my first year at college, my first apartment, ... the first of a lot of things.
For a lot of us, that album marked the beginning of womanhood. It wasn't a bra-burning revolution, but it had just as much impact. These three young women talking about the real stuff we all obsessed about gave us the gritty details, the lowdown, the handbook on how to navigate the adult world we had stumbled on to. Whether they were wearing condoms as a fashion statement or telling you to love what you saw in the mirror, TLC gave girls the language and the voice to say, "This is me: often crazy, hopefully sexy and sometimes really cool." That was empowering. And at 17, it was a revolution.
Now TLC is coming out with a new album, but no one knows how this is supposed to work. How do you have TLC without Left Eye?
I expected interviewing TLC to be a sad experience, to say the least. Imagine my surprise and relief to see Chilli and T-Boz laughing and happy. We were in Atlanta, where the girls had just finished shooting their new video. It seemed the bond between these two women, always the strongest alliance in the group, was even more solid. When Chilli couldn't finish her sentence, T-Boz immediately picked up; there was a rhythm to their grief.
Chilli said that while she and T-Boz were in the studio, it felt like Lisa wasn't gone; she was just traveling, or perhaps on her way to the sessions. The girls still sometimes feel like they're just waiting for her to call. It's at times like this, when they are sitting down to do press or go onstage, that the reality of her absence hits.
Left Eye is everywhere on 3D. The album is classic TLC, with party hits and songs that set the mood. The first single, "Girl Talk," is once again schooling boys on where they've gone wrong.
TLC is still TLC — and they're back.
SuChin Pak: You had Dallas Austin on this album, but you also worked with some new people: the Neptunes and Rodney Jerkins.
T-Boz: Our Neptunes song ["In Your Arms Tonight"] — you're not going to be able to tell it's a Neptunes song.
Pak: I would have never guessed.
Chilli: It doesn't sound like anything they've ever done. ... Rodney Jerkins also really came to the table. He was one of the producers who kinda put everything to the side to accommodate us.
T-Boz: "Turntable" is really special. ... It's dedicated to Lisa, more so than any other song. A lot of people, like the people from 9/11, can get something out of it. Things that I've been through in the hospital, what we went through together with Lisa; it's all about how after it rains, the sun can shine again. After something bad, something good can happen.
Chilli: It goes [with] "Waterfalls" and "Unpretty" for me. It's a very inspirational song like that, and I think people are going to love it.
T-Boz: Raphael Saadiq did this great song called "So So Dumb." If you wanna say we are talking about men, this is one of [those songs], 'cause they are so dumb sometimes.
Chilli: We try to educate you guys and you just don't listen. ... Have a TLC moment: put all three CDs in, and just listen.
T-Boz: I'm gonna keep writing in different ways until they open up their eyes one day and see.
Chilli: But you know what? Then we have a song called "Good Love."
T-Boz: That's what she is; so in love right now.
Chilli: He's number one.
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Photo: Arista
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