It was the end of 1999 and TLC was just beginning to wind down their hugely popular FanMail album after releasing the smash singles “No Scrubs” and “Unpretty.” The girls had finished the first leg of their FanMail Tour and would soon start the second leg. But all was not well in TLC.
To understand the full picture, let's rewind to early 1999. Shortly before the release of FanMail, TLC began media promo with a Vibe magazine interview and photo shoot. The interview went well – or so it seemed. So imagine my surprise when, about a week after that interview, TLC’s publicist calls, saying that Lopes would like to speak with me. Ten minutes later, Left Eye was on the phone. “There’s something very important that I want you to put in the article,” she says. “It would mean something to me, so I was wondering if you could quote me on this one. Okay, here we go: I’ve graduated from this era. I cannot stand 100 percent behind this TLC project and the music that is supposed to represent me. This will be my last interview until I can speak freely about the truth and present myself on my solo project.”Wow. Care to add anything else?“Well, I’d kinda like to leave it at that.”It’s a little mysterious. Can you say anything about what’s going on?“Nooooo, not in the midst of things.”You don’t feel in a position to say what you want to say about your solo project?“No, not about the solo project. About the TLC project.”I think that you should say something more so that people can understand where you’re coming from. Leaving it that vague will only cause more speculation than any specific comment you might make.“I’d rather cause the speculation than a problem at this point.”No one in the group or at LaFace will offer any sort of response to Left Eye’s statement. So we are left to speculate.But this wasn’t the end of Lisa’s turmoil within TLC. It came to a head yet again during an infamous Entertainment Weekly photo shoot a few months later.…with a sigh that roughly translates as screw it, Chilli decides to let it all hang out. “Honestly, we’re tired of saying things, covering up, making it seem like it’s one thing and it’s really not. We’re stressed.”T-Boz: “And Lisa doesn’t respect…”…”respect the whole group. TLC has to stick together…”“She doesn’t stick with us.”“She doesn’t stick with us. And we have to argue to bring her back and focus… She wants to go solo and do other things, so that’s what she’s focused on, which is not fair to us.”Once the emotional floodgates open, the pair vent – often heatedly – for 45 minutes, railing about Lopes’ alleged derelictions and disloyalty, and at one point break into an a cappella version of the old O’Jays hit “Backstabbers.” They tell how, prior to the recording of FanMail, Lopes sent their label, LaFace, a letter saying she was quitting, an action that temporarily froze the group’s finances before she changed her mind (“The most evil, selfish, heartless thing anybody could ever do,” says Chilli); how she seems to undercut them by dissing them in interviews and ditching rehearsals; how she’s bitter that every one of the eight songs she’d written for FanMail was rejected; how she’s become distressingly capricious about decisions that affect them all.T-Boz says they’re “tired, tired, tired” of it. “We want her in the group, and she knows that,” Chilli continues. “So it’s almost like she feels she has the power to dangle meat in front of some hungry dogs, like, ‘I can do what I want, because I know they want me here.’ So she takes advantage. We’re covering up for her because we don’t want the fans to be mad at us. But we’re mad at HER.”“We lied live on MTV, saying she was sick,” adds T-Boz, referring to the TRL taping. “She was NOT sick.”“She was at the hotel, upset [with us],” says Chilli. “Left Eye is only concerned about Left Eye.” “We just want to let everybody know what we go through. This is what T-Boz and Chilli have to deal with.”Producer Dallas Austin, often referred to as the fourth member of TLC, chuckles when asked about the Left Eye situation. “They’re like sisters,” says Austin. “I’ve seen this for years. Lisa started playing into a lot of bad stuff in the press because she feels it’s her job. She’ll admit it, too, like ‘It’s my job to keep the press going.’ She does this wacky stuff, and the next day she’ll change her mind and the girls will get pissed. They did that Vibe story and Lisa said, ‘I’m not into TLC.’ Then she does another article and says, ‘I love the girls to death and I’ll never leave.’ … Lisa does it as part of her character, kind of like the guys in Oasis.”Austin confirms that Lopes was angered to the point of destruction by the fact that none of her songs were chosen for inclusion on FanMail. “She turned in eight songs, and they weren’t up to par,” he says. “It’s crazy, because she’d quit the group, then a couple of days later be like, ‘I’m back’ … She cries wolf a lot.”And what about the wolf-child herself?“Wow,” she says some days later, when confronted with Chilli’s and T-Boz’s charges. She takes a few moments to collect her thoughts, then, with seeming indifference to her groupmates frustrations, coolly acknowledges a history of intragroup disagreements. She readily admits to being willful, to missing rehearsals, to being preoccupied with a solo project, and, perhaps most significantly, to quitting TLC. “I guess it was about a year and a half ago, right before we started working on FanMail. The process was taking such a long time, the record company wasn’t really adamant about pushing TLC, so that was my attempt to raise eyebrows and get some attention. I wanted to make [LaFace] think, How important is TLC? Is it important enough that if one of us were to leave, you guys would get on the ball? That was my way of doing it. As soon as that happened, chaos broke out. As soon as I sent the letter, T-Boz and Chilli called me and said, ‘Please don’t leave the group, let’s do it one more time.’ I said, ‘That’s not a problem.’ From my perspective, me sending that letter did not take away or add to the relationship me and Chilli and T-Boz had. The problem was that we had different views and we wanted to go in separate directions.”Just how different are those views? Lopes claims she never wanted to tour in the first place. Her TRL sick-out was a form of protest, and unwillingness to play the promotion game.“I don’t think [touring] is the best move for us. We have an agreement where we can’t make big money decisions unless it’s unanimous. But sometimes they like to think that two thirds rule. That’s the part that pissed me off.”Given the unpretty picture painted by Chilli and T-Boz (who joke about replacing Left Eye with Virtual Vic-E if things don’t improve), and Left Eye’s righteous, if unruly, stance, it’ll take a load of tender loving care to hold these women together. But Austin, for one, is keeping the faith: “At the end of the day, all of them know TLC is their home. Left Eye wants attention. But she knows that if she drops out of this thing, that attention’s not gonna be there.”But the drama didn’t end there. A week after Entertainment Weekly ran the article above, Left Eye sent EW a letter proposing…THE CHALLENGE.On Nov. 11 the singer sent EW a letter characterizing Thomas and Watkins’ statement as:“…merely shouts from those who only have a fractional understanding of what business is in this business…Let it be understood that I am interested in making multimillion-dollar business deals. It seems that my two group members are not. This poses a serious conflict. Therefore, I propose The Challenge.” “I challenge Tionne ‘Player’ Watkins and Rozonda ‘Hater’ Thomas to an album entitled The Challenge. A 3 CD set that contains three solo albums. Each…will be due to the record label by October 1, 2000…. I also challenge Dallas ‘The Manipulator’ Austin….to produce all of the material and do it at a fraction of his normal rate. As I think about it, I’m sure LaFace would not mind throwing in a 1.5 million dollar prize for the winner. Billboard will determine the winner. After careful analysis of the tangled political web woven by my associates, I place the burden of TLC’s future in their hands. The challenge is on the table ladies and gentlemen…”“I was thinking we could release three singles at once and see whose does the best,” says Lopes in a subsequent phone interview, “but I’d have to talk to L.A. Reid to see what his ideas are.”For their part, Thomas and Watkins released this statement:“We think it’d be best to paraphrase the great poet Iyanla Vanzant…’At a time when unity is so desperately needed it is significantly lacking….Unity does not mean we will all believe in or do the same things. It means we will agree to do something without battling over how and why.” Though it sounds like her gauntlet won’t be picked up, Lopes remains defiant.“I just want to present The Challenge – they don’t have to take it,” says Left Eye. “I just want credit for my ideas, because I am the creative force behind TLC.”Things cooled down after this testy exchange, allowing TLC to finish the FanMail tour and take a short hiatus before working on their next album. Left Eye had an interview with CyberTLC nearly two years after The Challenge to reflect on the entire situation.“I’m not absolutely sure whose album would be better, to tell you the truth. I have a lot of confidence, I have high expectations, and I know that outside of the music, the creative aspect is very important. I believe that the ideas I did contribute to TLC were half-done, even though they were very successful. If I’m coming up with the album concepts, and I’m trying to explain the vision, no one can truly see that vision but me. As soon as the record company takes it, it’s just like, ‘Oh, my God – if only they had done it the way I envisioned it.’” With that, said, the question arises. Does Lisa view T-Boz and Chilli as her friends, or as her business partners? “Well, now I think of them more as business partners. I mean, they’re my friends, but probably more just…”CyberTLC said that fans weren’t very happy with how she characterized her relationship with T-Boz and Chilli, feeling as if she was still pouring gas on an open flame.“OH GOODNESS…PLEASE CALM DOWN. WE ARE ALL HAPPY THE WAY THINGS ARE RIGHT NOW NO MATTER IF IT’S CLASSIFIED AS BUSINESS OR FRIENDSHIP. TECHNICALLY, THIS IS WORK. IT’S HOW WE FEED OUR FAMILIES. IF YOU ARE TRUE TO THE HISTORY OF TLC THEN YOU WOULD KNOW THAT OUTSIDE OF WORK, WE NEVER HUNG OUT. WE ENJOY OUR PERSONAL SPACE & HAVE A LOVE FOR EACH OTHER THAT WILL NEVER DIE! GET REAL…”Throughout everything, one thing can be said without question. TLC never broke up. They stuck together and worked through their issues, recording TLC’s ‘3D’ album up until Lisa’s death. As dramatic as their relationship was at times, TLC stood for girl power, unity, and love. Behind all the words and emotions, TLC fans could see the love each girl in TLC had for each other – a love that never ended. -Thanks to CyberTLC for the article!