By M and DZone
It was exactly two weeks ago today (April 25, 2002) when we all heard the news of the fatal car crash in Honduras causing the death of Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes from the top selling female trio TLC.
While the news Lopes death, who would have made 31 at the end of this month on the 27th, may have prompted an immediate and sterile outpouring of statements from those who love her, recycling the usual comments such as “like family to me,” “she will be missed,” and “she was a great artist,”…and so the comments go, they did no justice to the loving, lively, and often outspoken and controversial being she was.
Not only did the usual statements neglect to relay an accurate description of Lopes, the media did even worse. After hearing the news of her death on Friday morning, I flip through channel after channel trying to gain more insight about her death, however I only got little breaking news bits…you know the quick flashes that really don’t give you any information. More importantly, not was I extremely surprised, but thoroughly disappointed that neither MTV or VH1, the supposedly beacons of the music network focused very little on conveying information about Lopes’ death and her absence in the music world in which they supposedly live.
Granted the entire TLC trio didn’t die together in some unusual way; but her death mandated more attention than it received in the few revolving lines under video clips, by the networks that benefited greatly from her group’s gift to the pop industry over the past decade. After all she was the “L” in the female group TLC’s name and the “C” in their “Crazy-Sexy-Cool” image. Nonetheless, I have yet to read or see any major tributes to her life as an artist and a humanitarian. The news of her death seemed to focused more on the car crash in Honduras that the extraordinary life she lead.
Albeit Lopes wasn’t a “great” artist in the since of the word as compared to R&B greats like Nina Simone, Phyllis Hyman, and other legends which bare no comparison. However, her bold, edgy, colorful, sweet yet temperamental “round-the-way girl” attitude, gave TLC the flavor they needed to become one of the most successful R&B groups of the 1990s.
Born in Philadelphia, Lopes, the youngest and most charismatic member of TLC grew up the daughter of Ronald Lopes, an adept musician and alcoholic Army veteran. “My dad was real strict,” Lopes told Vibe magazine in 1994. “He was in the military and he treated me, my sister, my brother and my mother like we were in boot camp. He looked at me like I was the brightest, and expected more from me. I always got beaten before they did. He used to make me mad. It was unfair.”
The hard-drinking ways that complicated her adult life and career began at home. “My father is responsible for my drinking,” she told Vibe. “He gave me my first drink, and my hundredth drink. And we drank for years.”
Rebelling against a volatile domestic life Lopes at 17, followed her boyfriend to Atlanta where the TLC group was formed with Watkins and Thomas. The trio’s 1992 debut LP, Ooooooohhh…On the TLC Tip, produced the top ten hits “Baby-Baby-Baby,” “Ain’t 2 Proud 2 Beg,” and “What About Your Friends.” Their “girl-power” distinctive blend of Pop, R&B and Hip Hop, b-style captivated fans, helping the trio become instant stars. With condoms on her clothes, hat shifted to the back and sagging, baggy pants, the inborn rapper among two singers, Left Eye immediately stood out.
Two years later in 1994, TLC proved their staying power with the runaway success LP Crazysexycool expanding its message and its fanbase, offering songs like “Creep” (exploring relationship infidelity) and “Waterfalls” (which addressed a number society’s ills).
1999’s Fanmail (a creation Lisa came up with) catapulted TLC back to the forefront as newer younger girl groups like Destiny’s Child, 3LW, and 702 were emerging onto the scene. They continued to provide hip, street and very personal messages in their songs. The bass-heavy “Silly Ho”(produced by Dallas Austin), the independent get rid of dead weight the Grammy award-winning “No Scrubs” (produced by Kevin She’kspere Briggs and Kandi Burruss of Xscape), the sassy, brash radio smash “I’m Good At Being Bad”(produced by Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis) and the moving self-esteem anthem of “Unpretty” (produced by Dallas Austin) made Fanmail a huge multi-platinum success and broadened their fanbase to newer heights.
More than any other member of the group, Left Eye became a character, and what she did off stage, became just as (if not more interesting) than what she did onstage. Away from the studio, she brought the drama that would keep the world fixated on them. In the five years between Crazysexycool and their third LP, Fan Mail, Lopes set fire to the mansion of her on again/off again boyfriend/fiancé, Atlanta Falcons receiver Andre Rison & football star, Andre Rison in 1994 when she got fed up with his staying out all night.
Lopes admitted she started the fire after an argument with Rison. So she pleaded guilty to arson for the fire that destroyed Rison’s mansion and was sentenced to a halfway house for a short time to treat her battle w/alcohol, five years probation, plus a $10,000 fine.
Clearly, arson is a detestable crime, and it became the shackle Lopes could never shake. But despite overshadowing the quality pop music she helped create for more than a decade, the incident and its aftermath illustrate an airtight point about Lopes: She did things her way, and you could either deal with it or find another “TLC” to listen to.
Strange enough, Rison stayed with her right by her side during all her much-publicized court appearances. It made men all over America shout at their televisions, “Man, she burned your house down! Yet there was something about her he just couldn’t leave. The two-said last year that they had planned to marry.
Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins and Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas also stayed with her too, despite being angry over her threats to go solo two years ago, in the middle of their most successful LP tour (Fanmail).
In an interview with the AP in 2000, Watkins dismissed talk of a serious rift. “With three women, you agree to disagree. I’m not always going to agree with Lisa and she’s not always going to agree with me, that’s fine,” she said.
Although TLC were said to be working on the their fourth LP for months. Lopes dropped another shocker at the beginning of last year when she reportedly signed a solo deal with Suge Knight’s Death Row label to put out a solo project in Los Angeles under the pseudonym, “N.I.N.A.” “Nina” a slang for a 9 MM handgun, Left Eye said her Row moniker stood for “New Identity Non-Applicable”
By many accounts, Lopes had matured recently and begun to take family matters very seriously. She told the Sunday Times of London in October that she had adopted the troubled 8-year-old daughter (Snow) of a friend. (She also had a hand in helping to raise Mally G, a former member of young rap duo Illegal.) Last year her highly anticipated official solo debut “Supernova” was released overseas and it marked a sign of maturity and creativity. It hosted a number of marquee producers such as Rockwilder among others. The lead single “Block Party received constant rotation in Europe.
TLC will be remembered as one of the few all-girl groups that actually tried tackling issues like AIDS and the self-image turmoil of teen girls and young women. TLC didn’t change the world, but its members did enough to make an impact on the world of music. The trio’s strength was its personalities, of which Lopes had the most extravagant. Like her or not, there aren’t enough women like Lopes in the world, especially in pop music, where stars are insulated by dozens of people paid to be concerned with image.
Throughout it all, Lopes held her head high and spoke her mind on everything. No matter how outrageous the situation, Lopes would seem to trump it with an even more outrageous opinion and if you didn’t like it, too bad.
She was creature of the moment. True to style, clever, witty, & charming and in the light of all her quixotic traits, her devotions to her family & fans never strayed. She had strong ties to her mother Wanda, brother Ronald and sister Raina (who were in the accident that took her life).
According to her publicist, Lopes the person was much more than Left Eye the celebrity, as many are learning now. She was as an entrepreneur on the come up (a record company called ‘Left Eye Productions’ , a publishing company. called ‘U.N.I. Publishing, Inc. and clothing line in the works), a mother and a humanitarian who in her own words had “a huge and genuine concern for all of mankind,” especially children and the elderly.
Lisa Lopes had deep interest in spiritual and physical cleansing. This led her to Honduras, where she would visit an herbalist known as Dr. Sebie. She always discussed about what she was doing in Honduras as far as holistic medicine and meditation. “If she was anyone’s publicist it was him,” Marose said of Sebie. “She believed in his cleansing process. There are things you can’t eat during that time. There are things you can eat and drink – water, herbs. She lived it. It was near religious for her.”
“This is this is not a place she went on vacation,” Vibe magazine Editor-at-Large Mimi Valdes said. Last year Valdes went to Honduras with Left Eye for a story. “It was not a ‘Let me go get a sun tan at the beach’ type of thing. This is a place where she was fasting or being healthy or cleansing in these hot spring waters. This was a place [where she said,] ‘I can get away from being Left Eye the pop star and I can come here and get my head together and focus.
TLC’s remaining members will press on and complete the group’s fourth album despite the loss of their friend and group mate Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, according to Arista Records. “As for Lisa being replaced-never,” Thomas said. “You can’t replace a TLC girl. The chemistry we have is something God gave us. You can’t replace that.”
Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins and Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas are keeping mum about the album’s title, but as with the trio’s previous releases it was “Left Eye” who conceived the name. Arista hopes to release the album later this year.
In the aftermath since Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes’ death, fans who traveled many miles to her funeral in Lithoinia, Georgia, and the many well-wishers who knew the softness behind the tough and complex exterior know she has now reached a divine serenity. Like other famous recording artists who passed away before her – Aaliyah, 2Pac, Biggie, Big Pun, Eazy-E and others, she was a humble, yet an enigma that served her life with trials, tribulations, joys and achievements. And despite all she endured, she will be eternally remembered as an unforgettable, one-of-a-kind, spiritual, and a uniquely “crazy” spirit that has traveled to new challenges because all tasks here weren’t in any way comparable for what’s to come. Rest in Peace Lisa. PUB
Lisa Nicole Lopes: Left Eye
Born: May 27, 1971
Birth Hometown: Philadelphia, PA
Favorite Artists: Janet Jackson, Donell Jones
Sign: Gemini
Height: 5′1″
Weight: 105 lbs.
Began performing: began musical career as a rapper in Philly; performed in school plays and performances; talented in creative writing, sewing and dancing role in TLC: rapper; writes many of the lyrics
Lifetime projects:
A featured musician in the hit song “Not Tonight – The Remix” – along with ‘Lil Kim, Missy Elliot
Hosted MTV show ‘The Cut’
Featured artist on the song “Cradle Rock”, part of Method Man’s album “Tical 2000″
Provided the notable, potent hook to Donell Jones #1 R & B smash “U Know What’s Up” (remix)
Ran own record company called ‘Left Eye Productions’ & has started own publishing co. called ‘U.N.I. Publishing, Inc.’
Released her own solo album this year called Fantasy1.com – guest musicians stared Erick Sermon, Wyclef of the Fugees, the Bandits, Tangi, among others.
Helped start the group “Blaque,” an R&B trio who had the hit “Bring It Home To Me.”
Calvin Klein & Guess model
Name the trio’s (TLC) past LP’s
Won multiple Grammy’s, American Music Awards, and Soul Train Awards (including Lady Of Soul Awards) for offerings from 1994’s CrazySexyCool (Waterfalls & Creep) and 1999’s Fanmail (No Scrubs)
Lisa “Lefteye” Lopes homepage http://www.eyenetics.com/
