TLC |
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Thu. November 21.2002 3:36 PM EST |
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TLC: Girl Talk about Love, Life, and Left-EyeOn 3D they say goodbye to a friend, and keep the R&B party going strong. by Holly Vogler |
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TLC (VH1.com) |
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The long-running soap opera called TLC appeared to have come to an end in April with the tragic death of Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes. Lopes was the Atlanta trio’s fiery spirit - she once challenged her TLC partners T-Boz and Chilli to a solo album showdown
On their fourth album 3D, T-Boz and Chilli have picked up the pieces. “Girl Talk” runs through the guy gossip that takes place in a club's powder room, and it spotlights the group's knack for of-the-moment pop, and chatty use of lingo. But T-Boz and Chilli pay respect to their fallen mate with a newfound dignity, too. “Dirty Dirty” calls for the moment of silence in the midst of a Timbaland club banger, and the gorgeous ballad “Turntable” vows to carry on in the face of adversity. Left-Eye may be gone, but TLC are ready to start a new chapter in her honor. When T-Boz and Chilli came into the VH1 studios, they appeared to have put all their drama behind them, merrily impersonating Valley Girls for our forthcoming show I Love the ‘80s and trading quips as comfortably as a veteran comedy team. When not chatting about their career business, they discussed talking about guys, working with Missy Elliott, and disclosing a little something about Chilli's love life. VH1: I understand you’ve got a secret, Chilli. Usher told us you’re his girlfriend. What’s up with that? Chilli: I’ve always known Usher. We’ve always been around each other. I never looked at him in that way because he was younger than me. I was just like, “Oh, he’s so cute.” But he grew up. Brother, he grew up! I decided to just go ahead and go out with him. I found out he was an amazing person. He believes in God. He loves his mother. He loves me. He loves my son. I asked God to send me someone who is perfect for me in my situation, someone tailor-made for me. And there he was, under my nose, the whole time. I didn’t even know it! [Watch Clip] VH1: Fanmail was an enormous success. How did you approach this record? Were you trying to top it? T-Boz: You grow between each album, but it’s hard to try and top yourself. We stick with our original formula. That always works for us. If it’s not broke don’t fix it! VH1: Why did you decide to carry on with the group after Left-Eye’s death? Chilli: We all started out together and we’re gonna carry it through together. This is what Lisa would have wanted us to do. We want to make sure the whole world knows about her and her memory lives on forever through me and T-Boz. VH1: You dedicated the album to her. How else did you pay tribute to Left-Eye on 3D? Chilli: She’s physically not here but she is in spirit. This [album was] something that we wanted really badly. She put so much energy into this album, how could we not dedicate it to her? That will also squash all the rumors of TLC breaking up. There was never ever a break-up. We love each other. T-Boz: There is one specific song dedicated to her. “Turntable” talks about how something good can come after bad. A lot of people can get something out of it. That’s an important song to us. [Watch Clip] VH1: Who came up with the title 3D? T-Boz: Lisa did. We all looked to [her to] pick the title because that was her thing. She was brilliant when it comes to that. 3D means the three dimensions of TLC. We call this album our Crazysexycool to the tenth power. It’s the best of T-Boz, Left Eye and Chili. That’s what we’re trying to give you – all sides of TLC. If you like everything we’ve done before, this is a whole album of that! VH1: You’ve said that you tried to recapture the vibe of your first album, Ooooooohhh … On the TLC Tip, while making 3D. You didn’t all record your parts separately this time. Chilli: It was so much fun, man. All three of us together in the studio, sitting down waiting for you to finish your part. T-Boz: It really was like old times: Getting on each other’s nerves … “Won’t you hurry up? I got to go!” We had to [make it like] that to get this album out and make it live and breathe, because we were so excited to do this together. VH1: On “Girl Talk,” you turn the tables on how men talk about women. What inspired that? T-Boz: Guys talk too much. I don’t see why it’s okay for guys to say things and girls can’t. Why not? Chilli: And when they do talk, we don’t try to run into the studio to get an answer, like when we came out with “No Scrubs,” and then Sporty Thievz had to come back with “No Pigeons.” It’s like, “Okaaay.” What do we say [to each other]? [That] a hit dog will holler? T-Boz: Guys talk a lot, so we just need them to know that we talk, too. If a girl has a bad experience then [pretends to talk into her cell phone], “Girl, he was terrible the other night.” No matter where you live, whatever nationality, we all talk about the same things. [Watch Clip] VH1: The “Girl Talk” video takes you all over. There are sequences set in the South and in Tokyo. Where did you make it? Chilli: Man, that video was so much fun to do. We did that in the Dirty South! ATL - Atlanta, Georgia, our hometown. That’s a big thing for us. T-Boz: We’ve never done our videos in Atlanta. Chilli: It was fun because we had all these different locations and we wanted to show people about girls talking in different countries. So you see the rainforest, and we have a location set up in Tokyo! T-Boz: All right at home in Atlanta! VH1: What do you like best about the video? Chilli: I liked it because we got a chance to dance. That was the best part to me. We had little kids with the Left-Eye mark. We also had animation. Because TLC’s a very animated group. It wasn’t a surprise, I’m sure, for people to see us like that, because that’s how we look anyway. T-Boz: Like action figures or something! VH1: Why did you use different producers like the Neptunes, Timbaland, and Rodney Jerkins on the album? T-Boz: We always stick with our original formula. We always work with Dallas Austin, Babyface, Daryl Simmons and Organized Noize. But this time we made it happen with some of the people we’ve always wanted to work with. They also wanted to work with us, so that was cool! We sat down and had a talk about our TLC sound and what we wanted them to bring to the table. Everybody brought some great songs. VH1: Missy Elliott helped you on your album and you returned the favor on her Under Construction disc on the track “Can You Hear Me.” What was it like working with her? Chilli: That song is her tribute song to Aaliyah. She also wanted the song to talk about Lisa, Biggie and Tupac. So she reached out to us and we were more than happy [to do it]. She’s a very good friend of ours and we can relate on this certain issue. She understands how we feel. VH1: Will you ever tour again? Chilli: Well, to be on a tour night after night on the road without Lisa would be uncomfortable. We are going to promote the album, of course. We’ll do television shows and stuff. We want to work! T-Boz: We’ll be on award shows. We’ll be visible. Chilli: You won’t miss us! VH1: Have you ever thought of doing solo projects? Chilli: If I can just be in TLC and record TLC forever, that would be fine. We have three individuals in this group. We are three different artists in a group that works. As far as doing solo stuff, right now it’s about 3D for me. I just want to work on this and do this for Lisa! T-Boz: We want to be happy and healthy. That’s the most important thing these days! VH1: Will you record another album at some point? Chilli: TLC will have a greatest hits disc. We have songs that the three of us have recorded together that you haven’t heard. We’ll see what happens. We have a lot of things to focus on in this project. That’s hard enough as it is. We’ll get past this one and check on the other stuff tomorrow. One day at a time, that’s how we’ve got to take it. |
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