Biography
Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes stood out as the flashiest personality within the award-winning, multi-platinum contemporary R&B trio TLC, where she performed as both singer and rapper until her fatal accident in 2002 at age 30. Besides TLC’s major singles “Creep,” “Waterfalls,” “No Scrubs,” and “Unpretty,” she completed the solo album Supernova (2001), issued internationally shortly before her death. Born in Philadelphia, PA, on May 27, 1971, she relocated to Atlanta, GA, in 1990 and helped form TLC soon afterward. After the group signed with LaFace Records, the Atlanta imprint operated by Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds and Antonio “L.A.” Reid, TLC cut its debut album with Dallas Austin, Jermaine Dupri, Marley Marl, Babyface, and Reid. The resulting Ooooooohhh.... On the TLC Tip (1992) broke through commercially and generated Top Ten singles “Ain’t 2 Proud 2 Beg,” “What About Your Friends,” and “Baby-Baby-Baby,” which captured the trio’s early new jack swing and hip-hop leanings. From the outset Lopes projected the boldest image, famously taping an unwrapped condom over the left lens of her glasses for early press appearances while favoring oversized hats, vivid clothing, and numerous tattoos. Following TLC’s breakthrough she began a stormy relationship with Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Andre Rison; on June 9, 1994, she set fire to a pile of his shoes in a bathtub, accidentally destroying his mansion. The incident produced a five-year probation term and a rehabilitation stay. Later that year, after the widely reported arson, TLC released CrazySexyCool (1994), a blockbuster that replaced the earlier new jack swing approach with a sleeker, more sensual contemporary R&B sound, again under Babyface, Austin, and Dupri; the album yielded Top Five hits “Creep,” “Red Light Special,” “Waterfalls,” and “Diggin’ on You,” earned eleven-times platinum status in the U.S., and collected multiple awards, including Grammys and four MTV Video Music Awards. The follow-up FanMail (1999), once more produced by the same team, repeated the success with chart-topping singles “No Scrubs” and “Unpretty.” Internal friction had grown pronounced by then, most visibly when Entertainment Weekly printed a November 28, 1999, letter in which Lopes challenged her bandmates to release solo albums to settle who possessed the greatest talent. Her colleagues responded by labeling her egotistical and self-absorbed. Lopes nevertheless moved forward, preparing Supernova (2001) for Arista Records; the label released it overseas, where it reached the U.K. Top 20, but shelved the U.S. edition after lead single “The Block Party” underperformed. Disappointed, she discussed recording for Suge Knight’s new Tha Row Records imprint, yet died in a car crash in La Ceiba, Honduras, on April 25, 2002, at age 30. Posthumous projects—the TLC album 3D (2002) and her solo set Eye Legacy (2009)—include reworked fragments of her remaining recordings.
Albums
