TLC (group)
TLC is an American girl group formed in 1990 in Atlanta, Georgia. The group's best-known line-up was composed of Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins, Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, and Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas. The group enjoyed success during the 1990s,[1] with nine top-ten hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including four number-one singles: "Creep", "Waterfalls", "No Scrubs", and "Unpretty".[2] The group also recorded four multi-platinum albums, including CrazySexyCool (1994), which received a diamond certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).[3] TLC became the first R&B group in history to receive the million certification from the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) for FanMail (1999).[4]
TLC
Having sold over 65 million records worldwide, TLC is the best-selling American girl group of all time.[5][6] VH1 ranked TLC as the greatest female group, placing them at number 12 on the list of 100 Greatest Women in Music.[7] Billboard magazine ranked TLC as one of the greatest musical trios,[8] as well as the seventh-most-successful act of the 1990s. The group's accolades include four career Grammy Awards, five MTV Video Music Awards, and five Soul Train Music Awards.
Twenty years after their debut, TLC received the Outstanding Contribution to Music award at the 17th MOBO Awards and the Legend Award at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards Japan. Following Lopes's death in 2002, instead of replacing her, the remaining members chose to continue as a duo. In 2017, they released their eponymous fifth album TLC. In 2022, the group was inducted into the Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame.[9]
History[edit]
1990–1991: Formation and early years[edit]
In 1990, Atlanta-based record producer Ian Burke and one of his clients, a teenager named Crystal Jones, came up with a concept for a girl group with a tomboyish, hip-hop image, similar to the blend of contemporary R&B and hip-hop music of new jack swing act Bell Biv DeVoe.[10] Jones put out a call for two more girls to join her, eventually answered by Tionne Watkins, a native of Des Moines, Iowa, who had moved to Atlanta with her family at a young age, and Lisa Lopes, a rapper who had just moved to the city from her native Philadelphia with a small keyboard and $750 ($1,749 today). The group, then named "2nd Nature", was formed of Jones, Watkins, and Lopes, who then began working with producers Jermaine Dupri and Rico Wade on demo tape material.[10]
Headlining tours
Co-headlining tours
