Twenty-one years ago on November 15, 1994, the game-changing second album CrazySexyCool by super girl-group TLC was released to the universe. Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes better known as Crazy, Rozanda “Chilli” Thomas a.k.a Sexy, and the sultry Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins better known as Cool along with sensational productions by Organized Noize, Puff Daddy, Dallas Austin, Babyface, Jermaine Dupri and collaborations with Busta Rhymes and A Tribe Called Quest, single handedly redefined R&B, Hip Hop, Funk and Pop by essentially not having a genre at all.
The genre was the “TLC Tip” which was an extension of their debut album Ooooooooh….On The TLC Tip! released in 1992. CrazySexyCool further explained what the TLC Tip was. The funky, raw, Atlanta, groovy beats layered by T-Boz’ sultry, low and groovy tone, specifically on the earth-shattering lead single “Creep”. It was their first number-one single and remained number one on the Billboard charts for four weeks straight. It still gets us out of our seats to do the butterfly when we hear it. CrazySexyCool gave us more of Chilli’s smooth, womanly vocals throughout the album like on the cuts “Diggin’ On You” and “Red Light Special” (both hit singles from the album, respectively).
A noticeably lesser-presence from CrazySexyCool was Left Eye’s energetic, high-pitched rap verses that we saw in much of Oooooooh…On The TLC Tip! album. During much of the recording of CrazySexyCool in 1994, Left Eye was serving time in rehabilitation for her personal demons connected to the arsony and burning down of her boyfriend’s Atlanta mansion. She wasn’t able to spend much time in the studio to lay down tracks and help create the CrazySexyCool definitive sound, yet some of the most memorable and raw moments of the album come from Left Eye. Such as her poetry-turned-verse on their biggest single yet “Waterfalls”, a timeless track with a deep message concerning young people moving too quickly in life, drug abuse, and unprotected sex leading to HIV/AIDS. It spent seven weeks at number one on Billboard. Left Eye wrote the poem one day en route to the recording studio from rehabilitation:
I seen rainbow yesterday
But too many storms have come and gone
Leavin’ a trace of not on God-given ray
Is it because my life is ten shades of gray
I pray all ten fade away
Seldom praise Him for the sunny days
And like his promise is true
Only my faith can undo
The many chances I blew
To bring my life to anew
Clear blue and unconditional skies
Have dried the tears from my eyes
No more lonely cries
My only bleedin’ hope
Is for the folk who can’t cope
Wit such an endurin’ pain
That it keeps ’em in the pourin’ rain
Who’s to blame
For tootin’ caine in your own vein
What a shame
You shoot and aim for someone else’s brain
You claim the insane
And name this day in time
For fallin prey to crime
I say the system got you victim to your own mind
Dreams are hopeless aspirations
In hopes of comin’ true
Believe in yourself
The rest is up to me and you
My personal favorite highlight of the album is the confidently sexy, in yo face jam “Kick Your Game”. The Jermaine Dupri-produced track manages to take you to an Atlanta penthouse party with your crew rolling deep in your locked out steez. The beat just knocks you off the wall as T-Boz and her bossy confidence declares she “steps into the room, checkin’ out the scenery—all I see is everybody tryin’ to get with me. Left Eye impresses by rhyming in both perspectives of herself and an overly aggressive man who is alluded to be Andre Rizon but doesn’t name check. That track embodies how different each girl is and what makes TLC so special.
CrazySexyCool debuted at number three on the Billboard charts, and spent over two years there. To this day it has sold over 23 million copies worldwide. That is a huge feat, especially in the music industry. Let’s raise a glass and celebrate twenty-one years of TLC and this classic album.
digginmysteelo 