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TLC first hit pop radar in 1991, three cute hip-hop girls with a wacky yet PC gimmick--they had condoms pinned all over their clothes. Buoyed by an energetic video and rap-along hit ("Ain't Too Proud To Beg"), the album was a bonafide hit, selling 2 million records. At this point, the group might have reasonably faded away like so many other one-hit wonders of the era, having worked its image/gimmick to death. But no: The follow-up was a long time in the making--three years--and the girls underwent a complete image makeover into the "Crazysexycool" young women that the second album proclaimed them to be. A massive, top-notch marketing campaign, expensive videos(including one by glossmeister Matthew Rolston) and a genuinely good, Babyface-produced record paid off--over 5 million records sold.
As opposed to the debut album, Crazysexycool has barely any rapping on it, which can be interpreted partially as a change in tone (to a more mature R&B sound). It also may be due to the fact that a high-profile court case was taking up the time (and leaving uncertain the future) of TLC's cartoon-voiced rapper Lisa Lopez. In a spat with her boyfriend, Atlanta Falcons (now Cleveland Browns) receiver Andre Rison, the perkily cute Lopez set fire to his $861,000 mansion and reportedly smashed a couple of cars parked nearby. Although the couple reconciled almost immediately, the courts were a little more unforgiving. Lopez was fined $10,000, and sentenced to a 5-year probation and a stint in rehab for drinking. This aside, the three talented (and still very young) women can most likely look forward to many continued years of R&B-oriented success.
This Biography was written by Joy Ray of MusicLaunch.
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