“CrazySexyCool” by TLC

One of the most impressive contributions to the 90s R&B canon from one of its greatest acts.

Hello! 😊👋

Welcome to a new edition of the Best Music of All Time newsletter!

Today’s music pick celebrates the 30th anniversary of TLC’s most impressive, important contribution to the 90s R&B lexicon.

Genre: R&B, Neo-Soul, Hip-Hop

Label: Arista

Release Date: November 15, 1994

Vibe: 🤪🥵😎

If I had to sum up TLC’s musical energy, it’d be, to paraphrase a famous song title of theirs, no BS. Broadly speaking, it’s a theme that runs through many of the sonic profiles of 90s R&B girl groups that I miss terribly. There’s this unmistakable authenticity, or, if I wanted to sound less naive about it, certainly messaging that was far less manicured by their corporate overlords or political punditry than it is today.

Artists like SWV, En Vogue, 702, Xscape, and the subject of this post, TLC, didn’t come across as shills for their labels. Sometimes, it was quite the opposite. I’m certain that when TLC’s members—Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas, and Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins—all pinned condoms to their clothing to promote healthier discussions about safe sex, they ruffled conservative feathers but didn’t cow down to those ideals. These days, Olivia Rodrigo can’t distribute contraceptives at her concerts because I guess, as a society, we can’t accept that teens are having sex. Still.

It’s one small drop in the massive pot that represents how influential TLC has been during their commercial peak, which crested with this LP, CrazySexyCool. The trio has sold north of 65 million records worldwide, making them the biggest American girl group ever. They accomplished that against some steep odds, too, which I’d like to acknowledge for a moment. Lopes, pegged by fans as the “crazy” component in the album’s title, struggled with mental health and addiction issues before she passed away at age 30 in 2002. Watkins has battled sickle-cell anemia and, against some professionals’ advice because of that condition, had a brain tumor removed in the late 2000s. Thomas admitted she regretted getting an abortion at 20, in part because she chose her career over parenthood.

But, in spite of those challenges, they crafted some of the most enduring R&B hits of the last 40 years, setting the standard for other empowering female voices who’d follow in their footsteps. “TLC has influenced just about every female group that’s out there now, and they definitely influenced Destiny’s Child,” Beyoncé wrote in 2002.

Everything that makes the trio so special is on full display on CrazySexyCool, a record that’s slicker and steamier than their debut without sacrificing the liberating, sexually independent tone of their debut, Ooooooohhh... on the TLC Tip. This album also sounds less all over the place tonally, settling into a steady, hip-hop-influenced groove of a piece with other LaFace artists like Usher, Donell Jones, and Toni Braxton. Singles like “Creep” and “Diggin’ on You” are among the sultriest of 90s pop cuts, with T-Boz’s matter-of-fact talk-sing style proving far more effective than any grandiose belting would’ve been. When she remarks that she only fools around because she “[needs] some affection,” it’s as much an invitation to get on her level, physically and emotionally, than a simple recounting of infidelity.

The best examples of TLC’s singular, effortless style behind the mic are when they’re contrasted with another legendary R&B act, Prince. He adored the girl group and granted them an honor he seldom doled out: permission to cover one of his tracks. In their version of “If I Was Your Girlfriend,” T-Boz plays up the ironic angle with her delivery. It’s less cloying than Prince’s original, less obsessed with foisting a relationship upon the object of their desire. Instead, she uses the opportunity to let you know what you’re missing out on if you don’t make her your girlfriend. The difference is somewhat subtle but noticeable. The trio also invokes more than a little Purple One energy in “Red Light Special,” which is one of the sexiest songs of the decade. The Babyface production, featuring some underrated guitar work, is perfectly pitched, hitting you somewhere between the afterparty and the bedroom.

What I wasn’t expecting—or didn’t remember since the last time I played this record all the way through—was how funny it was. The punchlines range from sophomoric, like on the phone sex prank that makes up one of the interludes, to the shade that Lopes sneaks into certain verses along the way. On “Kick Your Game,” it’s impossible not to think of her one-time NFL star boyfriend, Andre Rison when she derisively talks about boning on the 50-yard line. That sense of humor was a welcome throughline from one TLC album to the next, especially as they became more frequent tabloid fodder.

Amid all that exceptional material, one track from CrazySexyCool stands above the rest. Produced and co-written with Organized Noise, Lopes and songwriter Marqueze Etheridge pull off the near-impossible: craft a pop anthem about something without resorting to preachy, grandstanding nonsense. The trio’s harmonies, particularly on that iconic chorus, are just as airy as the smooth, laid-back instrumental. The sum of those parts is so light and digestible that you forget that the song’s lyrics are about drug abuse and the HIV/AIDS epidemic. According to Watkins, that combination legitimately changed lives for the better.

As she told the Guardian:

“Not long after the song came out, I was doing a book-signing and a man came up to me and held my hand. ‘I didn’t kill myself because of you,’ he said. ‘I felt like nobody understood. But I felt like you guys understood how people can end up in my situation.’

“The day before recording, I’d been in a car with Lisa. We saw a beautiful rainbow. That’s how her rap starts: ‘I seen a rainbow yesterday.’ She’d been through a lot with the house burning down, she’d been locked up in the Centre for drug and alcohol treatment. That was serious, what she said was real. It was for herself and everyone else who had been down the wrong path chased the wrong things. And she really did see that rainbow – and it made her feel good about life and remember how precious it is. That song still has meaning 25 years on.”

In another 25, 30, or even 50 years, I’m sure we’ll be saying the same thing. Not just about “Waterfalls,” but about CrazySexyCool as an artistic statement.

👉 Don’t forget to click the album image to stream the album on your favorite platform 👈