TLC Explains Why They Released A Version Of “Waterfalls” Without Left Eye (EXCLUSIVE)
A couple of days ago, news came out that the family of the deceased Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes was bothered by the fact that the two remaining members of TLC, Chilli and T-Boz, recorded and released a version of the group’s iconic hit “Waterfalls” without Lisa’s stellar verse.
(In the updated version, which is a 20-year anniversary remix intended for fans in Japan, she was replaced by Japanese pop star Namie Amuro.)
TLC has finally spoken up about what the deal is. In an exclusive press release given to GlobalGrind, the group explained why they scratched Lisa off the song, claiming that it was done because they don’t own the masters to Lisa’s raps.
According to Chilli:
“Our re-make of ‘Waterfalls’ was a tribute to our sister Lisa, who actually co-wrote ‘Waterfalls’ with Marqueze Etheridge. We don’t own the Master recording rights to Lisa’s raps on any of our music, and our requests to gain the rights so far have been denied. With the Japanese anniversary edition, we were forced to use creative ways to honor Lisa’s memory and celebrate this milestone with our fans.”
T-Boz goes on to explain that Lisa would probably have approved of Namie being on the remix:
“Lisa met Namie with us back in 1999 and she knew how much of a TLC fan Namie is; we were also impressed with how talented she is as a solo artist. Lisa being one of the most creative people I have ever met, would’ve been the first to have other talented artists covering our music. It is a tribute to her memory, and one I know she would appreciate.”
T-Boz also said that the group reached out to the Lopes family before they recorded the remix:
“Our management reached out to Ron Lopes prior to the record being released, to let him know that Namie would be performing to ‘Lisa’s’ lyrics. We have and always will protect our sister’s legacy as TLC consists of the three of us collectively. Although we have and will collaborate with other artists, there will never be a replacement for Lisa or any members in TLC.”
Expect to hear a new TLC album sometime later on this year.
