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Legendary. Untouchable. Creator.

All of those words can easily be used to describe Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes and the mark she left when she passed away in 2002.

However, not one of those adjectives can I see ever being associated with Lil’ Mama for anything that she has ever done.

Unfortunately for Lil Mama, she has framed an image of herself that portrays her to be desperate and struggling in this dog-eat-dog industry.

As someone who appreciates the craft that Left Eye so amazingly mastered, I am completely outraged at someone even having let Mama audition.

Not only did Miss Lopes incorporate a unique spoken word rhythm into her raps, but every word she spit could be felt from the deepest part of heart and brain.

With lines like, “Where the cowards live under the dirt and the flowers/Ready to come up in the darkest hour. It ain’t the courage of my persona you wanna admire, it’s the faith/Cause with the faith I can walk through the fire.”

Or even her famous: “Dreams are hopeless aspirations in hopes of coming true/Believe in yourself, the rest is up to me and you.”

Let’s remember what Lil’ Mama and Left Eye are most remembered for:

Lil’ Mama made a hit song about lip gloss, and then ruined Jay-Z’s 2009 VMA performance by randomly hopping up on stage because she was “feeling the moment.” 

Left Eye was in the ’90s group TLC that made hit after hit, with her most memorable verse on the song “Waterfalls,” which is even carved into her tombstone.

No disrespect to Lil’ Mama and her hustle, but she just doesn’t fit the part. I can’t get mad that she’s trying to boost her career, but playing Left Eye in a biopic is crawling into majorly sensitive territory.

All I’m going to see when Lil’ Mama makes her Left Eye debut is Jay brushing her off saying, “You’re T-Pain-ing right now.” She might be talented on the low, but that image is forever burnt into my brain.

It just goes to show that celebrities shouldn’t be playing these iconic roles for biopics.

Look at the disaster of Liz & Dick that Lindsay Lohan brought to the table. Not only did she not even look like Elizabeth Taylor, but she couldn’t stay in character throughout the film in its entirety.

It’s clear that Lindsay was too well known for her catastrophic lifestyle off-screen to be able to suck us into a new character on-screen.

Whoever is holding these auditions had a better idea when it came to finding the perfect person to play Notorious B.I.G. for his biopic. Rapper Gravy was a much better choice for Biggie compared to Lindsay as Elizabeth Taylor.

Although he had his foot in the door in the rap world and was becoming better known, he wasn’t so mainstream and hadn’t soiled his own image for every viewer of Notorious just yet.

For someone who had never heard of or seen Gravy prior to his Biggie debut, he looked like a spitting image of the legendary rapper, and played the character as well as I would hope any Biggie look-alike would.

So, Lil’ Mama, I think you might need to reconsider your newfound career move. It’s damaging to not only you, but to the fans of rap who loved Left Eye and want to see her honored properly. You just can’t recreate the Eye Legacy!

Please, do us all a favor and have a seat before another veteran rapper hands you one again.

Lindsey India

Follow a pathetically adorable weirdo who has access to the world wide web on Twitter: @LindseyIndia