TLC’s CrazySexyCool: Why the Diamond Classic Still Defines R&B 30 Years Later

When TLC stepped onto the scene in 1992, they broke the mold. While they were created in the image of Bell Biv DeVoe’s “hip-hop smoothed out on the R&B tip with a pop feel appeal to it” mission statement, TLC offered a different perspective. First off, they were women, so that immediately provided an antidote to BBD’s occasionally misogynist POV. Second, their sound was unique to the point of almost being avant-garde.

I’ve been thumbing through a book called “You’re History: The 12 Strangest Women in Music”, and there’s a reason why T-Boz, Left Eye and Chilli take their places on this list alongside Kate Bush and Janet Jackson (whose racier mid ‘90s image took a few cues from the table TLC set). No one sounded exactly like them before or since. And while this trio’s success is occasionally viewed as a triumph of production over talent, the reality is that there has yet to be a vocalist able to replicate T-Boz’s sandpapery rasp or Left Eye’s nasal chirp. Combined with Chilli’s more generic pop/R&B stylings and a visual image that prioritized loud colors, oversized everything and the shock value of strategically placed condoms on their bodies, TLC was a revelation. Like if someone went into a lab and combined Salt-N-Pepa, Millie Jackson and Babs Bunny from Tiny Toon Adventures. 

1994’s Crazysexycool, their diamond-certified sophomore album, takes their debut’s all-over-the-place energy and streamlines it. The sample-heavy noise of Ooh…on the TLC Tip is swapped out for slower tempos and cooler textures, very much in line with the changes R&B music made in the two years that had passed between those two albums. It’s a significantly more mature work, although the feminist edge and sense of daring remains.

While many listeners read the album title as a three-word title with one word each being used to describe a specific member of TLC (Left Eye as crazy, Chilli as sexy, T-Boz as cool), Crazysexycool is stylized as one word for a reason. The members of TLC maintained that the term described qualities that live in every woman, and the various roles they inhabit through these songs lets that definition play out. Those roles include seductress (“Red Light Special” and “Let’s Do It Again”), personal peace protector (“Case of the Fake People”), revenge cheater (“Creep”) and world-weary philosopher (“Waterfalls”). Sonically, the album’s team of producers (including Jermaine Dupri, Dallas Austin and Babyface) create a framework that’s contemporary while pushing at the edges of what was commercially impactful at the time. “Waterfalls” sounded like it had been beamed in from a Staple Singers record from twenty years prior, and album closer “Sumthin’ Wicked This Way Comes” had a darkness that was barely a step removed from Alice in Chains and Nirvana. 

There had already been a fairly significant of personal and career tumult experienced by the ladies in the group prior to Crazysexycool’s release (I’m not gonna use any more space to talk about the infamous fire than I need to, because it’s been covered so much). Who knew that the next few years would amplify the drama? Over the next decade, there was plenty:  from bankruptcy to illness to internal squabbles. There was also a pretty significant drop off in musical quality, as TLC’s subsequent two albums sounded way less fun and way more forced. Many thought that the group was finished when Left Eye passed away in 2002, but T-Boz and Chilli soldier on, largely as a nostalgia act. Crazysexycool is so solid a record that the ladies can still tour on it three decades later. More than that, though, it remains a sonically and culturally relevant album that still has its handprint on current pop music.