TLC, Salt-N-Pepa, et En Vogue

Formed in 1991 by Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes and Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas, TLC were quick to find a record deal, singing with L.A. Reid and Babyface’s new label, LaFace. Only a year after their formation, the group released their debut album, “Ooooooohhh… On the TLC Tip,” capturing the nation’s attention with their lively tracks and colorful image.

Yet despite this success, life wasn’t easy for the group, after Lopes was charged with arson and received five years probation for burning down her partner’s (NFL wide receiver, Andre Rison) Atlanta mansion. Despite the bad publicity, their second album, “CrazySexyCool” did not suffer in its reception, with the more mature release finding a number one hit in “Creep,” along with a number of Top Five singles in 1994. With the single “Waterfalls” spending seven weeks at number one, TLC were one of the biggest names in pop, selling over 11 million copies of their album and rounding out the year with a Grammy Award for ‘Best R&B Album.’

Financial difficulties dampened this euphoria, with TLC filing for bankruptcy only a year later. Subsequent years were spent settling their financial affairs, not releasing a new album until 1999, with “Fantail.” The album went straight to number one, eventually selling six times Platinum, as well as winning another Grammy for ‘Best R&B Album’ once again. Subsequently, tensions between the trio became public, with the stars often appearing in the tabloid press.

Work on a new album became challenging, due to Lopes’ solo commitments, as well as Watkins’ illness, who suffered from Sickle Cell Anaemia. Tragedy was soon to befall TLC, after Lopes was killed in a car accident in Honduras, not long after she had signed a new solo contract with Suge Knight’s label, The Row. The surviving members decided to continue, completing their third album, “3D” in 2002, featuring production from a host of names, including Timbaland, Missy Elliot and longtime producer Dallas Austin. The album went double-Platinum, continuing to find TLC commercial success.

In 2003, Watkins and Thomas performed at New York’s Zootropia concert, hinted to be their last performance. After a brief jaunt into reality T.V., the duo decided to return as TLC in 2009, planning a new record. “20” was released in 2013, an anthology of their hits, including a new song, “Meant To Be,” a track written by Ne-Yo. Their career was then memorialised by VH1, in their movie, “CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story.”

Salt-N-Pepa are trailblazers, pure and simple. Arriving at a time when hip-hop was considered a fad and would be finished by the end of the 1980’s, they were a huge part of the genre’s legitimization in the public eye and would go on to have the biggest selling album by a female rap act with their fourth effort “Very Necessary” and also be the first female winners of a Grammy award in a rap category for their single “None Of Your Business”.

James and Denton formed the group as a duo initially, debuting in 1985 with the single “The Showstopper” under the name Super Nature. The single was discovered by Pop Art Records and became a hit on the R&B charts. From the start the duo set about tearing down the standards and stereotypes of how women in Hip-Hop should be, owning their sexuality and empowering themselves through it long before anyone else thought to.

“The Showstopper” garnered the interest of label Next Plateau Records, who signed them for an album release. It was then that the duo became a trio, with Roper joining the group full time as their DJ, and the album followed soon after, entitled “Hot, Cool & Vicious”. It was a modest success initially, with some charting R&B hits in the form of “Tramp” and “Chick On The Side” among others. And then “Push It” happened.

A San Francisco based DJ called Cameron Paul created a remix to the song, the B-side of “Tramp”, and their rise after that was stratospheric. A monster hit on both sides of the Atlantic, the trio were now legitimate pop stars despite James and Denton being barely into their twenties and Roper being a mere 16. However, their star was only going to rise with time.

To this day, the vast majority of female rappers around owe a certain debt to Salt-N-Pepa. They followed up with even bigger hits like “Let’s Talk About Sex” and “Whatta Man”, they won Grammy’s, had platinum albums and singles. They were one of the key acts that legitimised female rappers and they can still rock it live to this day. They’re legends, but you knew that much already, right?

The original incarnation of En Vogue was conceptualised by the production duo of Denzil Foster and Tony McElroy, who envisioned the group as a modern take on the girl groups of the 1950’s and 60’s. Legends like The Shangri-Las, The Ronettes and Martha and the Vandella’s were their inspiration and in 1988, the duo held auditions to find female performers who had the right mix of intelligence, looks and talent to be true stars. As a result of those auditions they found Cindy Herron, Maxine Jones, and Dawn Robinson, and true to their inspirations, Foster and McElroy were originally going to feature Jones, Herron and Robinson as a trio.

However, Foster and McElroy still had a few singers left to audition, and Terry Ellis was one of the final candidates to do so. Although they thought they’d found their band, Foster and McElroy were so impressed that they felt compelled to add her to what would become the classic En Vogue line-up, making them a quartet. After first toying with the name For You, the nascent group then became Vogue. However, after finding that another group had claimed that name, they changed it to En Vogue and set to work on the band’s debut album in 1989. Recording began in August of the same year, and was released in April the following year, but few could possibly predict its success.

Their first single, “Hold On”, was released in February 1990 and was an enormous hit right off the bat, hitting number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and going into the top five of the U.K singles chart. This generated a mountain of hype surrounding their debut album, so “Born To Sing” was released in April 1990 and hit a respectable number 21 in the Billboard 200, eventually going platinum before the year was out. The band were massively acclaimed as well, with “Hold On” netting the band a Billboard Award and a Soul Train award for R&B Single of the year and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group.

The mid-90’s continued to be very, very kind to the group, with both their follow up records, 1992’s “Funky Divas”, and 1997’s “EV3” hitting the top twenty of the Billboard 200 and giving the band enormous hit singles in the form of “My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It)”, and “Don’t Let Go (Love)”. However not all was well in the band, and Robinson left in 1997 after contractual disputes, and even after going platinum “EV3” under-performed commercially, and an entire tour was cancelled due to poor ticket sales. However, even at their lowest point they were still able to command some serious respect, going on to work with Stevie Wonder and Prince in 2005 alone.

Since then, the band have still been performing live as a trio, with Ellis and Herron from the original line-up being backed up by new recruit Rhona Bennett. All three of them are consummate professionals able to put on one hell of a show in their own right, and when they combine their efforts with En Vogue’s utterly astonishing back catalogue, it can make for one hell of a live show. They’re originals and inspirations in equal measure, and for that, they come highly recommended.