Lisa Lopes

Template:Infobox musical artist 2Lisa Nicole Lopes (May 27, 1971 – April 25, 2002), an African American rapper of Cape Verdean descent, also known under the stage name of "Left Eye", was a member of the popular R&B and hip hop group TLC. In addition to hit songs like "Waterfalls" with TLC, Lopes also did some solo performing. She was considered by some fans as the creative talent behind TLC and contributed her own self-written raps to many of TLC's popular singles, including "Waterfalls" and "No Scrubs". Lopes was also a self-taught keyboardist and, by way of a Beethoven piano piece, displayed those talents during her solo spot on TLC's headlining concert performances (immortalized in a pay-per-view broadcast of TLC's FanMail tour in the spring of 2000). She was known for wearing a pair of glasses with a condom in place of the left eye lens, which was one of the ways the group promoted safe sex.

TLC

TLC began life as a female trio called Second Nature. The group evolved into TLC - the letters of the band made up of the first initials of the three members - Tionne, Lisa and Crystal . Things didn't work out with Crystal, and TLC's manager Perri "Pebbles" Reid brought in her back up dancer, Rozonda Thomas as a third member of the group. To keep the "initial" theme of the band's name, Rozonda needed a name starting with C, so took on the nickname Chilli. Fellow bandmate Tionne Watkins became T-Boz, while Lisa renamed herself Left Eye, as she had once been told she had beautiful eyes, "particularly the left one." Left Eye celebrated her nickname by wearing glasses with a condom over her left eye, later evolving to a black stripe under the eye.

The group appeared on the scene in 1992 with the album Ooooooohhh.... On the TLC Tip. With three hit singles, it sold 4 million copies and TLC became household names. After a few years break, TLC came back with CrazySexyCool, selling over 11 million copies and cementing TLC as one of the biggest female groups of all time.

TLC's third album Fanmail came out in (1999). Lisa said that she got the idea for the album's title as a tribute to TLC's loyal fans. The album's sleeve contained the names of hundreds of fans as a thankyou to everyone who supported them.

Personal life

Lisa never shied away from revealing her personal life and difficult past. She readily admitted she had come from an abusive, alcoholic background and suffered with alcohol problems herself. These problems became headline news in 1994, when she set fire to her fiance Andre Rison's mansion and burned it to the ground. She claimed that she was only trying to burn his tennis shoes after a fight. Andre, a football player for the Atlanta Falcons, was physically abusive to Lisa and had been charged with assaulting her the previous year. Lopes, who was sentenced to 5 years probation and therapy at a halfway house, never was able to shake that incident from her reputation, and along with Lil' Kim, became one of hip hop music's bad girls. Along with her TLC band mates, Lopes filed for bankruptcy that same year claiming that poor royalties and an outstanding debt that was owed to Perri "Pebbles" Reid after she sued the group for breach of contract caused them to take this action.

Lisa frequently disagreed with those around her and found herself in conflicts with the people she worked with, including the other members of TLC. In several interviews she talked about the fact that she was considering quitting the group, and was quoted as saying "I've graduated from this era. I cannot stand 100 percent behind this TLC project and the music that is supposed to represent me." She also issued a challenge to Tionne and Rozonda to release solo albums and let the public decide who was the greatest member of TLC:

I challenge Tionne 'Player' Watkins (T-Boz) and Rozonda 'Hater' Thomas (Chilli) to an album entitled "The Challenge"... a 3-CD set that contains three solo albums. Each [album]... will be due to the record label by October 1, 2000... I also challenge Dallas 'The Manipulator' Austin to produce all of the material and do it at a fraction of his normal rate. As I think about it, I'm sure LaFace would not mind throwing in a $1.5 million dollar prize for the winner.

Solo career

After Fanmail (1999), Lopes began to expand her solo career. She became a featured rapper on several singles by other musicians, including former Spice Girl Melanie C's "Never Be the Same Again", which went to #1 in 35 countries, including the UK. They performed the song live on "Top of the Pops" the week it went #1, which was Lisa's sole appearance on the UK show. The song was co-written and produced by Rhett Lawrence. She also was featured on Donell Jones' sophomore album's first single, "U Know What's Up", sang "Space Cowboy" with *NSYNC, a song from their 2000 album No Strings Attached and was featured on "Gimme Some" by Toni Braxton from her The Heat album published in 2000.

Lopes was also the host of the short-lived MTV series, The Cut, a precursor to American Idol in which a handful of would-be pop stars, rappers, and rock bands competed against each other and were judged. The show's final winner, which ended up being a male-female rap duo, was promised a record deal and MTV's funding to produce a music video, which would enter MTV's heavy rotation. A then-unknown Anastacia finished in third place, but so impressed Lopes and the show's three judges, that she scored herself a record deal anyway.

Lisa began expanding her career by creating "Left Eye Productions" and discovering new talent. She helped create the R&B trio Blaque and helped them secure a record deal with Columbia Records. Their self-titled debut album was executive-produced by Lopes, who also made a cameo appearance on the album and in one of their music videos, "I Do". Group member Natina Reed's rapping style was heavily influenced by Lisa's. She was also developing a new band called Egypt.

Lopes spent much of her free time after the conclusion of TLC's first headline tour behind Fanmail recording her first solo album, Supernova. Amongst the album's 12 tracks was a posthumous duet with Tupac Shakur that was assembled from the large cache of unreleased recordings done prior to his murder in 1996. The unreleased song "Left Pimpin" was sampled for the song "Quickie", which is featured on TLC's fourth album, 3D. Initially scheduled for release on a date to coincide with the 10th anniversary of her father's passing, Supernova was then delayed for two months before her American label chose to shelve the project. The album was eventually released outside of the United States, and hardcore American TLC fans caused a demand for import copies of the album from the UK and Japan. Lopes then severed her solo deal with Arista Records (she remained contracted with the label as a member of TLC) and signed with Tha Row Records (the former Death Row label), intending to record a second solo album under the pseudonym N.I.N.A (New Identity Not Applicable).The Album Supernova features a song titled 'A New Star Is Born' is dedicated to her late father.

Cameo Appearances On Other Artist's Recordings

Damian Dame - Damian Dame: Sixty Second (The Conclusion - featuring QT (Left Eye) & Boz (T-Boz)) (1991)
Keith Sweat - Get Up On It: How Do You Like It (featuring Left Eye) (1994)
Panther O.S.T.: Freedom (By various artists include TLC, solo by Left Eye) (1994)
The Song of West Side Story O.S.T.: Gee Officer Krupkee (by various artists including Left Eye) (1996)
Kazaam O.S.T. : No Tighter Wish (by Tangi Forman & Left Eye) (1996)
Nothing To Lose OST: Not Tonight (by Lil' Kim featuring Left Eye, Angie Martinez, Da Brat, & Missy Elliott) (1997)
Will Smith - Big Willie Style: Big Willie Style (featuring Left Eye) (1997)
Pras - Supastar Ghetto: Finale Interlude (featuring Left Eye & various artists) (1998)
DeDe O' Neal - What's Up (Individual Promotion vinyl): What's Up (featuring Left Eye) (1998)
Method Man - Tical 2000: Cradle Rock (featuring Left Eye) (1998)
Donell Jones - Where I Wanna Be: U Know What's Up (featuring Left Eye) (1999)
Blaque - I Do Remix (Individual): I Do (featuring Left Eye) (1999)
Melanie C - Northern Star: Never Be the Same Again (featuring Left Eye) (1999)
Nsync - No Strings Attached: Space Cowboy (featuring Left Eye) (2000)
Toni Braxton - The Heat: Gimme Some (featuring Left Eye) (2000)
Mya - Fear Of Flying: Takin' Me Over (featuring Left Eye) (2000)
2Pac - Until The End Of Time: Let Em Have It (featuring Left Eye) (2001)
Dysfunktional Family OST: Too Street For TV (credited as N.I.N.A. featuring Danny Boy) (2003)

Death

Lopes had already started work on both her second solo album and on songs for the fourth TLC album, 3D, when she was tragically killed in a car accident in Honduras on April 25, 2002. She was only one killed of seven people in the vehicle (a Mitsubishi Pajero), however it was reported that she was not wearing a seatbelt. The vehicle reportedly rolled several times, throwing Lisa out the window. She died from severe head injuries. [1] Lisa's mother Wanda later tried to sue the maker of the car, as the Pajero was prone to rollovers.

Lisa had been in Honduras doing missionary work, which was something she had a passion for. She was in the process of setting up education and services for Honduran children. It is said by those close to her that she had been undergoing a spiritual epiphany and had recently ended a month-long fast prior to her death. Her funeral was held at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Georgia. Over 30,000 fans came from all over the world to farewell their hero. Lopes was buried at Hillandale Cemetery, also in Lithonia.

The controversy over autopsy photos which had been leaked following her death led to a protest by NASCAR star Dale Earnhardt, Jr..^{[citation needed]} Earnhardt painted a stripe next to the left headlight decal on his #8 Chevrolet Monte Carlo for the Pontiac Excitement 400 at Richmond International Raceway to protest the display of her autopsy photos. A similar controversy had befallen Earnhardt after the death of his father a year earlier.

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