It’s been almost two decades since Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, and Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas — a.k.a. TLC — released their breakout second album, CrazySexyCool. But the group’s legacy lives on, not just in surviving members Thomas and Watkins but also in a brand-new biopic, Crazy, Sexy Cool: The TLC Story.
On Friday, May 3, VH1 released the first-ever cast photo from the TV movie, which features The Game actress Drew Sidora, Akeela & the Bee star KeKe Palmer, and rapper Lil Mama in character as T-Boz, Chilli, and Left Eye, respectively. The photo shows the trio in classic ’90s garb identical to the real TLC’s outfits from the cover of their first album, Ooooooohhh…On the TLC Tip.
Us Weekly caught up with founding TLC member Thomas, now 42, on Thursday, May 2, and she couldn’t help but gush about the project. “I can’t wait,” she told Us, adding that she and Watkins are executive producers on the flick. “When you see it, you’re gonna be like, ‘Whoa.’ It’s spooky…I’m telling you, it’s gonna be crazy.”
The biopic, set to air sometime in the fall of 2013, will tell the story of TLC’s rise to fame in the 1990s and early 2000s. They first burst onto the scene in 1991 with hit songs like “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” and “Baby, Baby, Baby,” followed by the 1994 release of CrazySexyCool, which turned them into bonafide stars and spawned classics including “Waterfalls” and “Creep.” Their third album, 1999’s FanMail, extended their success with “No Scrubs” and “Unpretty.”
The R&B/hip hop trio planned a follow-up record, 3D, a few years later, but Lopes was tragically killed at age 30 in a 2002 car crash in Honduras before it was completed. Thomas and Watkins finished the album without her and then went on to do a reality show together. Now, almost 10 years later, the duo are working on more new music, including collaborations with Ne-Yo and Drake.
“We’re in the studio, working, recording, and getting ready,” Thomas told Us, adding that she and Watkins are performing a “big show” at the VH1-sponsored Mixtape Festival in Pennsylvania on July 27. “We’re trying to figure out how exactly we want to do it. You’ll see, but it’s definitely new music. We’re just really over the moon about the whole thing.”
