Stream It Or Skip It: ‘TLC Forever’ on Netflix, A Doc Chronicling The Groundbreaking Trio’s Rise To Fame And What Came After

TLC Forever, now streaming on Netflix, originally premiered in June 2023, when the documentary was simulcast on Lifetime and A&E. Directed by Matt Kay (Little Miss Sumo) and featuring extensive interviews with TLC founding members Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas and Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins, the film celebrates the group’s status as one of the best-selling female acts of all time while also memorializing Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, the group’s third founding member, whose accidental death in 2002 marked an emotional turning point in their career. TLC Forever also includes appearances by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, Missy Elliot, Jermaine Dupri, Dave Grohl, and producer Dallas Austin. 

TLC FOREVER: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

The Gist: “Mic check 1-2 1-2! If I need it in the morning or the middle of the night, I ain’t 2 proud 2 beg, no!” Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas and Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins are dancing in their car in 2021, just like they did in 1991, the very first time they heard their debut single “Ain’t 2 Proud 2 Beg” on Atlanta-area radio. Produced by Dallas Austin and featuring the Watkins’ lower, funkier register and Thomas’ higher singing voice alongside Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes’s ebullient rapping, the song introduced TLC as a new voice in hip-hop, and helped establish the next chapter of the era’s catchy New Jack sound. This was in the wake of Bell Biv Devoe’s smash hit “Poison,” and as late Organized Noize producer Rico Wade says in TLC Forever, record companies like LA Reid and Babyface’s LaFace were searching for a “female BBD.” Right away, everyone knew the ladies of TLC were it.

TLC Forever follows Thomas and Watkins in 2021 as they participate in choreo and vocal rehearsals for a run of shows to celebrate CrazySexyCool, their sophomore album from 1994 that unleashed the classics “Creep” and “Waterfall” into the world. The doc also presents biographical details for each member, and gets a lot of use out of audio recordings of Lopes – while the rapper is no longer with us, her voice and sense of humor are prevalent in Forever, which also explores the fallout from her combative relationship with NFL wide receiver Andre Rison. (Thomas says that when Lopes burned down Rison’s Atlanta mansion in 1994, the media turned on the entire group like they were all the arsonists.) Thomas’s management of her ongoing health issues is also a factor here, as is the perspective of Bill Diggins, TLC’s longtime manager, who was originally hired to right the ship after the group declared bankruptcy in 1995.

“How were we supposed to fight against the world if we’re fighting internally?” In interviews, Watkins and Thomas are up front about the creative differences with Lopes that marred the rollout of their 1999 album FanMail. 2000 was their last tour together as a trio, and before long Lopes was attending a retreat-style healing center in Honduras, where a car crash took her life in 2002. Grief, mourning, and tough times for the remaining members of TLC followed, but Forever also finds redemption as Thomas and Watkins made special appearances and performed comeback shows, bringing it all full circle back to 2022, the celebratory tour, and a massive concert performance at the legendary Glastonbury Festival in Somerset, England.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of? The Last Days of Left Eye is a 2007 documentary, released by VH1 and directed by Lauren Lazin, that followed the rapper during her time in Honduras. (It’s available to stream on YouTube). In 1990, as TLC was coming together, the music scene in Atlanta was really starting to pop off, an era that figures heavily into the recent doc Freaknik: The Wildest Party Never Told. And don’t forget about CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story, the 2013 TV movie that featured Keke Palmer as Chilli, Drew Sidora as T-Boz, and Lil Mama as Left Eye.   

Performance Worth Watching: When it’s time to be serious, they’re serious. But the lighter moments that Rozonda Thomas and Tionne Watkins share in TLC Forever reveal an effortless chemistry borne from over 30 years of professional work and personal friendship. Watching them explore the now empty Atlanta department store where Chilli once worked and where T-Boz once got caught stealing is one of the doc’s most infectious moments.  

Memorable Dialogue: “I’m the T, T-Boz! (Tiggity Tiggity Tiggity!) I’m the Liggy Liggy! (Left Eye!) I’m the ‘C’, Chilli! (And it be the chill!)!” – as they introduce themselves in unison during an old piece of MTV footage, the talky, funny, and bold vibe TLC projects is totally fresh and completely free of pretense. It’s no wonder they were an instant sensation on the entertainment network, as the numerous throwbacks to Bill Bellamy interviews, MTV News hits, and Total Request Live appearances in Forever can attest.  

Sex and Skin: From the jump, TLC placed an emphasis on promoting female visibility and safe sex in their songs, a stance they displayed with their penchant for placing condoms on their clothing or, in one of Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes’s most iconic moves, wearing sunglasses with a prophylactic taped to the right lens.

Our Take: In the early 1990s, with the trio’s trademark blocky, primary-colored T-shirts, baggy sweats, chunky Nike Air Force 1’s, and flat brim ball caps worn at cocky angles, TLC was the antithesis of the usual style for women in music. To find out, take a look at the cover photo for Ooooooohhh…On the TLC Tip, or just listen to “Hat 2 Da Back” from that memorable debut record. At a time when hip-hop was becoming ever more popular, TLC represented a space for women in the genre that wasn’t just dancing in a video or wearing some slinky number as an R&B singer. It was important, revolutionary, and was reflected not only in their look but the lyrical content, too. “Back then,” Missy Elliot says in TLC Forever, “it was a shock for women to speak like that,” as opposed to what men could do or say without any kind of pushback. As they explored female empowerment and the safe enjoyment of sex, adds former Vibe Magazine editor-in-chief Mimi Valdés, TLC “exploded in such a way that everyone had to pay attention.” To think about how far we’ve come since then – and how far we haven’t – only makes the group’s impact that much more groundbreaking.

Our Call: STREAM IT. TLC Forever offers a succinct look back at how T-Boz, Chilli, and Left Eye immediately made MTV and the music industry their own, and their representation as women with a distinct style and statement-making stance on sexual themes that remains unique all the way to now.  

Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.

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