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Lisa Lopes Bio
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Lisa Lopes BiographyLisa Lopes, better known as Left Eye, was a singer, keyboardist, and lyricist with the hip hop and R&B group, TLC. She was known for wearing a condom in the left eye-piece of her glasses as a way of promoting safer sex.
Lisa Nicole Lopes was born on May 27, 1971, in Philadelphia. Her father was serving in the U.S. Army and took her with him when he was stationed in various locations around the world. Always passionate about music, she taught herself to play the piano. Lopes was less enthusiastic about school, dropping out in her early teens, but her mother forced her to go back and graduate. In her late teens Lopes moved to Atlanta and formed the band Second Nature with her friends Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins and Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas. After some success on the local club circuit, they changed their name to TLC and were discovered by the singer Pebbles, who signed them to her label. Thus began a career which was to see them become the biggest selling girl band in history.
When TLC’s potential became apparent, they were soon snapped up by Pebbles' ex-husband, L.A. Reid, who signed them to Arista's LaFace label. There they produced their first album, Ooooooooh on the TLC Tip, which became an instant hit, following it up with a second, CrazySexyCool, which was even more successful. Hard-hitting songs on serious issues (such as AIDS and black-on-black crime) were written by artists including Dallas Austin, Babyface, and Jermaine Dupri. The band also attracted attention with their distinctive style, which included wearing floppy hats and stitching condoms into their clothing.
Despite her success, Lopes struggled to stay out of trouble. In 1995 she burned down the house of her boyfriend, former Atlanta Falcon Andre Rison, after a fight. She was fined $10,000 and spent time in a halfway house and on probation. This contributed to Arista refusing to release her solo album, Supernova, in America, though it did well overseas, so she left and signed up with Tha Row Records, with whom she was working on a follow-up at the time of her death. Supernova became a collectors' item partly because it included a posthumous duet with Tupac Shakur, who was murdered in 1996. Lopes frequently worked with other artists including Damien Rams, Keith Sweat, Tangi, Lil Kim, Will Smith, DeDe O Neal, Method Man, Mya, and N Sync. She was instrumental in discovering the R&B group Blaque.
During this time, Lopes continued working with TLC, contributing to their third album, Fanmail. However, despite the popularity of their records, the trio became mired in legal disputes which ultimately forced them to file for bankruptcy. Lopes found work in other areas, becoming a regular host of MTV show The Cut and venturing into acting with House Party 3, which also starred Christopher Reid and Khandi Alexander. She also found a new calling in charity work, traveling to Honduras to help victims of Hurricane Mitch, for whom she built a healing hut and a child center. Lopes adopted a daughter, Snow, and gradually relocated her life to the Honduran village where she did missionary work. It was there, near the town of Roma, where her car swerved into another vehicle on April 25, 2002, killing her instantly.
Lopes was buried in Hillandale Cemetery in Lithonia, Georgia, in a casket engraved with a rap she recorded for TLC's #1 hit "Waterfalls." After her death, a scandal occurred when pictures taken during her autopsy were leaked to the press. NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt, whose father had suffered a similar indignity, publicly protested at the incident. Let us know of any changes to the Lisa Lopes biography at editor@yuddy.com |
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