As far back as I can remember, I’ve always loved girl groups.

The Pointer Sisters, Sister Sledge, The Mary Jane Girls, Klymaxx, Vanity 6, Exposé, Seduction, Apollonia 6, En Vogue, SWV, Jade, 702, Destiny’s Child, Total, Brownstone, Xscape, Blaque, 3LW, Danity Kane, Dream, Cherish, The Pussycat Dolls, Fifth Harmony, FLO– Just to name a few.
Black music has given us some incredible girl groups.

But when TLC came along, something felt different.

They were young, funky, playful, and had hip hop all over them.
They came out on LaFace Records with Ooooooohhh… On the TLC Tip in 1992 and hit with a punch.
By the time Waterfalls arrived from CrazySexyCool in 1995, TLC had grown up without losing what made them TLC. 🔥
CrazySexyCool had been released November 15, 1994.

I was in my mid twenties, still doing college radio and DJing house parties.
And I remember this: whenever I put Waterfalls on, people came to the floor. 🎧

I had the LaFace 12 inch, and I remember having different versions of the song.
That US 12 inch actually carried the single edit, DARP Remix, ONP Remix, instrumental, and acappella.
That was DJ candy right there. 😂

But Waterfalls wasn’t special just because it worked on the dance floor.
There was a message inside all that groove.

The first story deals with a young man chasing money through the streets and paying the ultimate price. The second confronts unprotected sex and HIV/AIDS.
In 1995, hearing three young Black women put HIV into one of the biggest records in America mattered.
And they never made it feel like a public service announcement.❤️

Then there’s Left Eye verse.
Her rap is essential to me because it pulls the whole record together.
During the CrazySexyCool sessions, Lisa was in court ordered rehab, and she wrote and recorded her Waterfalls verse during a two hour break.
Knowing what she was going through gives that verse another layer.
That’s the genius of Waterfalls.

The record was written by Marqueze Etheridge, Lisa Left Eye Lopes and Organized Noize, who also produced it.
Rico Wade, Ray Murray and Sleepy Brown gave it that unmistakable Atlanta soul.
CeeLo Green, then with Goodie Mob, is among the background vocalists.

Waterfalls eventually spent seven weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Seven weeks! 📻

And think about how records became that big in 1995.

No TikTok.
No Instagram.
No Spotify.
No dropping something online tonight and waking up viral tomorrow morning.

Labels worked records.
Artists promoted.
Radio mattered.
BET and MTV mattered.
Record stores mattered.
DJs mattered.
Word of mouth mattered.

I’m not taking anything away from artists today.
The game is simply different.
Back then, getting a record heard required another kind of grind.

The F. Gary Gray directed video took the message even further, visually telling both stories while turning T-Boz, Chilli and Left Eye into those unforgettable water figures.
It won four awards at the 1995 MTV Video Music Awards, including Video of the Year, making TLC the first Black act to win that award. 🏆

That’s history.

And when I look at girl groups today, I see part of the road TLC helped pave.
They weren’t the beginning.
Groups before them had already put in serious work, and their 90s contemporaries like En Vogue and SWV were doing the same.
But TLC brought their own funky, hip hop, socially aware energy and helped expand what a girl group could look and sound like.

That’s why Waterfalls belongs in The Soundtrack of Who I Became.

I played it because the record moved a room.
I loved it because it had groove.
But all these years later, I respect it even more because it had something to say.

TLC gave us awareness without sacrificing the beat, a warning without killing the vibe, and a song people could dance to while the lyrics quietly asked them to pay attention. 🌊

That’s a hell of a record.
And 30 plus years later, we’re still listening. 🎶

DJZ7

#TheSoundtrackOfWhoIBecame, #TLC, #Waterfalls, #CrazySexyCool, #90sRnB, #RnBMusic, #LeftEye, #TBoz, #Chilli, #OrganizedNoize, #90sMusic, #MusicHistory, @OfficialTLC