Between 1991-1996 LaFace Records, its top artists and the city it called home all went through major transitions. Each sprung up from obscurity and quickly announced grand intentions. TLC went from casting a call pitch to a world tour, Atlanta bid for hosting rights to the 1996 Olympics and Kenneth Edmonds and LA Reid graduated from producing singles to running a label.
The hope of impending change is deceitful. At the start we have idealistic thoughts of what the other side is like. We see the freedom of driving but not the burden of buying gas, the appeal of being in shape minus the sacrifice of a new diet and the perks of a raise without the weight of added job responsibilities. After five years and millions of records sold, TLC was was about to feel the backlash of success but none its advantages.
On February 28 LA's Shrine Auditorium hosted the 38th Grammy Awards, a show that heavily featured TLC. Their second album, 1994's "CrazySexyCool", was already a major commercial success. With six Grammy nominations it had now added critical acclaim.
In addition to performing the chart topping "Waterfalls" the trio would walk away with two awards, cementing their status as the premiere R&B act of their era. With over 10 million albums sold and two Grammys, they were arguably the biggest act in all of music. The celebration was short lived.
At a post show press conference, TLC revealed what many long suspected: the millions of records, slew of hit singles and hundreds of packed shows were largely for naught, save for fame and popularity. The rumors were true- despite historic levels of achievement, TLC was broke.
A shady deal signed with their manager, Pebbles Reid, left them bankrupt. Detailed accounts in later years showed that each member netted a salary around $50k for their work from '92-95. That was good money for your cousin who just graduated but laughably low for the best selling female group of all time.
LaFace was the new Motown in all the wrong ways. Just as Barry Gordy allegedly pushed hit after hit out of his artists and kept most of the profits, LA Reid was now caught in the middle of suspect business dealings. It Pebbles, LA's wife, whom TLC penned as the mastermind behind the contract that left them bereft of the money their music generated. The drama must have been too much to deal with as the couple ended their relationship in the aftermath of the scandal.
The track typically seen in the entertainment industry version of evolution has artists reaching their apex of success and hitting a wall. This wall is often a barrier mostly built by corporate greed. Suits who can't, won't or don't create the music find ways to keep naive talents complacent- usually with tours, expensive videos and an impossibly large creative platform- while they find a way to sneak away with the real rewards. As TLC evolved, so did LaFace. While their artists dealt with the dark side of the entertainment business, the label came to embody it. The next few years would see their trajectories head in opposite directions.
Despite their biggest act going dormant, LaFace remained strong. New artist Tony Rich surprised when his single "Nobody Knows" approached the top of the charts around the same time as TLC's fiasco. That summer LaFace released a soundtrack to the '96 Atlanta Olympics, "Rhythm of the Games" which included the Babyface penned "The Power of the Dream", the event's official song. Shortly thereafter Outkast's second album, ATLiens, dropped to positive reviews and secured their place in rap's elite.
LaFace was doing well, but a void remained with TLC's hiatus. Any questions about the label's grip on R&B (Tony Rich flopped once "Nobody Knows" got old), were about to be answered by the youngest member of the LaFace roster as 1997 approached.
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