Lisa Lopes

Lisa Nicole Lopes (May 27, 1971 – April 25, 2002), better known by her stage name Left Eye, was an American rapper and singer.

She was a member of the R&B woman group TLC, alongside Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins and Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas.

Besides rapping and singing backing vocals on TLC recordings, Lopes was the creative force behind the group, receiving more co-writing credits than the other members.

She also designed some of their outfits and the stage for their FanMail Tour and contributed to the group's image, album titles, artworks, and music videos.

Through her work with TLC, Lopes won four Grammy Awards.

During her brief solo career, Lopes scored two US top 10 singles with "Not Tonight" and "U Know What's Up", as well as one UK number-one single with "Never Be the Same Again", the latter a collaboration with Melanie C of the British girl group Spice Girls.

She also produced another girl group, Blaque, who scored a platinum album and two US top 10 hits.

Lopes remains the only member of TLC to have released a solo album.

Lopes was born on May 27, 1971, in Philadelphia, the daughter of LaWanda (née Andino), a seamstress, and Ronald Lopes Sr., a US Army staff sergeant.

Lisa has a younger brother, Ronald Jr., and a younger sister, Rain (nicknamed Reigndrop).

Lopes said her father was "very strict, very domineering" and that he treated the family like they were in "boot camp".

He was also a "talented musician" who played the harmonica, clarinet, piano, and saxophone.

Lopes' parents separated when she was still in school, and her paternal grandmother raised her during the later years of her childhood.

She began playing with a toy piano at five years old, and later composed her own songs.

By age 10, Lopes formed the musical trio The Lopes Kids with her siblings, with whom she performed gospel songs at local events and churches.

She attended the Philadelphia High School for Girls.

In an interview with The Independent, Lopes said that at 14 she was moved after hearing the Queen Latifah and Monie Love song "Ladies First".

In late 1990, Lopes moved to Atlanta to dance in an artist's music video.

TLC originally started as a female trio called '2nd Nature', with T-Boz, Left Eye and Crystal.

The group was renamed TLC, derived from the first initials of its members at the time: Tionne Watkins, Lisa Lopes and Crystal Jones.

Things did not work out with Jones, and TLC's manager Perri "Pebbles" Reid brought in Damian Dame backup dancer Rozonda Thomas as a third member of the group.

To preserve the band's original name, Thomas needed a name starting with C, which is how she became "Chilli", a name chosen by Lopes.

Watkins became T-Boz, derived from the first letter of her first name and "Boz" (slang for "boss").

Lopes was renamed "Left Eye" after a compliment from her friend, speculated to be New Edition member Michael Bivins, who once told her he was attracted to her because of her left eye, which was more slanted than her right eye.

Lopes emphasized her nickname by wearing a pair of glasses with the right lens covered by a condom in keeping with the group's support of safe sex, wearing a black stripe under her left eye, and eventually getting her left eyebrow pierced.

The group arrived on the music scene in 1992 with the album Ooooooohhh... On the TLC Tip.

With four hit singles, it sold six million copies worldwide, leading to the group becoming a household name.

Shortly afterwards, Lopes began dating Atlanta Falcons football player Andre Rison, and the two soon moved in together in Rison's upscale double-story home.

Their relationship was allegedly filled with violent moments, and Lopes filed an assault charge against Rison on September 2, 1993.

Lopes had a battle with alcohol at the time; having started drinking at the age of fifteen.

After another fight between the couple in the early morning hours of June 9, 1994, Lopes tossed numerous pairs of Rison's newly purchased tennis shoes into a bathtub, and lit them on fire.

The fiberglass bathtub quickly melted and set the structural frame of the house on fire.

Lopes and Rison had had a fight previously because she caught Rison in bed with another woman.

Lopes had thrown numerous teddy bears Rison had bought her into the tub, and lit them on fire.

Rison then had the damaged marble tub replaced with a cheaper fiberglass model, which went up in flames immediately when she set the shoes on fire.

The tub caused the house to go up in flames as well.

On April 25, 2002, Lopes was killed in a car crash in Roma, Jutiapa, Honduras, while volunteering at a children’s development center.

Lopes was speeding and lost control of her rental SUV.

Four other passengers were injured enough to require hospitalization.

The documentary The Last Days of Left Eye was released and aired on VH1 in May 2007.