Lisa_Lopez

Lisa Nicole Lopes (May 27, 1971 – April 25, 2002), better known by her stage name Left Eye, was a Grammy Award-winning American rapper, singer-songwriter, teen idol, and member of the popular R&B group TLC.

Lopes contributed her own self-written raps to many of TLC’s popular singles, including “Ain’t 2 Proud 2 Beg”, “What About Your Friends”, “Hat 2 da Back”, “Waterfalls”, “No Scrubs” and “Girl Talk”. Lopes was also a self-taught keyboardist and displayed those talents during her solo spot on TLC’s headlining concert performances. She was also known for wearing a pair of glasses with a condom in place of the left eye lens in the beginning of her career, which was one of the ways she promoted safe sex. Lopes got the nickname “Left Eye” from a boyfriend who noticed that her left eye was slightly smaller than her right.

Lisa Lopez Eye Legacy

Before her death in 2002, Lisa recorded some songs for an album. In 2008 Lisa’s family decided to work with producers at Surefire Music Group to create a posthumous album in honor of her. Originally set to be released October 28, 2008, the release date was pushed back to November 11, then to January 27, 2009. “Crank It”, which features her younger sister Reigndrop Lopes, was released as a promo single. The first official single from the album, “Let’s Just Do It”, was released on January 13, 2009 and features Missy Elliott and TLC. The second official single “Block Party” featuring Lil Mama and Marcus Amandi.

Lisa Lopez Personal life

Lopes was often vocal about her personal life and difficult past. She readily admitted she had come from an abusive, alcoholic background and suffered with alcohol problems herself. These problems became headline news in 1994, when she set fire to Andre Rison’s tennis shoes in a bathtub, which ultimately set fire to their mansion, destroying it. Lopes claimed “I was just trying to barbecue his tennis shoes”, as revenge for his infidelity and abuse.

Lopes, who was sentenced to five years probation and therapy at a halfway house, never was able to shake that incident from her reputation. Her tumultuous relationship with Rison continued to make headlines, with rumors of an imminent wedding, which were later debunked by People magazine. Lopes revealed on the Last Days of Left Eye documentary that her meeting with a struggling mother in rehab left a big impression on her. Lopes ended up adopting her daughter, Snow, who appeared in the video for her single, “The Block Party”.

Adding to Lopes’ flamboyant attitude, she had several large tattoos. Most prominent was a large eagle on her left arm which she said represented freedom. Later she added the number “80” around the eagle, which was Rison’s NFL number. She also had a tattoo of a moon with a face on her foot in reference to Rison’s nickname, Bad Moon. On her upper right arm was a large tattoo of the name Parron, for her late stepbrother, arching over a large tattoo of a pierced heart. Her smallest tattoo was on her left ear and consisted of an arrow pointing to her left over the symbol of an eye, a reference to her nickname.

This video might be disturbing to some, so you’ve been warned

Lisa Lopez

Lopes spent much of her free time after the conclusion of TLCs first headlining tour behind Fanmail recording her debut album, Supernova. It includes a song titled, A New Star is Born, which is dedicated to her late father. She told MTV News: That track is dedicated to all those that have loved ones that have passed away.

Lisa Lopez Supernova

It is saying that there is no such thing as death. We can call it transforming for a lack of better words, but as scientists would say, Every atom that was once a star is now in you. It is in your body. So in the song I pretty much go along with that idea. … I do not care what happens or what people think about death, it does not matter. We all share the same space.

Other tracks covered personal issues including her relationship with NFL football player Andre Rison. Among the album’s 12 tracks was a posthumous duet with Tupac Shakur that was assembled from the large cache of unreleased recordings done prior to his murder in 1996. The unreleased song, Left Pimpin, was sampled for the song, Quickie, which is featured on TLC’s fourth album, 3D.

Initially scheduled for release on a date to coincide with the tenth anniversary of her father’s passing, Supernova was then delayed for two months before her American label chose to shelve the project. The album was eventually released outside of the United States, and hardcore American TLC fans caused a demand for import copies of the album from the UK and Japan.

After numerous talks with Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight, Lopes severed her solo deal with Arista Records (she remained contracted with the label as a member of TLC) and signed with Knight’s Tha Row Records, intending to record a second solo album under the pseudonym N.I.N.A. (New Identity Not Applicable). N.I.N.A. was to include several songs recorded by and with Ray J.