TLC recently re-released their classic song “Waterfalls” for it’s 20th anniversary but replaced Left Eye with a Japanese singer, Namie Amuro. T-Boz and Chili not only angered Lisa’s family, but fans were outraged when the track didn’t even leave Lisa’s verse in the song. Many people wondered why they wouldn’t just omit a verse totally or why re-release the track and now we know why. It turns out that T-Boz and Chili do not own the rights to Left Eye’s raps and were not given clearance to use this one. They also opened up about why they decided to use Namie Amuro. T-Boz also said that Lisa’s family was in fact told about the re-release by the group’s management and that Lisa will never be replaced. Read what they had to say below.
Chili spoke up first and addressed why Left Eye was kept out of the “Waterfalls” re-release:
“Our re-make of ‘Waterfalls’ was a tribute to our sister Lisa, who actually co-wrote ‘Waterfalls’ with Marqueze Etheridge. We don’t own the Master recording rights to Lisa’s raps on any of our music, and our requests to gain the rights so far have been denied. With the Japanese anniversary edition, we were forced to use creative ways to honor Lisa’s memory and celebrate this milestone with our fans.”
T-Boz addressed why Namie Amuro was a part of the 20th anniversary release:
“Lisa met Namie with us back in 1999 and she knew how much of a TLC fan Namie is; we were also impressed with how talented she is as a solo artist. Lisa being one of the most creative people I have ever met, would’ve been the first to have other talented artists covering our music. It is a tribute to her memory, and one I know she would appreciate.”
