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L-R: Chilli, T-Boz; ABC RadioTLC‘s fifth and final album, TLC, has arrived, and one of the standout tracks from the album, “Perfect Girls,” delivers the same message of self-love and empowerment as the group’s 1999 classic, “Unpretty.”
Reflecting on both songs, TLC’s Chilli says, “They’re same… and then some.”
Chilli tells ABC Radio, “In ’99, 2000, you didn’t have social media. You didn’t have Instagram. You didn’t have Twitter. The problem that is going on right now with Instagram, these girls live to post a picture.”
“They’re altering how they look. It’s a gajillion filters on there. When you’re going to the extreme, where it doesn’t even look like you anymore, now we have a problem.”
Chili adds, “You’re putting this fake thing out, this perfect look that doesn’t exist. Nobody’s perfect.That’s why I think songs like that and especially ‘Haters'” — another track on TLC — “is so important and very needed for this generation, because of what they’re going through.”
TLC rose to superstardom in 1992 with their debut album, Oooooooh… On the TLC Tip, which to many teenagers in 2017 may seem like ancient history.
But Chili says that if TLC was just finding fame today, social media “definitely would have been an issue” they would have tackled in song.
“We would have talked about it, like we talked about everything else,” Chili explains.
“It wouldn’t have been any different, as far as how we would tackle it. But no one is immune from that kind of stuff. Again, you just can’t allow it to get to you, to the point where you start believing it.”
TLC will be touring this summer as part of the I Love the ’90s: The Party Continues tour, which kicks off July 7.
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