CrazySexyCool Again?

When TLC’s new album, “Fan Mail,” arrives in stores Feb. 23, it won’t just be the first release from the R&B;/hip-hop trio since 1994. It will mark a new episode in one of the music business’ most titillating soap operas--a saga involving charismatic stars, divorce, courtroom drama and lots and lots of money.

In the first half of the ‘90s, TLC’s street-savvy fashions and feisty tunes were among the most familiar sights and sounds in pop music. The Atlanta group’s last album for LaFace Records, “CrazySexyCool,” sold 10 million copies and earned six Grammy nominations, including a best record nod for “Waterfalls,” a slinky, Prince-inspired gem addressing AIDS and drug abuse.

But instead of quickly wrapping a third album to capitalize on their success, the three women--singers Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins and Rozanda “Chilli” Thomas and rapper Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes--found themselves in a tangle of personal and financial problems.

Dissatisfied with its record contract, TLC had tried in 1995 to renegotiate its deal with LaFace. Unable to reach an agreement, the trio then filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11, claiming that its contract was unfair.

Executives from LaFace--a joint venture with Arista Records co-owned by celebrated R&B; producers Antonio “L.A.” Reid and Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds--claimed that the women had been financially irresponsible and were using the bankruptcy filing as a ploy to break their contract and seek a deal with another company.

Later, Reid would also blame TLC’s former manager and his ex-wife, Perri Reid, who had her own singing career under the name Pebbles. As that career waned, Perri Reid decided to try managing.

She discovered Lopes, Thomas and Watkins in Atlanta in 1991. She made TLC her first client and gave the act a production deal with her start-up company, Pebbitone Inc. Through Pebbitone, she got the group a contract with LaFace, at that time a struggling operation with no major stars.

Over the next few years, TLC flourished, but the task of handling and dividing all that money proved daunting for the Reids, who were pitted against each other in the bankruptcy trial. Both L.A. Reid and his ex-wife claim that they were seeking to protect TLC, and both cite this struggle as a factor in the breakup of their marriage.

“I gave my life to that group,” says Perri Reid, who is currently recording spiritual music and working as a minister in Atlanta. “There were so many times where, if I felt the record company didn’t do something right on their behalf, I would go home and raise hell. It caused many fights in my household.”

“The girls fell out with their manager, not their record company,” L.A. Reid counters. “I was on a mission to make sure they got taken care of, even if I had to sacrifice my marriage. . . . And that’s exactly what happened.”

Granted, LaFace has had contract disputes with other artists--notably Toni Braxton, who filed for bankruptcy in 1998 (the parties settled that case in December). But ultimately, TLC chose to stick with its record company. According to LaFace general manager Dorsey James, the label paid off Pebbitone and worked out a new contract, issued in 1996, entitling the group to a bigger advance and “significantly higher royalty points on each record.” (Perri Reid confirms the settlement but says, “I don’t think there’s any amount of money that could compensate me for what I went through.”)

Not that TLC’s problems began and ended with the LaFace-Pebbitone skirmish. There were reports that the group itself was going to dissolve, many of them focused on Lopes, who in 1994 pleaded guilty and served a sentence for first-degree arson after setting fire to the house of her then-boyfriend, pro football player Andre Rison. Lopes further fueled breakup rumors by accepting a short-lived solo gig as host of MTV’s “The Cut.”

Lopes has not been available for interviews, and according to a source close to her, she is dissatisfied with LaFace over “some promises they made her.” The rapper “remains committed” to TLC, says the same source, but she also spent part of the last year in Orlando, Fla., working on a solo album. She has also launched a new-artist venture called Left Eye Productions with a roster that includes the group Blaque.

Lombard and his partner Doug McHenry are the latest in a long line of TLC managers. After parting with Perri Reid, the group worked briefly with Hiram Hicks (now president of black music at Island Records) and more briefly with former basketball star Norm Nixon and his colleague Brad Johnson. The women were without management for a couple of years before signing on two months ago with Lombard McHenry’s Los Angeles-based Elephant Walk Entertainment, which also represents En Vogue and actor Paul Sorvino.

But even some of TLC’s biggest champions are nervous about the group’s comeback effort. L.A. Reid points out that the video for the new single, “No Scrubs,” was completed late and probably won’t be seen until about a week before the album’s release.

“TLC has always been a very visual band,” he says. “Videos have probably accounted for 40% to 50% of their sales. So there’s tremendous pressure now--not just to follow the success of ‘CrazySexyCool,’ but to do it purely with the music.”

Danyel Smith, editor in chief of the hip-hop magazine Vibe, has heard several tracks from “Fan Mail,” and she might advise Reid not to fret.”The songs sound good,” Smith says. “But more than that, they sound smart. They have an edgy twist, and it’s not Janet’s twist or Madonna’s twist or Lauryn Hill’s twist. It’s TLC. . . . The best artists keep reinventing themselves, and I think that’s what TLC has done.”

The trio’s relaunch began this week with the release of “No Scrubs.” Like other songs on the album, the percolating track reveals a sassy, no-nonsense take on relationships. While TLC has always put forth a strong-woman vibe, its new material puts more emphasis than ever on autonomy and independence--values that the group members--who are all in their late 20s--have come to appreciate as a result of both personal and professional experience.

“I don’t beat myself up for decisions I’ve made,” says Watkins, alluding to the group’s much-publicized troubles. “I think, now I know what not to do. . . . And it’s on to the next thing.”

To announce TLC’s rebirth, LaFace will embark on an intensive promotional campaign that promises to give new meaning to the concept of audience appreciation. For starters, the packaging for “Fan Mail” will fold out into a poster listing the names of more than 5,000 TLC devotees--compiled, as the album title suggests, from old mailing lists.

“Having messed up earlier in the business, we found a lot of our fan mail got lost,” Watkins explains. “So we thought, ‘Let’s make an album . . . and make it one big letter to the fans.

“TLC has always been into setting trends, not following them,” Watkins adds. “Every time you come back in this business, you have to do something that fits in with the times.”

“Fan Mail” again finds the trio working with high-profile talent: L.A. Reid, Babyface, Dallas Austin and TLC are executive producers, and other contributors include Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Diane Warren and Jermaine Dupri. But, the women stress, it also reflects how they have evolved as artists and individuals.

“Every girl--T-Boz, Left Eye and Chilli--worked hard on this album, and every girl has a piece of herself on it,” Watkins says. “So I’m not gonna trip if it doesn’t sell the same numbers [as “CrazySexyCool”]. You can’t take Billboard with you when you die, you know?”