TLC Member Chilli Reveals What the Group’s Name Really Stood For
What To Know
- Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas revealed on the Brotherly Love podcast that TLC’s name not only represents the members’ initials but also stands for “T**** Less Crew.”
- TLC achieved massive success in the 1990s with four multi-platinum albums, including CrazySexyCool, which sold 23 million copies worldwide.
- Despite the tragic loss of Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes in 2002, remaining members T-Boz and Chilli reunited in 2015 and continue to perform as TLC.
If you spent any part of your childhood or adolescence memorizing the lyrics to “No Scrubs” and “Waterfalls,” you can probably instantly recall that ’90s hiphop stars TLC named their band after each member’s initials: T-Boz, Left Eye and Chilli. But as Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas told the Lawrence brothers on the September 5, 2025 episode of The Brotherly Love podcast, the group’s name had a second meaning “T**** Less Crew.”
As Thomas explained to the podcast’s live audience in Las Vegas, “Can I tell y’all something? I want to make y’all laugh. I’m gonna tell you something. TLC stands for T-Boz, Left Eye and Chilli, okay? The other name is … and this is good. Okay, y’all ready?”
The other name? “T**** Les Crew,” she announced to the visibly shocked Lawrence brothers.
“I know you guys didn’t know I was gonna say that,” she continued. “And if Tionne was here — T-Boz — she’d be like ‘And you be President.’ That’s what she would say to me.”
TLC released four multi-platinum albums, including the 1994 megahit CrazySexyCool, which stayed on the Billboard top 200 albums list for two years, and went on to sell 23 million copies. Member Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, who along with Thomas and Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins was in the group’s classic lineup, died in 2002 in a car accident. Watkins and Thomas reunited in 2015 and have been touring and releasing new music as TLC ever since.
The Brotherly Love podcast features Joey Lawrence, Matthew Lawrence and Andy Lawrence interviewing celebrities and reflecting on their own showbiz careers. Chilli and Matthew Lawrence have been a couple since 2022; he had previously been married to Dancing with the Stars performer Cheryl Burke; Chilli was previously in a relationship with producer Dallas Austin, which resulted in the birth of her son in 1997.