14 DAY TRIAL // Not everyone loved Rihanna’s “scandalous” see-through Adam Selman dress at the 2014 CFDAs and, apparently, not everyone is a fan of her usually revealing style. The two remaining TLC members, Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins and Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas, for instance, believe that she could use some covering up.
T-Boz and Chilli were in Australia the other day for a sell-out performance and, to promote it, they spoke with Channel 7’s Sunrise about how certain pop stars are in the habit of bearing too much flesh to drum up interest in their music.
Rihanna’s name came up and the two didn’t miss the chance to send her a message, which sounded like this, according to EntertainmentWise: “Every time I see you you don’t have to be naked.”
“It’s hard for us to say anything because any time we do, they say, ‘Oh TLC must be jealous,’ but I call a spade a spade,” T-Boz, who uttered it, added. “We became the biggest girl selling group of all time with our clothes on and that says a lot,” Chilli chimed in.
She said that they too could show off their bodies to get people’s attention even today, but they’d rather they let their music do that for them.
As you would imagine, word of this got back to Rihanna, and oh boy, was she furious. She changed the header image on her Twitter to a photo of TLC back in the day, of the three girls with the zipper on their overalls open all the way down to the navel (except for Left Eye), covering their breasts with their hands or arms, as they laugh at the camera.
Subtlety might not be Rihanna’s strongest suit, but she does have a point: TLC did make it all the way up through their music but saying they never showed off their bodies to boost interest in whatever hot release they had is just not true.
Just in case anyone missed the message, she also tweeted, “[Expletive] what a old thot gotta say,” which she seems to have removed since and replaced with a smiley winking face. “When there's no changing the fact that I'm me, and they're well... they're them,” she added in the next tweet.
Clearly, the girls from TLC have a right to speak their mind and, if you think about it, they make a valid point because there are simply too many pop “artists” today who get by by looks alone and who would probably not have a career where it not for their ability to pose and dress provocatively.
Where T-Boz and Chilli err is in saying that they never did any of it and, in so doing, elevate themselves on a pedestal. It’s a classic “us vs. them” scenario, where “us” is better than “them” in countless ways, but they’re forgetting that anyone with Internet access can drag up the past and call them out on their lie. Just like Rihanna did.