FanMail

FanMail
Studio album by TLC
Released	February 23, 1999
Recorded	April—December 1998 D.A.R.P. Studios (Atlanta, Georgia)
Genre	Electronic R&B[1] hip hop[2] urban-soul[3]
Length	62:07 (explicit reissue) 63:31 (original explicit version) 63:23 (clean version) 67:02 (with bonus track)
Label	LaFace Arista
Producer	Antonio "L.A." Reid (exec.) Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds (also exec.) Dallas Austin (also exec.) Ricciano Lumpkins Kevin "She'kspere" Briggs Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis Daryl Simmons Jermaine Dupri Carl-So-Lowe Debra Killings
TLC chronology
CrazySexyCool (1994) FanMail (1999) 3D (2002)
Singles from FanMail
"No Scrubs" Released: February 23, 1999 "Unpretty" Released: August 10, 1999 "Dear Lie" Released: December 10, 1999

FanMail is the third studio album by American girl group TLC, released on February 23, 1999 by LaFace Records. It was the follow up to their 1994 album CrazySexyCool. The title of the album is a tribute to their fans who sent them fan mail during their hiatus. FanMail debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, selling approximately 318,000 copies in its first week of release, and spent five weeks at number one.

The album received 8 Grammy nominations at the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards, including one for Album of the Year, and won three. As of 2000, the album has been certified 6× Platinum by the RIAA, and has sold over 10 million copies worldwide. FanMail is TLC's second best-selling album after 1994's CrazySexyCool.

Background

After a hiatus following the members of TLC filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on July 3, 1995,^[4] TLC eventually entered recording studios in April 1998 to start work on their then-untitled third album with producer Dallas Austin. While Austin contributed most to the album and served as its executive producer, TLC also worked with long-term producers Babyface and L.A. Reid, as well as Kevin "She'kspere" Briggs and Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. The album was scheduled for release on November 10, 1998 but was pushed back to February 23, 1999.

The album took on a new world, futuristic style, which was highly popular throughout the late 1990s to early 2000s. This style was effectively portrayed in the album's most popular song "No Scrubs", along with the music video, which embraces a modern emphasis on female strength and independence. The album also featured a custom font design, cover art with decode-able binary code, along with pictures of the group members in metallic skin tones. The album's CD insert folds out to form a large poster featuring a picture of TLC and the names of thousands of people who sent them fan mail along their career. A limited edition of the album was released, and had an insert with a lenticular version of the cover placed in front of the original booklet in the jewel case. The album contained several tracks featuring vocals by the computer modulated voice Vic-E (Vikki), a talking android later featured in the FanMail Tour.

The album title is a tribute to TLC's fans after their five-year hiatus. The title came from group member Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, who also coined the group's first two album titles, Ooooooohhh... On the TLC Tip and CrazySexyCool. There is an explicit version and a clean version replacing certain curse words, some sexual remarks, and some racial slurs. The explicit version comes with a Parental Advisory sticker, their first album to do so. FanMail was the group's final album released during Lopes' lifetime, before she died three years later. Lopes co-wrote five of the album's songs, while Watkins also co-wrote five and Thomas co-wrote one.

Critical response

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[3]
Entertainment Weekly	(B-)[2]
Robert Christgau	[5]
Rolling Stone	[6]
Muzik	[7]
Q	[8]
Spin	(6/10)[9]
NME	(8/10)[10]

The album received critical acclaim. Rolling Stone magazine declared FanMail "equal parts steely bitch and sweet sister, superfreak and misty romantic, self-centered coffee achiever and spiritualized earth mama."

Commercial performance

FanMail became a global success. The album debuted on top of the U.S. Billboard 200 and spent five non-consecutive weeks at number one. It also debuted at #1 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. According to Nielsen SoundScan, it sold 4.7 million copies in the US.,^[11] and has been certified 6× platinum by the RIAA for shipping six million copies.^[12] Internationally, the album reached the top ten in New Zealand, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

"Silly Ho", "I'm Good at Being Bad" and "My Life" served as promotional singles for the album. Those songs charted on the U.S. Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. "No Scrubs" was the official lead single and topped the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 for four consecutive weeks, becoming TLC's biggest commercial successes in years. It was also the second-biggest single of 1999, coming at #2 on Billboard's Year-End Hot 100 of 1999. Follow-up single "Unpretty" also reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, spending three weeks at number one and placing at #20 on the Year-End Hot 100. "Shout" was planned to be the next U.S single, but it was cancelled in favor of "Dear Lie". Which was released as the album's final single, but never made it to the U.S. Top 50 as it was only released internationally. The album sold more than 10 million copies worldwide.^[13]

Track listing

Notes

• On initial pressings of the album, "Whispering Playa – Interlude" featured a sample of "Cold Blooded" by Rick James playing in the background.^[14] The sample was removed on subsequent editions, likely due to copyright reasons, with the background music being a clip of another TLC song, "U in Me", instead.^[15]
• The song "I'm Good at Being Bad" originally featured interpolated lyrics from Donna Summer's "Love to Love You Baby", but the interpolated lyrics were later removed on later pressings of the explicit version. They were never removed from the clean version of the album.

Digital download track

• "I Need That" (MP3.com exclusive track) – 3:52
  • Released online by TLC on MP3.com to promote the FanMail Tour. Produced by Rico Lumpkins for PWPX, LLC. Written by R. Lumpkins, L. Lopes, and S. Chunn. Left Eye's rap was later expanded and rerecorded on the track "Gimme Some" from Toni Braxton's album The Heat as well as being completely reused and shortened on the track "Whoop De Woo" from the compilation Now and Forever: The Hits, originally intended for the group's fourth album 3D.

Known outtakes

• Recorded by TLC
• "It's Alright" – 2:48
  • Leaked on a UK radio station in January 2002. The song features Chilli and Left Eye, plus Debra Killings on background vocals. It is rumored that the song was in the running to be the lead single until "No Scrubs" was recorded.
• "Let's Just Do It" – 4:47
  • Recorded by Left Eye with T-Boz on backing vocals. The label was unsure if the song would work for FanMail, or her solo album. The song was later remixed and released as lead single of Left Eye's posthumous album Eye Legacy.
• Offered to TLC
• "...Baby One More Time"
  • Offered to TLC, but they rejected it. It was then famously recorded by Britney Spears for her debut album of the same name and released as her debut single. The song became the single that catapulted Spears into what eventually became a career filled with record-breaking success.
• "Where My Girls At?"
  • Another song rejected by TLC, 702 recorded it and it became their biggest hit. Chilli would later comment about it and said she wished they had the song and "it was so TLC." The song became a top 10 hit and a signature song for 702.
• "Heartbreak Hotel"
  • Produced by Soulshock & Karlin, the song ended up a single from Whitney Houston's My Love Is Your Love album. The single peaked at #2 on the US Billboard Hot 100. Lopes later stated that she was displeased with the passing of the song citing the song's major success.

Legacy

At the 2000 Grammy Awards, the album received 8 nominations, including one for Album of the Year. The album won three awards. Singer/songwriter Kyla covered "I Miss You So Much" for her sixth album Heartfelt and rapper/singer Drake recorded a cover of the opening track, "FanMail", for his song I Get Lonely Too. A remix features Jeremih, while another extended mix and mashup features TLC. The songs are featured on The FanMail Mixtape and It's Never Enough mixtape on DatPiff.com.

Personnel

• Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins – vocals, lead vocals
• Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes – vocals, rapping
• Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas – vocals, lead vocals
• Dallas Austin – arranger, background vocals, producer, executive producer
• Tameka Cottle – arranger, background vocals
• Kandi Burruss – arranger, background vocals
• Babyface – Synclavier, acoustic guitar, guitar, keyboards, producer, drum programming, executive producer
• Jermaine Dupri – producer, mixing
• Debra Killings – background vocals
• Ricciano "Ricco" Lumpkins – producer, engineer, keyboards, Synclavier, drum programming

Charts and certifications

See also

• List of Billboard 200 number-one albums of 1999
• List of Billboard number-one R&B albums of 1999

References