*Nearly three decades after TLC stood at a Grammy press conference and told the world they were broke, the moment is still making the rounds online.
Chilli and T-Boz sat down with PEOPLE at the 2026 iHeartRadio Music Awards in Los Angeles on March 26 to reflect on why that speech continues to resonate. The conversation was sparked in part by Chilli’s own son, who recently stumbled across the clip. “Oh, yes. You know what’s funny? My son sent that to me. He was like, ‘Mom, I’ve never seen this.’ And it’s so funny. Yeah, but that was a real thing,” Chilli recalled. “We didn’t get pulled off. But I’m sure the label was not happy that we said that, but it was the truth.”
T-Boz kept it simple: “Hilarious. Yeah, it was the truth,” she said, with Chilli adding, “We hope that our story was helpful to many other artists. And obviously, we’ve learned so much and we are definitely very much in control of our business. So we don’t play those games.”
The speech came on the heels of TLC’s wins for Best R&B Album and Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals at the 1996 Grammy Awards. Despite moving 10 million albums worldwide and cementing themselves as the “biggest-selling female group ever,” the members were candid about their financial reality.
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“We are the biggest-selling female group ever, 10 million albums worldwide. We have worked very hard. We have been in this business for five years. And we are broke as broke can be,” Chilli said at the time.
Left Eye — born Lisa Lopes, who was 30 when she passed away following a car accident in 2002 — also stepped up to the mic that evening. “I can’t go into everything right now, but trust me, you can sell 10 million albums and be broke if you have greedy people behind you,” she said.
Today, Chilli and T-Boz say the experience shaped how they move in the industry. “We hope that our story was helpful to many other artists,” Chilli said. “And obviously, we’ve learned so much and we are definitely very much in control of our business. So we don’t play those games.”
The duo is now gearing up for the “It’s Iconic” Tour alongside Salt-N-Pepa and En Vogue, which kicks off August 15 in Franklin, Tennessee, and runs through October 11. In a said in a video announcement, Chilli spoke to the enduring power of 90s music, marveling that even the youngest fans know every word..
“The music from the Nineties, it’s just … the lyrical content is great,” Chilli said. “You can put on a song no matter how you’re feeling. Once you hit the 2000s, the lyrical content just changes. The beats are crazy, but it’s just different. And it’s crazy to see eight-year-olds sitting in the audience singing all of the songs.”
MORE NEWS ON EURWEB.COM: Salt-N-Pepa, TLC, and En Vogue Announce Dates for ‘It’s Iconic’ Tour
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