October 29, 2002 14:17

TENDER LOVING TRIBUTE

The promo for 'Girl Talk' remembers the late star in a very subtle way...

TLC have revealed how they overcame the difficulties of making a video for their new single without deceased member LISA 'LEFT EYE' LOPES.

The singer, who died in a car crash in Honduras in April, contributed a rap to the track ‘Girl Talk’ – the first single to be taken from their new album '3D' – which presented the surviving group members Chilli and T-Boz with the problem of how to represent their late bandmate.

"It was hard to come up with [ideas] because she isn't here. That's reality. It's not easy to come up with how to incorporate her, especially when she has a whole rap in the song," T-Boz told MTV.

"What we didn't want to do is [make] your typical video [where] you see old clips. Sometimes, stuff like that fits certain songs, but to show old clips of Lisa didn't fit 'Girl Talk’," Chilli added.

Instead, director Dave Meyers – who has previously worked with Missy Elliott, TLCand Creed– paid tribute to her in a more subtle way.

"We have clothes that say 'Left Eye' and her picture is going around and down the side of jogging pants," says Chilli. "The dancers have a [painted] black mark under their eyes."

Responding to observations that fans might have expected them to release a ballad as tribute to ‘Left Eye’ as their first single since her death, rather than a track about men who are rubbish in bed, T-Boz says: "We never came out like that, so why would we do it now? We're still TLC though. And the spirit, she's still here. Don't change it. If it's not broke, don't fix it."

‘3D’ is released in the UK on November 11, with ’Girl Talk’ following on December 2.