Lisa Lopes was a legendary entertainer whose name is remembered a few years after her untimely death due to her contributions to the music industry in her short but impactful life. In just 30 years on Earth, she had an impact on a hip-hop group called TLC, which consisted of three talented acts, in which she more or less stood behind the group’s artistry and with which she won five Grammy Awards.
Aside from her great performances, she also made headlines in a negative way when she set fire to her then-boyfriend’s mansion, which led to her arrest and imprisonment. But even though she’s dead, her legacy lives on! Read through how she died.
Who Was Lisa Lopes?
Lisa Nicole Lopes was born on May 27, 1971 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Ronald Lopes Sr. (father), a United States Army officer, and Wande Denise (mother), a seamstress.
She had two younger siblings; a brother named Ronald Jr. and a sister named Raina Anitra, known professionally as Reigndrop. Her father was a talented musician who was a master at playing instruments such as the harmonica, piano, saxophone and clarinet. He was a strict and dominant man who did not spare these attributes at home either. Lisa was raised in the care of her paternal grandmother after her parents divorced while she was still in high school. She attended Philadelphia High School for Girls before establishing herself as a full-time musician.
She later adopted “Left Eye” as her stage name during the prime of her music career. Lisa’s musical art began at the age of 5. She played a toy keyboard, composed songs, and formed her siblings into a musical trio that performed at events and in churches.
The success of the first album was followed by the second studio album entitled Crazy sexy cool in November 1994. It sold 23 million copies and was chartered at number 15 on the US Billboard 200. it was nominated for six Grammy Awards and several notable nominations. The group eventually won two awards, for Best R&B Album and Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals for Schleich.
Her third studio album, entitled Fanmail , was released on February 23, 1999, and it was also a commercial success, selling 14 million copies worldwide. With eight nominations, with the group winning three – Best R&B Album, Best R&B By A Duo Or Group With Vocals, and Best R&B Song. After starting FainMail tours in support of their third album, which encountered several internal issues that led to a split, they both left as soloists, although they stayed with the Arista Records label.
Lisa floated music projects and created left eye productions where she spotted new talent and mentored some artists. She also helped them secure record deals. She set up a family studio called UNI Studio for the public to record solo projects with Ronald, her brother, as manager.
She began work on her first 13-track solo studio album Supernova which was eventually released on August 14, 2001, after several postponements. The album was first released in the UK before being released in Australia on 12 November 2001. The album had a single dedicated to her father entitled A New Star Is Born .
She started on her 2nd album entitled NINA in 2002 under Death Row Records. Lisa had the opportunity to work on the project with big acts like Missy Elliott, Ray J and David Bowie, but she died prematurely on April 25, 2002. However, some tracks from the unreleased album were later uploaded to YouTube and were also sampled in the defunct TLC’s fourth album entitled 3D . The album was released on October 10, 2002, 7 months after Lisa passed away. The album debuted at number 6 on the US Billboard 200.
In 2008 a posthumous honorific album titled Eye Legacy was released. The album featured some of their unreleased songs and some from their Supernova album.
Relationship with Andre Rison and Incident
Lisa was in a relationship with a former American soccer player named Andre Rison and on the line, in 1994, they had problems in which Lisa claimed that Andre beat her up. In revenge, she set fire to Andre’s sneakers and the fire escalated, engulfing a $1.3 million mansion where they both lived at the time. Lisa was later sentenced to 5 years probation with therapy. After her rehab, rumors of a wedding to Rison surfaced, later discredited by People magazine .
Death – How did Lisa Lopes die?
Lisa Lopes’ spectacular music career began on April 25, 2002 in a horrific car accident. She is said to have been driving a rented Mitsubishi Montero SUV with her sister and others on a Rome motorway to avoid a collision with an oncoming car. As the car rolled, Lisa and three others were thrown out the car’s window. While others survived the horrific accident, only Lisa died instantly from neck and head injuries.
Her funeral was held at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, Lithonia, Georgia on May 2, 2002 in the presence of her family, friends including the Mary Mary Gospel Duo, who sang at her funeral, and thousands of fans. Her final resting place is Hillandale Memorial Gardens in Lithonia.
Here are things we learned after her death
A documentary that Lisa Lopes was working on before her death was released and premiered at the Atlanta Film Festival in April 2007. The documentary titled The Last Days of the Left Eye showed the last 27 days of Lisa’s life. Some excerpts from the documentary showed Lisa along with her sister and brother in Honduras on a 30-day spiritual retreat.
In the released documentary, Lisa revealed that her mother struggled in rehab and later adopted the woman’s eight-year-old daughter.
After her death, an episode was released starring Lisa on the singer’s edition of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire , alongside Joey McIntyre, Tyrese, Nick Lachey, and Lee Ann Womack . it was shown and dedicated to her in July 2001 when she dropped the $125,000 question and won $32,000.
A foundation called the Lisa Lopes Foundation was set up by her family in 2003 to provide needed handouts to the needy and impoverished youth. Beginning in 2012, the foundation hosted an annual music festival called Left Eye Music Fest to honor the legacy of Lisa Lopes.