How TLC turned “Creep”
The CrazySexyCool lead single gave TLC their first Hot 100 #1 and a Grammy, while Left Eye protested the whole thing with tape over her mouth.
Some songs become hits in spite of the people singing them. "Creep" became TLC's first #1 while one-third of the group was openly protesting it. Released on October 31, 1994 through LaFace/Arista as the lead single from CrazySexyCool, it turned 32 this week, and it still sounds like it's whispering something it shouldn't.
A song from T-Boz's life
Dallas Austin wrote and produced "Creep" at DARP Studios in Atlanta. He based it on T-Boz's own experience and wrote it from a woman's point of view. The story flips the usual script: a woman who knows she's being cheated on decides to creep too, quietly, to keep her man's attention. Austin built the track on samples of Slick Rick's "Hey Young World" and Shinehead's "Who the Cap Fits," with scratching by Sol Messiah and background vocals from Debra Killings. LaFace boss L.A. Reid reportedly "flipped out" the first time he heard it.
- Released
- Oct 31, 1994 · LaFace/Arista
- Writer/Producer
- Dallas Austin
- Hot 100 #1
- Jan 28, 1995 · 4 weeks
- Also #1
- Hot R&B/Hip-Hop · Rhythmic
- Grammy
- Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals (1996)
The tape
Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes didn't buy the message. Her view was simple: if he's cheating, don't creep, just leave. She objected so strongly that she threatened to wear black tape over her mouth in the video, then did exactly that. It's one of the great protests in music-video history, hiding in plain sight inside a smash. She got her say later on a remix, adding a verse about the consequences of cheating that included the line "Prenatal HIV is often sleeping in a creeping cradle."
Third time's the video
The clip almost didn't happen. A June 1994 shoot in Atlanta was scrapped, and so was a July version in Los Angeles with director Lionel C. Martin. The group went to Matthew Rolston after seeing his work with Salt-N-Pepa, and he shot the final video in Los Angeles in August 1994. The silk pajamas were custom-made and cost over $1,000 each. Frank Gatson's choreography was mostly cut, and T-Boz choreographed the routine herself. The video premiered on MTV in the last week of October 1994.
From #71 to #1
"Creep" entered the Hot 100 at #71 on November 12, 1994, jumped to #25 the next week and was #8 by December 3. On January 28, 1995 it reached #1, replacing Boyz II Men's "On Bended Knee," and held on for four weeks until Madonna's "Take a Bow" took over. It also topped Hot R&B/Hip-Hop and Rhythmic, went platinum and finished #3 on Billboard's 1995 year-end Hot 100. CrazySexyCool, released November 15, 1994, peaked at #3 on the Billboard 200 and was eventually certified diamond, the first diamond album by a girl group.
“Left Eye's tape said more than a verse could have. The song asked a question, and she answered it on camera.”
— FIFI, Editor-in-Chief
The Grammy, and the twist
At the 38th Grammy Awards in 1996, "Creep" won Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals and was nominated for Best R&B Song. Soon after the win, TLC announced backstage that they were bankrupt. One of the biggest groups in the world was holding a Grammy and broke at the same time.
The song has only grown since. Billboard named it the second-greatest girl-group song of all time in 2017. Spin ranked it #3 among the best singles of the '90s, and it placed #8 in the Village Voice's 1995 Pazz & Jop critics' poll. A "Creep '96" reissue reached #6 in the UK, Zendaya sampled it and The Afghan Whigs covered it.
Thirty-two years on, "Creep" is still proof that one record can hold two opinions at once. T-Boz sang the story. Left Eye taped her mouth shut and said everything anyway.
