FanMail

After all three TLC members filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on July 3, 1995, the group went on a recording hiatus. The suit was eventually settled on November 25, 1996.[2] Preliminary work on their third studio album was delayed when friction arose between the group and their main producer Dallas Austin, who was at the time dating member Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas, and helped to raise their son Tron. Austin wanted $4.2 million and creative control to work on the project, resulting in a stand-off between the producer and the group. TLC eventually entered recording studios in April 1998 to start work on their then-untitled third album with Austin, who came back with a handshake agreement. While he contributed the most to the album and served as the executive producer, they also collaborated with long-term producers Babyface and L.A. Reid, as well as with Kevin "She'kspere" Briggs, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.[3] FanMail was initially scheduled for release on November 10, 1998, but was pushed back to February 23, 1999.[4][5]

Meanwhile, Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes had written and composed eight original songs for the album, only to have them all rejected by Austin. As a result, she decided to work on a solo album with assistance from Erick Sermon, which was to be released before TLC's third studio album. This further caused tension among the group.[3] Lopes eventually returned to the group to complete the album, using a slightly deeper vocal delivery and intonation for her raps than in previous recordings. However, she was still not completely satisfied with the finished product due to the lack of creative input she was granted for the project; in particular only receiving writing credits and vocal contributions for five songs and the album version of "No Scrubs" omitting her rap verse. In a 1999 interview with Vibe, Lopes publicly derided her involvement in TLC:[3]

I've graduated from this era. I cannot stand 100 percent behind this TLC project and the music that is supposed to represent me. This will be my last interview until I can speak freely about the truth and present myself on my solo project.

During the recording of FanMail, the group were offered many songs that would eventually be recorded by other artists such as 702's "Where My Girls At?",[6] Whitney Houston's "Heartbreak Hotel",[7] and "...Baby One More Time", which was recorded by Britney Spears for her debut album of the same name and released as her debut single. Thomas stated that the group considered recording each track but were worried that it did not represent them well. Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins reiterated Thomas' reasoning in an interview with MTV News, stating that the song was not good for them despite appreciating and respecting Spears' decision to record it.[8]

Watkins decided to begin writing poetry to deal with her emotions after being in and out of hospital due to sickle cell disease. She took her collection of poems to Austin, who helped her adapt one into the song "Unpretty", while another was adapted by Babyface into "Dear Lie". While writing and recording "I'm Good at Being Bad" in Minneapolis, Watkins had been inspired by grunge band Nirvana's loud and soft dynamic shifts in their discography, and wanted to create a song in a similar style for TLC. Jam encouraged her to hum the melody while he played the beat in the recording booth, which was unlike her usual process of listening to the beat and writing out the lyrics. She stated that the technique influenced her as a songwriter. She sought to have Lopes rap the pre-chorus herself, but Lopes insisted that Watkins' thicker voice should be used for the track. Watkins also contributed to writing two more songs for the album, co-writing "If They Knew" and "Shout" with Austin and Lopes. Two of the album's tracks, "Come on Down" and "I Miss You So Much", were originally written for Watkins to sing lead. However, she decided that Thomas would be more suited as the lead vocalist after attempting to record them. During the recording of the latter, Thomas was suffering from a sinus infection. She asked to re-record the song the next week despite it being near the album's deadline, but Babyface decided that the vocal take she had recorded would be suitable for the final version. "No Scrubs" was the last track recorded for the album in December 1998. It was originally written by Kandi Burruss, Tameka Cottle, and Briggs for the former two to record together as part of the girl group Xscape. However, Austin persuaded Briggs to give the song to TLC as their first single for FanMail, with Thomas singing the lead vocals. Austin further emphasized that it was a breakthrough for her, as he believed that she was more capable than being relegated to a secondary vocalist.[9]

FanMail took on a new, futuristic style, due to the rapid advancement in technology heading into the new millennium such as the Y2K bug and Napster.[10] This 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.[7] It contains several tracks featuring vocals by the computer modulated voice Vic-E, a talking android which is reminiscent of the "tour guide" on A Tribe Called Quest's 1993 album, Midnight Marauders.[10] Initially, the android was created through the Macintosh's greeting voice as a replacement for Lopes, as she refused to work with the group. However, once she reconciled with them, she approved of the android and decided to include it on the album as a character.[9]

Throughout the album's 17 tracks, TLC brought up the issues of sexuality, insecurities, self-reliance, and vulnerability with resistant messaging.[10] On the first track "FanMail", Dallas Austin used multiple samples from the internet and movies in order to create a "space sound" that "will sound like what the album cover looks like". The background noise consisting of typewriters and printers was incorporated to represent the fan letters and fan mail, while Austin added a sample from an interview with Lopes commenting "all these conflicting fan mail", and created a hook with it.[11] The song consisted of a sneaking bassline, vocal stutters, and glitches similar to that of dial-up Internet.[7] However, in contrast to the album's dominating technological sound, "Unpretty" is an alternative pop song that describes the insecurity caused by body-shaming. The song was inspired by a poem written by Watkins. "Communicate (Interlude)" establishes the connection between the thoughts and feelings of people nearby through technology. The lyrics from the song, "There's over a thousand ways/ To communicate in our world today/ And it's a shame/ That we don't connect" describe the lack of interaction between humans, which in turn has increased the rate of depression among adolescents.[10] It combines the typing of a keyboard in the background with Left Eye's vocals, "will you communicate with me?".[7]

The album's cover featured a custom font design, cover art with decode-able binary code, along with pictures of the group members in metallic skin tones.[7][10] The photographer, Dan Levy, shot the silver-painted group members without any digital alterations.[9] The 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 throughout their career.[12] 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.[13]

The album title is a tribute to TLC's fans after their five-year hiatus. It came from Lopes, who also coined the group's first two album titles Ooooooohhh... On the TLC Tip and CrazySexyCool, and initially wanted to name the album Fan2See.[3][9] She stated to the group, "let’s write and sing one big fan letter. Let’s put fan names on everything – all the singles, the album cover, T-shirts, mugs. Just show our appreciation."[10]

"FanMail", "Silly Ho", "I'm Good at Being Bad", and "My Life" served as promotional singles for the album. Those songs charted on the US Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.

"No Scrubs" was the official lead single and topped the US Billboard Hot 100 for four consecutive weeks, becoming TLC's biggest commercial success in years. It also ranked at number two on Billboard's Year-End Hot 100 of 1999.

Follow-up single "Unpretty" also topped the Billboard Hot 100, spending three weeks at number one and placing at number 20 on the Year-End Hot 100.

Originally, "Shout" was planned to be a single in the United States, while "Dear Lie" would be a single internationally, but only the latter would end up being released as a single with an accompanying music video. It peaked at number 51 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[14]
Entertainment Weekly	B−[15]
The Guardian	[16]
Los Angeles Times	[17]
Muzik	[18]
NME	8/10[19]
Q	[20]
Rolling Stone	[21]
Spin	6/10[22]
USA Today	[23]

The album received generally positive reviews. Ann Powers of Rolling Stone declared FanMail "equal parts steely bitch and sweet sister, superfreak and misty romantic, self-centered coffee achiever and spiritualized earth mama."[21] Muzik's Tony Farsides wrote that it was "a real grower of an album in every respect compared to what else is out there."[18]

However, David Browne of Entertainment Weekly criticized the group's direction of overemphasizing the music in their songs to "compensate for the lack of personality in the women’s voices",[15] while Joshua Clover from Spin stated that the album was "a burning, physical message that looks like a spectacle but reads like sexual politics."[22]

In the United States, FanMail debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts with 318,000 copies sold in its first week, becoming TLC's first number-one album on both charts.[24] On June 21, 2000, it was certified six-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).[25] According to Nielsen SoundScan, the album had sold 4.8 million copies in the United States as of June 2017;[26] it had sold an additional 877,000 copies through the BMG Music Club as of February 2003.[27] Internationally, the album reached the top 10 in New Zealand, Canada, and the United Kingdom. FanMail had sold over 10 million copies worldwide as of December 2011.[28]

Credits adapted from the liner notes of FanMail.[13]

Credits adapted from the liner notes of FanMail.[13]

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