TLC member T-Boz recently opened about her experience with cyberbullying and how it affected her and her family. The Grammy award winner revealed during an episode of Tai Savetsila’s “All Tai’d Up” podcast that she and her daughter received threats online over a years-old comment she made about artists in the music industry, a quip T-Boz says was misinterpreted and misdirected as being aimed toward Rihanna.
The “Unpretty” singer said the drama went down in 2014 after she and fellow bandmate Chilli made an appearance on the Australian television show “Sunrise Australia.” T-Boz said the question was about artists who felt pressured to sexualize themselves because they thought it is necessary to achieve success in the industry.
T-Boz maintained that she wanted aspiring entertainers to realize that they didn’t have to “take off their clothes” to make it in the industry. She also highlighted that she had no issues with whatever route an artist chose to take to achieve success.
During the segment, the show host characterized the two women as slamming up-and-coming artists “who use sex to sell music.” The narrator said they specifically called out Rihanna — neither ever mentioned Rihanna’s name in the clip.
During the “Tai’d Up” interview, T-Boz insisted her comments were general and not directed at the “Diamonds” singer.
“I said, ‘The more you show your body.’ And when I did ‘you,’ they put Rihanna’s picture up. So it was the press being messy,” she said, adding, “Her Navy went crazy.”
T-Boz tearfully told Savetsila that things got so out of hand that even her daughter was dragged into the scandal. “I remember somebody told my daughter to shoot herself in the head,” T-Boz recalled. “This was over something — people had thought I said something about Rihanna, and I didn’t. … Some kid asked a question, and I answered it.”
T-Boz said the Navy went as far as mentioning her battle with sickle cell anemia and Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes in insensitive comments. Lopes, the third member of the group, tragically died in a car crash in Honduras on April 25, 2002.
“[Rihanna fans] were like, ‘Instead of telling Rihanna what to do, you should’ve told Left Eye to wear her seatbelt,'” T-Boz recalled. “… They were going there. Oh, ‘I hope you die from sickle cell.’… I don’t allow my fans to do that on my behalf, and if they do, I say something.”
Check out T-Boz’s full interview on “Tai’d Up” below.
