FanMail

Untitled

FanMail is the third studio album by American girl group trio TLC, released on February 23, 1999. As with previous album CrazySexyCool (1994), the group re-teamed with Dallas Austin, Babyface, and Jermaine Dupri on the album's production and the album features the computer voice female named Vic-E (vikki).

The group's first album in five years, Fanmail debuted on top of the U.S. Billboard 200 and Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, selling approximately 318,000 copies in its first week of release. The album was certified 6x platinum by the RIAA for more than six million copies sold in the US alone, and featured two number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100, "No Scrubs" and "Unpretty".

The album entered the top twenty on the majority of international charts, and it reached the top ten in Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.

The album was very successful at the Grammys, receiving eight nominations including Album of the Year. "No Scrubs" won Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group and Best R&B Song and Fanmail won Best R&B Album.

Production, title and theme

After a lengthy hiatus following the members of TLC filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on July 3, 1995, TLC eventually entered recording studios in 1998 to start work on their then-untitled third album with producer Dallas Austin. While Austin contributed the most to the album and moreover served as its executive producer, TLC also worked with producers Antonio M. Reid and Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis. The album was scheduled for release on November 10, 1998 but was pushed back to February 23, 1999.

The album title was a tribute to TLC's fans after the group's lengthy hiatus. The title came from group member Lisa Lopes, who also coined the group's first two album titles, Ooooooohhh... On the TLC Tip and CrazySexyCool.

The album took on a new world, futuristic style, which was highly popular in the late 90s to early 2000s. This style was effectively portrayed in the albums most popular song "No Scrubs", along with the music video, which embraces a modern emphasis on female strength, and independence. The album also featured a custom font design, cover art with decode-able binary code, along with pictures of the group members in metallic skin tones. The album's CD insert folds out to form a large poster featuring a picture of TLC and the names of thousands of people who sent them fanmail along their career. 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. The album contained several tracks featuring vocals by the computer modulated voice Vic-E (vikki), a talking android later featured in the FanMail Tour.

There is an explicit version and a clean version replacing certain curse words, some sexual remarks, and some racial words. The explicit version comes with a Parental Advisory sticker, their first album to do so. FanMail was the groups final album released during Lisa Lopes lifetime before she died 3 years later. Lisa Lopes co-wrote 5 of the songs (overall 6 including "I Need That"), Watkins co-wrote 5 and Thomas co-wrote one.

Reception

Critical response

Fanmail was a Grammy Award-nominee for "Album of the Year", Reception for the album was positive. Rolling Stone Magazine declared Fanmail as "equal parts steely bitch and sweet sister, superfreak and misty romantic, self-centered coffee achiever and spiritualized earth mama."

Commercial performance

However, TLC's third album became a global success. Fanmail debuted on top of the U.S. Billboard 200 and Top R&B/Hip-Hop albums chart. The album remained atop the chart for five weeks, it eventually received a 6x platinum certification by the RIAA with selling over 5.3 million copies domestically, and over eleven million worldwide. While the album entered the top twenty on the majority of the charts it appeared on oustide the United States, it also reached the top ten in New Zealand, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

Although "Silly Ho", was considered to be released as a single at times, Fanmail spawned three singles: The album's lead single, "No Scrubs", became TLC's biggest commercial successes in years, topping the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks charts with spending four consecutive weeks on top. It was eventually ranked two on the Hot 100 1999 year-end charts. Follow-up single "Unpretty" received the same success on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 but reached number four on the "Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks" chart. The follow-up single, "Dear Lie" never made it out of the lower half of the Billboard Hot 100 due to its lack of promotion and unavailability of its video in the United States.

Legacy

Rapper/Singer Drake recorded a cover of TLC's FanMail for his song I Get Lonely Too, a remix features Jeremih and another extended mix and mashup features TLC. The songs are featured on The FanMail Mixtape and It's Never Enough on DatPiff.com.

Track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
1.	"FanMail"	Dallas Austin	Cyptron	4:00
2.	"The Vic-E Interpretation - Interlude"	Austin	Cyptron	0:18
3.	"Silly Ho"	Austin	Cyptron	4:15
4.	"Whispering Playa - Interlude"	Austin, Marshall Lorenzo Martin	Dallas Austin	0:52
5.	"No Scrubs"	Kevin "Shekspere" Briggs, Kandi Burruss, Tameka Cottle	Kevin "She'kspere" Briggs	3:34
6.	"I'm Good at Being Bad"	James Harris III, Terry Lewis, Tony Tolbert, Tionne Watkins, Lisa Lopes, Martin, Giorgio Moroder, Pete Belotte, Donna Summer, Morris Dickerson, Charles Miller, Sylvester Allen, Harold Brown, Howard Scott, Lee Oskar, Leroy Jordan	Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis	5:39 / 4:38
7.	"If They Knew"	Austin, Ricciano Lumpkins, Lopes, Martin, Watkins	Austin, Lumpkins	4:04
8.	"I Miss You So Much"	Babyface, Daryl Simmons	Babyface, Simmons	4:59
9.	"Unpretty"	Austin, Watkins	Austin	4:39
10.	"My Life"	Jermaine Dupri, Tamara Savage, Lopes, Martin	Dupri (Co-produced by Carl So Lowe)	4:01
11.	"Shout"	Austin, Lopes, Martin, Watkins	Austin	3:59
12.	"Come On Down"	Diane Warren	Debra Killings, Austin	4:18
13.	"Dear Lie"	Babyface, Watkins	Babyface	5:10
14.	"Communicate - Interlude"	Austin	Austin	0:51
15.	"Lovesick"	Austin, Rozonda Thomas	Austin	3:53
16.	"Automatic"	Austin	Austin	4:31
17.	"Don't Pull Out on Me Yet"	Austin	Austin	4:33

Japanese bonus tracks

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
18.	"U in Me"	Austin	Austin	3:50

Known outtakes

• "I Need That" – 3:52
  • Released online by TLC as an album preview. Did not make final tracklisting. Produced by Ricciano Lumpkins for PWPX, LLC. Written by R. Lumpkins, L. Lopes, and S. Chunn
• "Let's Just Do It" – 4:47
  • Recorded by Left Eye with T-Boz on backing vocals. Remixed and released as lead single of Left Eye's 2009 posthumous album Eye Legacy.

Main personnel

• Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes – vocals, rapping
• Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas – vocals, lead vocals
• Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins – vocals, lead vocals
• Dallas Austin – arranger, vocals, producer, executive producer
• Babyface – Synclavier, acoustic guitar, guitar, keyboards, producer, drum programming, executive producer
• Jermaine Dupri – producer, mixing
• Debra Killings – background vocals
• Ricciano "Ricco" Lumpkins – producer, engineer, keyboards, synclavier, drum programming

Charts and certification

• These are the peak positions and certifications from chart providers.

Chart (1999)	Provider	Peak position	Certification
Canadian Albums Chart	CRIA	3
New Zealand Albums Chart	RIANZ	6
UK Albums Chart	BPI	7	Platinum
U.S. Billboard 200	Billboard	1	6x Platinum
U.S. Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums		1

End of decade charts

Chart (1990–1999)	Position
U.S. Billboard 200	84

See also

• Number-one albums of 1999 (U.S.)
• List of number-one R&B albums of 1999 (U.S.)