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Red Light Special

"Red Light Special"
TLC-RedLightSpecial.jpg
Single by TLC
from the album CrazySexyCool
B-side "My Secret Enemy"
Released February 21, 1995
Format CD
Recorded Fall 1994
Music Grinder Studios
(Los Angeles, California)
Genre
Length 5:04
Label
Writer(s) Kenneth Edmonds
Producer(s) Babyface
TLC singles chronology
"Creep"
(1994)
"Red Light Special"
(1995)
"Waterfalls"
(1995)

"Red Light Special" is a song recorded by American group TLC and released as the second single from their second studio album, CrazySexyCool (1994). Written by Babyface, the song reached number one on the Billboard Rhythmic Top 40 chart and number two on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, being held back from the top position by Montell Jordan's "This Is How We Do It". The song was TLC's fifth top-ten single.

For the CD single of Red Light Special, Lopes produced a brilliant and darkly confessional B-side called My Secret Enemy. On this relatively obscure track, Lopes explored the Rison incident – and her own conflicted feelings about it – with astonishing depth and style. It is such an exciting departure from the work the group has done with established producers that you start to feel that TLC’s album output thus far only hints at the women’s true capabilities..

The Red Light Special single came with a B-side rap track titled 'My Secret Enemy', led by group rapper Lisa "Left-Eye" Lopes. Despite not making TLC's album CrazySexyCool, the song is highly praised by long-time TLC fans and kept up with the group's more matured style. Its lyrical content focuses on Lisa’s coverage in the media and her relationship with Andre Rison. Lopes went on to say that the song came out directly after the incident that saw her accidentally set fire to Rison's Atlanta mansion. "It happened right after that incident and I was feeling like I needed a way out," said Lopes of the track.

The music video was directed by Matthew Rolston and is set in a brothel. The male actors in the video are portrayed as prostitutes and Left-Eye is dressed as a pimp while Chilli & T-Boz portray customers who part take in a game of strip poker. A young Boris Kodjoe is featured as one of the male prostitutes. T-boz is seen being caressed by a man in a room. Chilli is seen dancing with the guitar player. There are also black and white solo shots of the girls singing.


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