Following a career that has spanned more than two decades and 65 million album sales, TLC have turned to Kickstarter in order to fund what they claim will be their ‘final’ studio album.

Yes, you read that right. TLC’s remaining members, T Boz and Chili, have launched a Kickstarter campaign seeking $150,000 so that the duo may record one last studio album. The group claims this was not a decision made out of a desire to avoid record labels, but rather one made in hopes of further involving fans in the creative process. You have to pledge at least $15 in order to receive a digital copy of the record, but rewards for pledges actually begin with contributions as little as $5. You can view the full list of perks on Kickstarter.

Speaking with Billboard about the decision to make this recording the group’s final album, Chili explained:

We’re so blessed to have an amazing catalog. It’s rare to have a catalog that’s full of songs that people love and to get an opportunity to add to that, and to say it’s the last album. We don’t really know what the future holds, but this is so important to us and we want to do it right.

We don’t want to get out there and lie to anybody, like we’re gonna do eight more albums, but this album right here is so important to us. And that’s it. If the stars are aligned later and it makes sense to do anther one, we can say, “Hey, we decided to make one more.” But now it feels like the final album. And to add to what we have, the songs have to stand up next to the ones you guys love so much. Otherwise, y’all will let us know it’s wack if it’s wack. (Laughs)

As to whether or not deceased member Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopez will appear, Chili offered:

You know, when we did the last album, 3D, during the time that she did pass away, the song “Girl Talk” was the only one that her rap was current — she did the rap specifically for that song. Before that, Lisa was working on her solo stuff and she wanted to go in a direction that was different from Left Eye with TLC. And we totally understood, respected and supported her, but a lot of that is different from the type of music that we do. At that time we were searching really hard to find stuff to go with songs we were working on to finish the [3D] album. So to answer your question, probably not, but I’m not going to say “no” because we’re open to it. But at the end of the day, everyone knows how much we love our sister. You go to our show, you feel her presence.

I think we can all agree there is no way TLC needs $150,000 from fans in order to make this record. Unless they both happen to be the two most fiscally irresponsible people in the world they have enough saved between the two of them to fund numerous additional recordings. The idea of bringing fans into the mix seems like a desperate grab for publicity at a time when the duo has no music to share. They want to drum up hype, but they would rather have fans pay for it. So, with no other options immediately available, they turn to Kickstarter.

At the time of this post the album campaign had raised just over $8,000 towards the $150k goal.

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James Shotwell

James Shotwell is the founder of Under The Gun Review. He loves writing about music and movies almost as much as he loves his two fat cats. He's also the co-founder of Antique Records and the Marketing Coordinator for Haulix. You should probably follow him on Twitter.

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