How commercially successful was TLC’s “No Scrubs”?
~ Friday, November 24, 2023 Blog Post
I absolutely love TLC’s live performance of their Billboard Hot 100-topping track “No Scrubs” at the Glastonbury music festival last year. I love the energetic drumbeats, the high-spirited, high-energy, and really cool dancing by Chilli and the backup dancers, the resounding audience singing along, and Chilli and T-Boz’s live singing performances.
“No Scrubs” was released in February 1999 and I was just 15 then. I found this song fun and upbeat. After watching TLC’s Glastonbury 2022 live performance, I felt curious about how commercially successful their “No Scrubs” track was.
I found minimal and indirect information. Finding net worth ballpark estimates for TLC was easy. Based on Celebrity Net Worth, Chilli has accumulated a US$10-million fortune, dwarfing T-Boz’s net worth, which is a paltry US$500,000.
A little background about the “No Scrubs” track
TLC recorded “No Scrubs” as the lead single for FanMail, their third studio album. Arista Records and LaFace Records released the song on February 2, 1999.
The songwriters of “No Scrubs” who receive royalties are former Xscape members Tameka “Tiny” Cottle and Kandi Burruss. Additionally, producer Kevin “She’kspere” Briggs and the late TLC member Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes contributed to the TLC tune’s completion.
Chart Performance of “No Scrubs”
“No Scrubs” became TLC’s third single that dominated the US Billboard Hot 100 for four straight weeks. It is also the eighth top-10 song on the weekly music chart by the American pop girl group, staying there for months.
On Billboard’s 1999 year-end Hot 100 singles chart, “No Scrubs” ranked second behind Cher’s 1998 song “Believe.” TLC’s Grammy Award-winning song also bagged two accolades at the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards: Best R&B Song and Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocal.
“No Scrubs” Commercial Performance
Again, I still cannot find information regarding how much TLC and the “No Scrubs” songwriters earned for the chart-topping track. The information I found was debuting on the top spot of the Billboard studio album chart, “No Scrubs” sold six million copies in the United States alone.
Although this TLC tune was the country’s number-one track for seven weeks, it was still not the biggest TLC song ever. The latter was “Waterfalls” from the pop girl band’s CrazySexyCool studio album released in 1994, which was commercially successful, sales and volume-wise.
During “No Scrubs” release, its studio album was TLC’s first in more than four years at that time. However, two factors aided the song to commercially take off. First was LaFace Records being intelligent about marketing “No Scrubs,” releasing this single in two versions. One was with Left Eye’s rapping verse while the other was without it. This marketing strategy ensured that the TLC song would obtain airplay on different radio stations, whatever the format.
The other factor that propelled “No Scrubs” to become a commercial success was the cool and futuristic music video director Hype Williams helped complete. The visual presentation shows TLC in a cruising spaceship. Each of the trio’s bold, confident, and independent young members was wearing a swishy spacesuit and was able to demonstrate her individual personality.
Furthermore, “No Scrubs” has more than 300 million streams to date on Spotify. According to Burruss, her composition changed the narrative. In the late ’90s, the most popular R&B and hip-hop songs were filled with damsel-in-distress and misogyny plotlines.
Additionally, Burruss cited that “No Scrubs” helped women become more vocal as they generally have the problem of men being ungentlemanly, pushing them up and hollering at them wherever they go.
“No Scrubs” tremendously ruffled the feathers of Sporty Thievz. This New York rap collective released “No Pigeons” in May 1999, which was one month following TLC’s track hitting the Billboard Hot 100’s top spot.
Sporty Thievz’s song utilized a similar melody as “No Scrubs.” The trio’s “No Pigeons” was perceived as a criticism to TLC. Nonetheless, the songwriters of “No Scrubs” — Cottle, Briggs, and Burruss — still got paid.
Burruss confirmed that Sporty Thievz’s response track was a check. She cited that she loved that the rap group changed her composition and infused a male viewpoint in it. Moreover, Burruss said her songwriting team ended up receiving royalties from Sporty Thievz’s tune.
But exactly how much did “No Scrubs” songwriters and TLC earn for this Billboard Hot 100-topping track??????????
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Scrubs
https://www.grunge.com/470320/one-hit-wonders-you-didnt-know-passed-away/
https://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-celebrities/singers/rozonda-chilli-thomas-net-worth/
https://ig.ft.com/life-of-a-song/no-scrubs.html
https://news.yahoo.com/5-years-industry-tlc-had-171634141.html
https://www.npr.org/2019/02/01/689703447/tlc-no-scrubs-20-years-american-anthem
https://www.theringer.com/2021/2/17/22286924/tlc-no-scrubs-history-podcast
