La Ceiba, Honduras

La Ceiba, Honduras, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, the most flamboyant and outspoken member of the multiplatinum trio TLC, has died, according to a spokesperson for the group’s label, Arista Records. Lopes was 30.

The rapper/singer perished in a car accident late Thursday night while she was vacationing in Honduras.

“We had all grown up together and were as close as a family. Today we have truly lost our sister,” Lopes’ TLC partners Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins and Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas said in a statement (see “Chilli, T-Boz, Jermaine Dupri Remember TLC’s Left Eye”).

Friday afternoon (April 26) on MTV’s “TRL,” the audibly distraught ladies phoned in, saying, “Lisa had one of the biggest hearts of anybody we’ve ever known. She did charity work with kids for the lupus disease. She adopted a little girl named Snow. … Lisa could do anything she put her mind to.”

“No words can possibly express the sorrow and sadness I feel for this most devastating loss,” Arista CEO L.A. Reid said in a statement. “Lisa was not only a gifted and talented musical inspiration, but more importantly, she was like a daughter to me. My thoughts and prayers are with Lisa’s family and friends. Her legacy will be remembered forever.”

On Friday morning Lopes’ personal publicist released details about the tragedy. Left Eye went down to Honduras — where she would often visit — on March 20, and was scheduled to return to the States on Sunday. While there, she was volunteering at a children’s development center and at the Usha Herbal Resource Institute, an herbal healing center.

Left Eye was driving a rented Mitsubishi Montero SUV and traveling from La Ceiba to San Pedro Sula. According to her spokesperson, a three-person group called Egypt, her brother, sister and two producers were in the vehicle with her. The spokesperson said the SUV tipped over and Left Eye died after sustaining a blow to the head.

According to authorities in Jutiapa, Lopes was not licensed to drive internationally and was apparently speeding and lost control. The car crashed in Roma, which is one of Jutiapa’s provinces.

Everyone was taken to the Vicente D’Antoni hospital in La Ceiba and, according to that medical facility, there were eight other passengers in the vehicle. Four were released, and the remaining four remain hospitalized in stable condition.

The U.S. Embassy in Honduras said it is working with the San Jose Funeral Home in La Ceiba and the Lopes family to make arrangements for the body to be flown back to Atlanta. No funeral plans have been made yet.

As for the musical projects Left Eye was involved with, TLC were working on an album, and at least four tracks have been completed. Left Eye had been in the studio working on a track with David Bowie and had hoped to do a song with Eve and Pink based on the theme of Philly pride, Lopes’ spokesperson said.

Lisa Left Eye Lopes

Lisa Left Eye Lopes, Lisa Nicole Lopes (May 27, 1971 – April 25, 2002) better known by her stage name Left Eye, was an American rapper, singer-songwriter, dancer, musician, television hostess, and actress. She is best known as a member of the R&B/Hip-hop girl group TLC.

Lopes contributed her self-written raps to many of TLC’s hit singles, including “Ain’t 2 Proud 2 Beg”, “What About Your Friends”, “Hat 2 da Back”, “No Scrubs”, “Waterfalls”, and “Girl Talk”.

Lopes was often vocal about her personal life and difficult past. She readily admitted that she had come from an abusive, alcoholic background and struggled with alcohol problems herself. These problems became headline news in 1994, when she set fire to Andre Rison’s tennis shoes in a bathtub, which ultimately spread to the mansion they shared, destroying it. Lopes claimed that Rison had beaten her after a night out, and she set fire to his shoes to get back at him. Lopes later revealed that she did not have a lot of freedom within the relationship and was abused mentally and physically, having released all her frustrations on the night of the fire.

Lopes, who was sentenced to five years probation and therapy at a halfway house, was never able to shake the incident from her reputation. Her relationship with Rison continued to make headlines, with rumors of an imminent wedding, later debunked by People magazine. Lopes revealed on the Last Days of Left Eye documentary that her meeting with a struggling mother in rehab left a big impression on her. She subsequently adopted the woman’s 8 year old daughter. Ten years previously, she had adopted a 12 year old boy.

Lopes had several large tattoos. Most prominent was a large eagle on her left arm, which she said represented freedom. Later, she added the number “80” around the eagle, which was Rison’s NFL number while in Atlanta. She also had a tattoo of a moon with a face on her foot in reference to Rison’s nickname, Bad Moon. On her upper right arm was a large tattoo of the name Parron, for her late stepbrother who died in a boating accident, arching over a large tattoo of a pierced heart. Her smallest tattoo was on her left ear and consisted of an arrow pointing to her left over the symbol of an eye, a reference to her nickname.