TLC Clarifies ‘You Don’t Have To Be Naked’ Comments, Addresses Rihanna Twitter Beef

TLC says they were set up in a recent interview that caused Rihanna to snap back and call them ‘Old Thots’ on Twitter.

In case you missed it, last week, a video was released which showed T-Boz making comments about young artists not having to expose their bodies.  T-Boz said, ‘You don’t have to be naked’ while a clip of Rihanna ran which made it appear as though the group was talking about her and the see-through dress she wore to the CFDA Awards.

In a new interview with Yahoo! Music, T-Boz and Chilli say nowhere in the interview did they mention Rih’s name, although the interview was edited to make it appear that way. They also advised Rihanna, or any artist, to man up the next time they have a problem with them rather then igniting Twitter beefs because they’re way too grown for that.

As for Rihanna posting photos of them topless, TLC explains that it was all part of a breast cancer awareness campaign and that they’ve never done anything that didn’t have an empowering meaning behind it.

Check the highlights:

On what they meant with the “you don’t have to be naked” comments:
T-Boz: Someone asked a question, ‘Have we seen Rihanna’s outfit?’ and I said no because we’re over here [in Australia] touring and I didn’t know there was an award show and I didn’t know what she wore.

We never mentioned any artists’ name. And the unfortunate part is we were giving a positive message to little girls. We were saying that it’s cool if you don’t want to wear clothes. You can do what you want, we don’t care. We were talking to the little girls who

want to be on television or be singers, even like reality shows. You don’t have to feel forced. Because a lot of record companies, labels say, ‘You gotta take your clothes off.’ And they even took my comment, ‘a spade is a spade’ out of context, sliced, cut it up and manipulated to get a good story. I was talking about television shows. And then you heard me say something like, ‘Every time we see ‘you,’ you’re naked’ and they put her picture up. C’mon man. How can I talk about something I didn’t even see or care about?

Chilli: When we’re talking about people not wearing clothes or being naked all the time or whatever, that’s a whole lot of people. It’s not just artists. It’s actors, actresses, people that aren’t even doing that. And I said this, I was like, if that’s their thing and they feel comfortable doing that then whatever, that works for them. But you don’t have to go that route if you don’t want to. We don’t want people to think that that’s what you have to do.

T-Boz: I’ve worked in the studio with a lot of young girls and they’ll go, ‘Oh the label is telling me to take off my clothes and I don’t feel comfortable.’ Well if you don’t feel comfortable, don’t do it. For those who do, go ‘head!

On the Twitter Beef with Rihanna:

Chilli: It does not bother me at all because I understand that the job we have, that comes with it. What is not cool is if we have a problem with an artist or if an artist has a problem with us, come to us directly. Talk to us. Don’t start a Twitter war and all that kind of stuff. That’s silly.

On the topless picture of TLC Rihanna posted as her Twitter background:

T-Boz The one picture in 22 years of our whole career and it was for breast cancer awareness. One picture you find?

Chilli: That’s why we did it. There’s this one picture of me on a chair [for a magazine] and it was about loving your body or whatever. So for us, if we do something like that, there is a reason behind it. It’s not just because we just feel so comfortable and this is what we’re doing and it’s just for nothing or to get attention. That’s not what we do.

On if they are bothered by Rihanna’s stans:

T-Boz: Can I just lastly say this whole conversation had nothing to do with her anyway. It was never about her at all, none whatsoever. And the thing that is saddening to me about our youth today, is that when you think you’re riding for an artist and you start threatening lives and threatening our kids… Man, c’mon man, y’all taking it too far. Don’t nobody care. And we never backtracked on what we said, if we said it, we’ll say we said it. I don’t have a problem. Ain’t nobody gone spank us. So it’s like, how I’m going to get in trouble? What’s going to happen? Nothing? OK so exactly.

On artists having problems with them:

T-Boz: If you have a problem and you’re in this business, holler at us. I’m grown. We’re grown women. I don’t play.

Chilli: We’re women and we can conversate like that if you have an issue.