(L-R) Singers from TLC, Lil Mama and TLC's Rozonda 'Chilli' Thomas and Tionne 'T-Boz' Watkins pose for a portrait, 2013. Photo / Getty
(L-R) Singers from TLC, Lil Mama and TLC's Rozonda 'Chilli' Thomas and Tionne 'T-Boz' Watkins pose for a portrait, 2013. Photo / Getty
TLC member Rozonda 'Chilli' Thomas can't hear any similarity between her band's hit No Scrubs and Ed Sheeran's Shape Of You.
Sheeran added the writers of TLC's 1999 hit to the credits of Shape Of You two months after his song became a global hit earlier this year.
Many listeners heard a link to No Scrubs in the melody, with a slew of 'mash-ups' appearing on line and on radio.
Ed Sheeran performs onstage. Photo / Getty
"I listened to it a few times and I didn't really think No Scrubs sounded like his song," Thomas said. "I still can't hear it! I'm serious. I thought 'Am I crazy? I just don't hear it'."
Shape Of You has gone on to be the biggest selling song of 2017 - now the longest-running No. 1 in Australian chart history and No. 1 in over 30 countries. It has over 1 billion streams on Spotify alone.
Thomas said Sheeran was smart in adding the writers of No Scrubs to Shape Of You to head off any possible lawsuit.
"That's what I'm thinking, otherwise, who knows what would happen. (It's smart) to avoid something like that and go 'OK, if it sounds like that song then let's just deal with it'."
No Scrubs was written by Kevin 'She'kspere' Briggs, Kandi Burruss (now a Real Housewife of Atlanta), Tameka 'Tiny' Cottle (who was married to rapper TI and was in girl band Xscape with Burruss) and late TLC member Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes.
"I don't know what the financial deal they worked out was," Thomas says. "But Ed is amazing. I'd love to meet him and I'd actually love to work with him, I think he's very talented."
TLC, who release their final album, TLC, this Friday, continue to tour globally - Thomas said No Scrubs has been adopted by a new generation.
"Girls love it so much because the subject matter is something that you're always going to deal with. You're always going to deal with a guy in a car that's not his car, he has no business trying to talk to you, he has no job, he's not motivated or ambitious. When it's real, people gravitate to it."
Thomas also confirmed TLC passed on Britney Spears' breakthrough 1998 hit Baby One More Time, which had also been offered to Backstreet Boys and Five.
The song was written by Swedish songwriter Max Martin and became a global No. 1 for Spears, launching her career.
"We never recorded it," Thomas said.
"It was sent to us, they wanted us to do it. We'd already released a song called Baby Baby Baby. Hit Me Baby One More Time didn't feel like a TLC record so we didn't do it.
"I guess it sounded like a hit. I thought it was cool, I love Britney Spears but I have to say that's not one of my favourite Britney Spears songs."
TLC's one major musical regret was turning down Where My Girls At, a Missy Elliott and Timbaland song that eventually became the only hit for US girl band 702.
"(Record label boss) LA Reid played it to us, but because we were so loyal to our Dallas (Austin) camp, we had our own writers and producers and we didn't want to work with anyone outside of our camp. Which was so stupid!
