I admit, TLC being paid $33,000 per year for
three years, while Arista made over $100,000,000 off the
group is greedy and crazy on the parent company's part.
Arista should have compensated TLC more from the beginning
of their success when they saw the group was turning a
profit. They weren't losing money on TLC. Arista was not
fair in this regard.
Reid was also cheating on Pebbles during
their marriage. He even admitted writing the 1989 hit song
"In The Heat Of The Moment" about seducing his secretary in
his office bathroom. The song was a R&B hit for the band
After 7. This occurred while he was married to Pebbles, as
that was the first time in his life he could afford a
secretary and the song was written and released shortly
after his marriage to Pebbles. As stated in the column
previously, years ago, a cousin of Reid's in Atlanta, who is
now a preacher, told me he was cheating on Pebbles with
different women. Prior to meeting Pebbles, Reid was going
after several women as well. He is a promiscuous man.
Marriage seldom changes such a man.
Reid and TLC member Rhozanda "Chili" Thomas
played down what went on between the two of them, but they
were intimate. That's how Chili got in TLC, with Reid
kicking up a fuss over the original third member, Crystal,
in order to boot her in favor of his mistress. Reid claims
he doesn't know where the story started, but years ago a
website wrote about an Atlanta radio station broadcasting
the story of Chili and Pebbles being at odds arguing over
L.A. Reid's cheating.
In his book, Reid also indicates Chili "kept
making eye contact" with him at an audition where she was a
backup dancer. Chili's inappropriate behavior with L.A. is
apart of the reason the love of her life, TLC producer
Dallas Austin, did not show her the full attention he
craved. In the TLC biopic, Reid is shown flirting with Chili
and it upsetting his then wife Pebbles. L.A. and Chili are
playing the public for fools regarding what transpired.
There is a chapter in the book that puts out
the private business of the late, legendary singer, Whitney
Houston. Reid wrote of an incident in his book regarding
Houston showing up at his and Pebbles' Atlanta home and
later began watching a movie with him at night while Pebbles
was away on tour:
"Whitney came back
to Atlanta one week later and she knocked out these two
songs like they were nothing—pow, pow—only now we were used
to it. She came back a third time to do some fixes. Aaron
had been born and Pebbles was out touring behind her new
“album. Whitney called from her hotel to tell me her room
had been broken into and she felt uncomfortable at the
hotel. Could she use the guesthouse? She showed up with her
manager and running partner Robyn Crawford. It was late. I
put on a movie in the theater to watch and the phone rang.
It was Pebbles, who quickly became upset when she learned
Whitney was there.
“Whitney’s in my
house?” she said. “We’re not having that. My husband is not
going to sit in my house late at night watching a movie with
another girl.” I tried to explain, but she threw a tantrum
and I started to get angry. I told her she had nothing to
worry about, this was completely safe, platonic, and just us
musicians. I got loud and Whitney overheard.
“She’s trippin’,
huh?” she said.
Whitney offered to
leave, but I told her my responsibility was to take care of
her and everything would be fine. “I don’t want to be in the
middle of y’all’s mess,” she said.
Pebbles kept
calling back and finally I took the phone off the hook. I
was embarrassed. I pride myself on being a professional. I
was starting a business, and was now working with—and
entertaining—major celebrity superstars. I didn’t need this
bullshit. Whitney went to the guesthouse to sleep.
The next day,
Pebbles came home and had attitude with me. She tried having
attitude with Whitney, too, but Whitney put out that fire
in, like, two seconds. I don’t know what she said, but
everything quickly was cool. Whitney invited us all—me,
Pebbles, Babyface and his new girlfriend, Tracey (he and his
wife had divorced)—to her place, so we all piled on a Delta
jet and spent the weekend in New Jersey.'" - L.A. Reid's
"Sing To Me"
What was the necessity of including that
story in the book. Houston is gone and can't defend herself.
Pebbles is no longer your wife. She and Pebbles ended up
becoming great friends to the day Houston died. They were
even bridesmaids at each others weddings (when Houston wed
Bobby Brown and Pebbles later remarried, tying the knot with
baseball player, Otis Nixon). Reid betrayed their confidence
in putting the story in the book for sensationalism
purposes, in order to sell more copies. I find it hard to
believe either woman would want that story out there. It was
personal.
It is understandable that a woman would not
feel comfortable with the idea of another woman, especially
one she does not know well (yet), watching a movie alone
with her husband at night in her house, while she is away.
Most women would not be happy about that. However, Pebbles
didn't know Houston was actually in Atlanta to work and see
Bobby Brown, who she had begun dating. Brown became the love
of Houston's life. Pebbles misunderstood (and considering
L.A. Reid had been dating singer Paula Abdul and others at
the same time he was seeing her before they got married, it
is easy to see why she was concerned, as you can't trust a
man behaving like that).
Reid also wrote of how in a jealous rage,
Pebbles, whom he was dating at the time, smashed up all the
glass furniture in his apartment using a broom, as he had
Paula Abdul in his place at night on a date. In the 1980s,
Abdul was known as an industry mattress. She was the
mistress of married Jackson 5 member, Jackie Jackson. Abdul
also had a relationship with Arsenio Hall that was lampooned
on television.
Reid also brought up how he took over Arista
Records, pushing Clive Davis out of his job, when the latter
merged with BMG. I am not fan of Davis or Sony (Davis'
Arista was bought by Sony) , due to their chronic acts of
copyright infringement in ripping off legendary and lesser
known songwriters, producers and artists, but Reid was a
Judas to take Davis' job, when the latter was forced out.
When so many in the industry had rejected
funding LaFace Records in the late 1980s, such as David
Geffen, Davis was the one who gave them funding. It was a
betrayal to stab him in the back and take his job. Much like
he betrayed his wife Pebbles...and partner Babyface. In the
book, Reid also arrogantly slammed the group the Deele, whom
he got his start with, as lazy, for putting their family
ahead of the group (in wanting to go to a family party
instead of doing more retakes in the recording studio). Reid
slammed Janet Jackson in the book. He also took aim at music
mogul David Geffen.
Reid has exhibited a pattern of betraying
and bad mouthing people who have greatly helped him in life
and that's not a good thing (Babyface, Pebbles, Clive Davis,
The Deele). I implore my readers not to take that path. Do
business the right way. Don't betray or step on people
because you can, as it will come back to you in life.
Engaging in ruthlessness and betrayals may seem like it is
working at first, but make no mistake, everything people do
in life, whether good or bad, comes back to them. You reap
what you sow.
