Good Morning POU! Remember when Left Eye burned down Andre Rison’s house?
“Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes was always my favorite because she burned down that guy’s house,” Natasha Lyonne’s character says in the Netflix series Russian Doll. It references a real-life incident that took place in June of 1994.
Lopes was one third of the top selling R&B group TLC,. In March of 1993, she began dating Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Andre Rison. Their mutual burning desire was too flammable from the start. Six months in, they had a grocery store parking lot argument. Rison allegedly assaulted Lopes and then fired off a gun to warn strangers not to get involved. He was arrested but charges were dropped.
They kept dating. She was still coasting on the fumes of TLC’s 1993 debut album, Ooooooohhh…On the TLC Tip but not yet labeled the crazy one on their sophomore effort, CrazySexyCool. On June 8th, 1994, Rison went out partying all night. Lopes did too, separately, but returned to his million-dollar mansion in the Atlanta suburb Alpharetta before him. Rison apparently stayed out until 5 a.m., and Lopes was reportedly furious that he had picked up a bunch of new sneakers but neglected to buy her a pair. He tried to calm her down, which to him meant slapping her, pinning her on the bed and sitting on her.
“I knew she’d been drinking some,” Rison later told People. “But I didn’t know what was upsetting her. I started taking blows to the face. Finally, I grabbed her and asked her what was wrong. But she kept coming at me.”
Rison left the house and stayed at a teammate’s for the night, Jason Phillips. Lopes did what any sensible sneakerhead would do — lit a piece of cardboard on fire and left it in the upstairs whirlpool tub along with all of Rison’s sneakers. The house quickly became engulfed in flames. Not quite finished exacting her fury, Lopes took a vacuum cleaner pipe to the windshields of Rison’s Toyota truck and two Mercedes-Benz cars parked in the driveway.
The next day, she turned herself in to Atlanta authorities. She was charged with felony arson and released on $75,000 bail. She entered rehab for alcohol abuse and received five years probation and a $10,000 fine. Rison hitched a ride back to his house only to discover it completely razed to the ground and was surrounded by fire trucks. He had lost everything, but decided to forgive her.
Did you know that Pepa (of Salt-n-Pepa) claims to have been the reason for the burning of the sneakers (and the whole damn house)?
Pepa Writes About Being the Reason Left Eye Torched Andre Rison’s Mansion
While Left Eye mentioned the fire numerous times during interviews through the years, another piece of the puzzle was made public when Pepa, of the Grammy-winning hip hop duo, “Salt-N-Pepa,” revealed some interesting things about the fire, Left Eye, and Rison, in her 2008 autobiography, “Let’s Talk About Pep.”
“IT JUST SEEMED THAT ALL OF MY PROBLEMS REVOLVED AROUND MEN – EVEN WHEN IT WASN’T MY FAULT. EVEN WHEN I WASN’T DIRECTLY INVOLVED. ONE EXAMPLE OF THIS WAS IN 1994. I ENDED UP IN ONE OF THOSE NATIONAL ENQUIRER TYPE OF MAGAZINES UNDER A HEADLINE: “IS PEPA A HOME WRECKER?” REMEMBER THE NIGHT LISA (LEFT EYE) LOPES BURNED DOWN THE HOUSE OF ANDRE RISON (FORMER ATLANTA FALCONS WIDE RECEIVER)? WELL, I WAS SORT OF IN THE MIDDLE OF THAT.
“ANDRE AND I NEVER MESSED AROUND. I’M INNOCENT OF THAT CRIME. I AM SO INNOCENT. BUT I DID KNOW HIM AND WE WERE REALLY COOL. SALT-N-PEPA USED TO DO A LOT OF NFL SPOTS FOR MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL. AND WE WOULD DO SOME NFL PARTIES. I MET ANDRE AT ONE OF THOSE PARTIES AND WE HIT IT OFF. WE WENT BOWLING AND WERE BUGGING OUT AND LAUGHING. I WOULD BUMP INTO HIM FROM TIME TO TIME AT DIFFERENT CLUBS. AND THAT WAS IT.
“HE TOLD ME LATER HOW EVERYTHING WENT DOWN. APPARENTLY, HE HAD BEEN TALKING ABOUT ME TO HER. TELLING HER HOW COOL I WAS. BROTHERS, YOU CAN’T DO THAT. YOUR GIRL WILL IMMEDIATELY BE SUSPICIOUS. NOW, MAYBE HE DID LIKE ME LIKE THAT, BUT AGAIN, WE NEVER WENT THERE. ONE NIGHT, HE AND LISA ARE WATCHING TV AND MY VIDEO COMES ON, AND HE GETS ALL EXCITED AND SAYS SOMETHING LIKE “PEP, THAT’S MY GIRL!”
Pepa said the night of the fire, “Salt-N-Pepa” was in concert in Atlanta and got Left Eye and Rison backstage passes. Somehow, Left Eye assumed that Pepa and Rison had been together. As result, Left Eye lit up Rison’s mansion, burning it to the ground.
Wow. Who knew.