Don’t go chasin’ waterfalls/Please stick to the rivers and the lakes that you’re used to
Most commentators assume, ignorantly, that this brilliant song is a simple desperate plea from one woman to another, a screaming-out: “Stay with your family, don’t go off to Cancún and fuck that sports anchor.”
But the truth is, somehow, simpler.
‘Waterfalls’ is in fact a literal message from Chilli to Left Eye. Left Eye (rest in peace) was an avid outdoorswoman, and she actually had an addictive, adrenaline-fueled habit of taking unreasonable and serious risks, including but not limited to jumping into waterfalls without proper examination beforehand. Every TLC tour, Chilli explains, was more or less akin to a terrifying series of X Games events. “Even T-Boz hated that shit,” says Chilli, “and that bitch doesn’t hate nothin.”
