Lisa ''Left Eye'' Lopes was forever threatening to leave the most successful female group of all time. But no one expected her departure from TLC to be as permanent -- and tragic -- as it turned out to be this April, when she died in a car crash in Honduras.

Nonetheless, Lopes, whose temper was nearly as quick as her lyrical wit, lives on in TLC's upcoming album, ''3-D'' (due Nov. 12). The CD, though unfinished when Lopes died, seamlessly inserts her vocals into hook-packed, beat-heavy songs recorded by surviving bandmates Tionne ''T-Boz'' Watkins and Rozonda ''Chilli'' Thomas.

Chilli tells EW.com about the group's uncharted future, her relationship with Lopes, and her emotional appearance on this year's MTV Video Music Awards.

Was there ever a point when you thought this album wouldn't come out?
After everything happened, Tionne and I didn't think about whether we were gonna go on or what. We were just in shock -- just couldn't believe what had happened. We didn't even want to think about it. But we had to come together and make a decision. And we just decided not to call it quits, because we know our Lisa, and she wouldn't want us to do it like that. We just took charge at that point, and we were like, Ok, this is gonna be a complete tribute to Lisa and we're gonna make sure that she's everywhere so it'll feel like the old TLC.

The public perception was that your relationship with Left Eye was tumultuous, to say the least. True?
If TLC was ever gonna break up, if Lisa was gonna be replaced, it would've happened a long time ago. But when you have a sister, you can't get rid of your sister, you can't kick your sister out. We've known each other since we were 19 and 20. When people meet at such a young age and they're going through all kinds of things in their lives, you grow and you just try not to grow apart. The direction Lisa was going in, Tionne and I always tried to understand, but sometimes we just didn't. And that's ok: We just wanted to make sure that we always kept the respect in our group.

So you never really came close to breaking up?
Tionne and I used to get mad [about break-up rumors], and even Lisa, too. She'd tell people, ''I'm feeling TLC, we did not break up.'' Even after she passed, we'd really get upset when people would come up and say, ''Are you guys gonna replace her?'' I know Tionne got upset because girls would come up to her face, and say, ''I'm sorry for your loss -- but I know how to rap.'' I mean, that's tacky. You cannot replace a TLC girl. You can't do it.

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