TLC to release first album without late Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes

Girl group's manager Bill Diggins confirmed the record will be released in summer 2017.

TLC pay tribute to Left-Eye — Lil Mama performs with singers Tionne 'T-Boz' Watkins and Rozonda 'Chilli' Thomas onstage during the 2013 American Music Awards at Nokia Theatre LA Live on November 24, 2013 in California Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Fans of TLC will rejoice to hear that the much-loved '90s r'n'b girl group are set to unveil their long-awaited final album this summer.

The manager of surviving members Rozonda 'Chilli' Thomas and Tionne 'T-Boz' Watkins confirmed, on 27 February, that the project is "tentatively scheduled to be released at the end of June."

The announcement comes two years after the r'n'b sensations launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the production of the farewell record. The initial goal was $150,000 (£120K) but they raised almost $300,000.

Their fifth and final album would be their first since 2002's 3D – seven months after Lopes' death – which earned TLC two Grammy Award nominations and spawned hits including Girl Talk and Damaged.

The 2002 release was viewed as bittersweet as it followed the untimely April death of bandmate 'Lisa Eyes' Lopes, after she was killed in a car accident.

In the Kickstarter post, Diggins apologised to fans for the delay saying that their arena tour had stalled the project and the duo "demanded of themselves a record that would stand up to the great body of work created in the past and that you would be proud of, because your belief and support is the greatest form of love and we want you to be proud."

"It took a lot more time to coordinate schedules with writers, TLC's executive producer Ron Fair and recording sessions than anticipated," Diggins said.

Who are TLC? Downlow on the CrazySexyCool trio

The American girl group formed in Atlanta, Georgia in 1991 and were known as much for the louche lyrics and mellow jams that infused hit singles such as No Scrubs, Creep as they were the notorious spats with boyfriends, rappers, the law and each other.

With nine Billboard Hot 100 top-ten hits, four multi-platinum albums, such as 1994's CrazySexyCool, and 65 million records sold worldwide, TLC come second to Spice Girls in the best-selling American girl group of all-time stakes.

After Lopes' death in 2002, the other two members continued as a duo to milder success, however, people will evermore freestyle drunkenly at parties to Left Eye's No Scrubs' 'check your vernacular / and then I get back to ya' rap.