Salt-N-Pepa

SALT-N-PEPA

Formed: 1985, New York, New York

Members: Sandy "Pepa" Denton, vocals (born Kingston, Jamaica, West Indies, 9 November 1969); Cheryl "Salt" James, vocals (born Brooklyn, New York, 8 March 1964); Dee Dee "Spinderella" Roper, vocals, turntables (born New York, New York, 3 August 1971).

Genre: Hip-Hop

Best-selling album since 1990: Very Necessary (1994)

Hit songs since 1990: "Let's Talk about Sex," "Whatta Man," "Shoop"

The female rap trio Salt-N-Pepa debuted in the mid-1980s and made their mark in a male-dominated genre. The first major all-female rap crew, they combined pop sensibility, playfully feminist lyrics, and sexual swagger to become some of the first rap artists to achieve mainstream success, anticipating hip-hop's commercial ascendance in the 1990s. Unlike many of their 1980s contemporaries, Salt-N-Pepa managed to benefit from hip-hop's increasing popularity, extending their career well into the 1990s and enjoying the greatest critical and commercial reception of their career with their fourth album, Very Necessary (1993).

Starting Out

Cheryl "Salt" James and Sandra "Pepa" Denton met in the mid-1980s while working in a department store in their native Queens. Their co-worker and Salt's boyfriend, Hurby "Luv Bug" Azor, asked the duo to rap on a track he was working on for an audio production class. Entitled "The Show Stopper," the resultant track was a female response to the extremely popular Doug E. Fresh single "The Show" and featured James and Dento making fun of preening, overconfident men, a theme they returned to throughout their career. Released as a single in the summer of 1985 under the name Super Nature, "The Show Stopper" became an underground hit, leading to a record contract with independent label Next Plateau. The duo, newly named Salt-N-Pepa after a line from "The Show Stopper," released their debut album, Hot, Cool & Vicious, in 1986. The album was produced by Azor, who was also Salt-N-Pepa's manager, and featured a DJ, Pamela Greene.

Hot, Cool & Vicious yielded three minor hits in 1987, "My Mic Sounds Nice," "Chick on the Side," and a rap remake of the Otis Redding-Carla Thomas hit "Tramp." Although their raps were simple, Salt-N-Pepa delivered them with winning verve, and their equally sassy stage show (complete with male strippers) soon brought them a loyal local audience. This audience expanded when Cameron Paul, a San Francisco DJ, started playing his own remixed version of the Hot, Cool & Vicious track "Push It." Released nationwide as a single, the slinky and sexy "Push It" became a huge pop hit and eventually became one of five songs nominated for the first ever Best Rap Performance Grammy in 1989. When it was announced that this new portion of the awards would not be televised, Salt-N-Pepa, along with fellow nominees LL Cool J and DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, interpreted it as a slight against hip-hop and boycotted the event.

Meanwhile Salt-N-Pepa had replaced Greene with DJ Spinderella and rushed into the studio in 1988 to release a hastily produced second album, A Salt with a Deadly Pepper. The album featured a few more rap remakes of old R&B songs, one of which ("Shake Your Thing") became a minor hit. Although A Salt with a Deadly Pepper eventually went double platinum, it proved less fresh than its predecessor and seemed to confirm the hip-hop community's general view of Salt-N-Pepa as pop crossover artists with little to say.

Taking Control

Salt-N-Pepa began the 1990s by contradicting this view. As they commenced work on their third album, Salt, Pepa, and Spinderella took over some creative control from Azor, who had been credited with all the songwriting up to that point. The result was their breakthrough album, Black's Magic, released in March 1990. True to its cover, which features the trio surrounded by the images of black music icons, Black's Magic features a funky R&B-based sound. Although this stylistic turn improved Salt-N-Pepa's credibility in hip-hop, it did nothing to diminish their appeal with pop audiences, who responded to their sassy wit and frank sexuality. The album's first single, "Expression," neatly summarizes the group's playful and confident message of female empowerment: "I express myself on every jam / I'm not a man, but I'm in command / Hot damn, I got an all-girl band." "Expression" topped the rap charts for eight weeks. Another single, "Do You Want Me," was also a hit, but it was the catchy safe-sex anthem "Let's Talk about Sex" that really struck a chord with audiences. The song was fortuitously in keeping with the then-prevalent efforts at AIDS awareness and was eventually reworked as "Let's Talk about AIDS" as part of a televised public-service campaign.

In the three years it took Salt-N-Pepa to produce a follow-up to Black's Magic, the trio parted ways with Azor (whose relationship with Salt had also ended), and each became a mother. Despite the three-year lag, the album they finally released managed to build upon the artistic breakthrough achieved by its predecessor. Released in October 1993, Very Necessary grounds itself in the same pop-friendly, R&B-infused hip-hop that made Black's Magic so successful while updating the sound to make it sexier and more sophisticated. Very Necessary provides ample opportunity for Salt-N-Pepa to showcase their feminist yet lighthearted take on female sexuality, particularly in its pair of singles, "Shoop" and "Whatta Man." While "Let's Talk about Sex" amounted to a cautionary tale about promiscuity, "Shoop" is an unabashed celebration of lust in which the females do the ogling: "Ummm, you're packed and you're stacked 'specially in the back / Brother, wanna thank your mother for a butt like that." On "Whatta Man" Salt-N-Pepa team up with female R&B group En Vogue for a celebration of monogamy that is equally concerned with carnal pleasures: "My man gives real loving, that's why I call him Killer / He's not a wham-bam-thank-youman, he's a thriller / He takes his time and does everything right / Knocks me out with one shot for the rest of the night." Both of these singles hit the pop Top 10 and resulted in impressive sales for the album. A third single, "None of Your Business," did not chart as well but went on to win Salt-N-Pepa a Grammy for Best Rap Performance in 1995.

Very Necessary proved to be the peak of Salt-N-Pepa's career. It took them four years to follow it up with Brand New (1997), and by the time they did, their trademark ribaldry sounded tame compared to the hardcore antics of newer female rappers such as Lil' Kim and Foxy Brown (whom Salt-N-Pepa had no doubt inspired). Although Brand New was considered a solid album and eventually went gold, it lacked the impact of their earlier efforts.

Salt-N-Pepa's success as females in the once male-dominated rap industry paved the way for later female rappers such as Missy Elliott and Lil' Kim. Their success as rappers in crafting clever and catchy songs able to connect with the pop mainstream paved the way for hip-hop in general, helping it transcend color and cultural barriers to become one of the dominant forms of 1990s popular music.

SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:

Hot, Cool & Vicious

(Next Plateau, 1986); A Salt with a Deadly Pepa (London, 1998); Black's Magic (London, 1990); Very Necessary (London, 1993); Brand New (London, 1997).

matt himes