The Salt-N-Pepa all women group, took over the late 80’s and 90’s with their bold look, sound and message through music, and are now back to reminisce on some of Hip Hop’s best days! Check out as the women reunite and reminisce on their stardom, influence and more, below.
The notorious group, packed with heavy hitting’ females, has taken to Billboard in their latest interview, and discussed their first experiences when getting into the music business
“I remember our first song, our answer to Doug E Fresh’s and Slick Rick’s ‘The Show,'””We did ‘The Show Stopper.’ Herbie wrote that and we thought, ‘What? We’re going up against Doug E. Fresh and Slick Rick? Are you crazy?’ Marly Marl played it on the radio but also people were requesting it. A label contacted us. We weren’t trying to contact a label… We were playing at the hardest places in New York. We were ‘In Your Face’ types of females. They’re like, ‘Oh no, these girls are speaking their minds. Nothing to mess with.’ We went head on. The labels were coming to us ’cause we were selling and making those numbers.”
The group also talked their transition from underground or unknown artists, to pop stars, topping charts:
“When our music started to get popular, believe it or not, but we got slack when our songs were crossing over,” Pepa said. “Back then they’d call you a sell-out. That’s what we went through. It’s like we were outcasts. It was cool to be hardcore and underground, starving. We’re like, ‘We’re not doing any of that. Sorry guys!’ [Laughs] It was all about street credibility… We were feeling a little tension in the game because we were so popular. Being popular was being a sell out. When all these rappers, including KRS-One, would get together to make a song, I remember saying, ‘Oh they didn’t call us? Oh, okay. They’re acting funny.’ Back then, when you’d do anything, you had to have Salt-N-Pepa on it. I don’t care!” [Laughs]
Finally the women spoke of their everlasting legacy, powerful messages, and focus in the music industry:
“Salt-N-Pepa was really raising the bar and we were the standard for women in Hip Hop. There was MC Lyte, there was YoYo and we all created this standard. The door was open and that allowed for women like Foxy Brown and Lil’ Kim to walk through and then Eve and Missy. Even TLC, they had that R&B and Hip Hop flow. Today, the door is still open but the ceiling doesn’t seem to be as high. But what we were doing was attacking issues as well as being cute and sexy. We were hitting issues and still seemed like the girls next door, so people responded to that. And it was global. We were that voice for the urban woman.”
For the full interview checkout Billboard!
