Salt N Pepa Research Paper

Cherly James and Sandy Denton better known as Salt 'N Pepa are one of the most known female groups ever. These two women were able to create music that spoke about sex, men, and other issues that most women were not. One of their hit songs "Push It" changed the game for females in the music industry. "Push It" was nominated for a Grammy in 1985, but Salt 'N Pepa boycotted the show when the rap categoru wasn't televised (Rollingstone)." This was something that was not suprising back then and even today because of the way that female artist are acknowleged. Many of the female artists back then were overlooked because of the way females were seen in the rap industry. In this essay I will go into detail about Salt 'N Pepa's music career, the

way that they influenced both men and women, all of their successes, and different key releases in their career.
Salt 'N Pepa "met while working at Seats in New York (Strong Voices-Female MC's, lecture)." Then by 1985 they were releasing hits that made the Billboard R&B Chart.

Shortly after Salt 'N Pepa added Dee Dee "Spindrella" Roper to their group. She was added to the group and soon after they made the song "Push It". "Salt 'N Pepa became the first female MCs to crack the pop Top 20 when this track was remixed by San Francisco DJ Cameron Paul (Rollingstone)." This was a huge single for the group because this song set the pacce for them. "Salt 'N Pepa sold over 15 million records in a phenomenal career, peaking 1955 and 1993 (Croy Music Miscellany)." During this period they had hits like Push It, Let's Talk About Sex. and Whatta Man that set a platform for them. Push It was a song that was about sex and making the world understand that "they were able to beat the boys at their own game (Strong Voices-Female MC's,

lecture)."
Let's Talk About Sex was one of the songs that provided women and men with a song that they could relate too.

Some of the lyrics are "But she was mad and sad and feelin' bad thinking about the things that she never had no love, just sex, followed next with a check and a note that last night was dope, dope (azlyrics.com)." This was reality for most women and the fact that Salt 'N Pepa made a song for women empowered them because they had never had someone understand them. In 2007 the Salt 'N Pepa show(excluding Spindrella) premiered documenturing their life and how they were doing then. This allowed followers to keep up with the once most popular female groups around. I remember in one of the episodes Salt 'N Pepa were performing Let's Talk About Sex at an HIV/AIDS event. They were giving away free condoms and expressing how important it is for everyone to go get checked for any disease. This is extremely important because when a figure like Salt 'N Pepa does something to make a difference in the community people listen. These women have been using their fame to help

others.
In 2002 the group broke up, but soon in 2008 came back together. In a interview by the Tampa Bay Times, Cheryl James also known as Salt said "the pressure of being in the industry since I was 18 took a toll on me and took a toll on me and Pep's relationship. We had become.. not enemies, but I was tired and overwhelmed. I hadn't had a break since the beginning. If you saw the reality show (VH1's The Salt-N-Pepa Show), I revealed that for a long time I was bulimic." This was obviously something extremely critical to Salt and all of the over time in the studio and tours caused her to have a serious eating disorder. Today Salt is open about her disorder and tells everyone her story of how she overcame the disorder. After about five years, Salt 'N Pepa were able to be reunited and make their television show, The Salt 'N Pepa Show.
The show only aired about a year, but the ladies were on tour called the "I Love 90's Tour" from April to October 2016. They had people like Vanilla Ice, Biz Markie, Coolio, Tone Loc, and Kid 'N Play perform at some of their concerts. Cheryl "Salt" explained in an USA Today interview that "It feels like you're taking people back to a time in their lives that they really enjoyed." This is true because my parents went to their concert in Redmond, Washington and they said "we loved it. It brought back a lot of memories."
These women have paved a way for future female MC's. Anyone who is into Hip-Hop knows about them and how much of an impact they had on the culture of Hip-Hop. Today their are not any major female groups that stand out like them that are addressing major issues in their music. I would be extremely excited to see a female group to come out and change up the way things have been for a long time.