Salt-N-Pepa

As a first time blogger (Gia), I'm looking at this whole experience as a big experiment, like finding the right ingredients for a blog recipe. With that said I'd like to start off with a pinch of Salt-N-Pepa.

Cheryl "Salt" James and Sandy "Pepa" Denton are the sweet rhyming, back talking female duo that is Salt-N-Pepa. In the late 80's they broke down the walls of a heavily male dominated hip-hop nation and became the first all female rap crew to enter the scene, even insisting that their DJ's were female. Salt and Pepa were working at a Sears in Queens, New York when Salt's boyfriend, Hurby "Luv Bug" Azor asked them to rap on a song that he was working on for his audio production class at New York City's Center for Media Arts. Their first song "The Show Stopper" was released in the summer of 1985 and became a huge underground success, peaking at #46 on the national R&B charts. They slowly climbed up the ladder towards mega-hits but did not reach their full potential until a DJ in San Francisco remixed "Push It", the B-side of their single "Tramp", both from their debut album, Hot, Cool, and Vicious. "Push It" climbed to the number 9 spot on the pop charts and was one of the first rap songs to be nominated for a Grammy Award. This also leads into how the Salt-N-Pepa were pioneers in bridging the gap between rap/hip-hop and pop music (think what Taylor Swift did for country, but with more chutzpah).

Salt-N-Pepa took on two very heavy roles as artists, working towards women receiving more respect in a world controlled by men and linking two very different cultures through music. They expressed how women should feel comfortable talking about sex and expressing their opinions on sex with their biggest pop hit to date, "Let's Talk About Sex", which peaked at number 13 on the charts. The song's lyrics talk about the different ideas of sex that exist, what sex should mean, and how sex ends up being a disappointment. This song was an anthem to women everywhere who felt they couldn't speak out about sex and it lightened up a subject that was in the spotlight in the 80's because of the rise of AIDs epidemic.

After the eighties Salt-N-Pepa began to fizzle out but have never been forgotten. They brought two major music worlds together and spoke out for women who felt they didn't have a voice. I know they have influenced me to speak out about all kinds of topics and I have learned to never be ashamed of my own opinion.

If there's one thing to learn from Salt-N-Pepa it is to speak out, up, against, and for and all while looking supafly.