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From Hammer Pants To Hammered By The IRS – Your Favorite 90s Stars Then And Now

Salt-N-Pepa

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Salt-N-Pepa are legendary, and not only because they were one of the first all-female rap groups to grace the hip hop scene. The trio, made up of Salt (Cheryl James), Pepa (Sandra Denton) and DJ Spinderella (Deidra Roper), formed in 1985 in Queens, New York. Their debut album, Hot, Cool & Vicious, featured a couple of modest hip hop hits, including popular radio tracks like “The Showstopper”, “I’ll Take Your Man”, “Tramp”, and “My Mic Sounded Nice”. Their dance rap track, “Push It”, topped US charts and remained stuck in our heads for the rest of the decade. That song received not only a Grammy nomination, but also a platinum certification. It was thanks to “Push It” that Salt-N-Pepa were the first female rap group to go platinum.

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The mid-nineties brought more success, of course. Their second album, A Salt With A Deadly Pepa, featured the top ten hit “Shake Your Thang” (what is it about butts and musical success in the nineties?), plus a catchy cover of “Twist and Shout”. The third album featured twin hits “Do You Want Me” and “Let’s Talk About Sex”, and the fourth had “Whatta Man” and “None of Your Business”. In 1995, the ladies of Salt-N-Pepa became the first female rap group to win a Grammy with “None of Your Business”. That album is, to this day, the best-selling album released by an all-girl rap group.

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Of course, tragedy struck in 2002 when the group disbanded. But it’s okay, because five years later, they came back with a reunion and an accompanying reality show. The Salt-N-Pepa show, which went for two seasons, followed the reforming group through quite a bit of weirdness. We’re not sure how much of the show was authentic and how much was scripted, but here’s a summary: Pepa was bitter about the group’s sudden end, and Salt has become too much of a God-fearing Christian to perform the naughty lyrics and dance moves that they did back in the nineties. There’s also a pretty hysterical episode where Salt tries to play matchmaker, paring Pepa up with a youth pastor who goes to her church.

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Salt-N-Pepa are still a thing, though! In 2011, they toured on the Legends of Hip Hop tour along with Rob Base, Doug E Fresh, Biz Markie, MC Lyte, Chubb Rock, and a few other artists. They also opened for a couple of Public Enemy shows in 2012, and appeared in a Geico commercial playing “Push It” in November of 2014. They have several United States tour dates scheduled through May of 2016, but there are no plans to release a new album anytime soon.

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