Salt-N-Pepa Official Fan Site

I am not a professional music critic.  I am a professional Salt N Pepa fan.  What follows are my personal thoughts on each of their albums, so please accept them at face value, as these are just my opinions.  I’m just going to share my thoughts; I won’t try to rank or score individual albums.  They all score a perfect 10 if you ask me.

Hot, Cool, and Vicious (1986):

Hot, Cool, and Vicious

This is SNP’s first studio album.  Of course the most well known track from this album is Push It and it is one of the most recognizable Salt N Pepa songs.  It is a great dance song and a great party anthem.  Even twenty three years since it’s release, I still hear Push It played at clubs and frat parties all over Norman.  In fact, the pom team at the high school where I teach included this song in their competition routine from last year.

Just as the title implies, the rest of the album contains some definitely vicious lyrics, and they do spend a lot of time rapping about how cool they are.  I Desire showcases some great lyrics, but not all of the lyrics on the album are exactly air tight.  That song, in fact, contains the lines, “Salt from the Pepa and my name is Cher/From Queens, New York, not Deleware/I like my steak well done cuz I hate it rare” which isn’t exactly profound.  I think at times they are more concerned with finding words that rhyme than about actually saying something.  I doubt that Cheryl is truly concerned with getting word out about how she likes her steak cooked, but hey it rhymes.

That being said, this album also contains some of the greatest lines in rap history.  Tramp definitely deserves it’s position as a SNP hit, and one of my favorite lines to this day is, “Get yo’ dirty mind out the gutter/you ain’t gettin paid, you ain’t knockin boots/you ain’t treating me like no prostitute!”  If I can say nothing else about this album, I can say that it is fun.  It is just a lot of fun.  I like their confidence, and in this album they prove that they have certainly earned that confidence.  They cut down to size the men who love them but don’t respect them, and in I’ll Take Your Man they cut down to size the women who would try to challenge them.  I can lay back, chill, and listen to this album all the way through, smiling at my favorite lines and chuckling at their clever wit.

At its best, Hot, Cool, and Vicious offers some of the best hip hop to be found, and even in it’s very worst moments it’s still cute, amusing, and pleasant to listen to. This is a truly excellent debut album.

A Salt With a Deadly Pepa (1988):

A Salt With a Deadly Pepa

This is the follow-up to Hot, Cool, and Vicious.  It just doesn’t quite live up to their previous release, but there’s some good stuff there.  They definitely set the bar high with their debut, so it isn’t surprising to me that this one might have fallen a bit short.  Shake Your Thang is a most excellent song.  It’s another great party anthem.  Get Up is another good one.

On this album they also cover Twist & Shout and that may not have been the best idea ever.  Of course I am writing this review in retrospect and I know what came after this and how much greater it was, so it is hard for me to consider this album for what it is without comparing it with their future work.  It is a good album and I’m glad they recorded it, and I own it and listen to it, but it is not my favorite, and it is not their best.

Black’s Magic (19 March 1990):

Black's Magic

“Spinderella cut it up one time!”  Possibly the most famous Salt N Pepa line ever.  And she does.  She doesn’t just cut it up, but she F*#$^!% SHREDS!  Not one time, but many times.  In this album, Salt N Pepa took more creative control over their stuff, and it was a good thing.  They wrote and produced a great deal of this album and they did a fine job.  Let’s Talk About Sex takes its place beside Push It as one of the most recognizable and well known songs ever.  If you mention Salt N Pepa and somebody goes, “Huh?” mention Let’s Talk About Sex, and they’ll go, “Oh yeah!”

The lyrics on this one are definitely well thought out and carefully considered.  They string rhymes together four and five at a time, but don’t sacrifice meaning for the sake of finding two words that rhyme (generally speaking…I’m sure if I sat down and looked for senseless rhymes, I could find one or two, but that certainly doesn’t predominate).  Their cover of You Showed Me is undeniably lyrically excellent.  ”You’re fly, you live high/off life’s riches/got three, four, and five fly bitches!”  Not since Busta Rhymes released Gimme Some More have I heard anybody say as much in such a short amount of time as Salt N Pepa say in Swift. They give Spin her props in Start the Party, where they give us a wonderful account of how a Salt N Pepa party goes down, and they certainly show us that they are Independent.

Their energy on this record is absolutely contagious, and one simply cannot listen to it without dancing a little.  Even if you’re at work and can’t get up out of your desk chair and dance for fear that your boss might notice you are listening to music instead of working, you can’t help bop your head and sway a little bit.  They give us plenty of party fodder while still maintaining a level of social responsibility.  They prove to us that they are strong, empowered, intelligent ladies with plenty to say, and what they have to say is worth listening to.  Good stuff, this album.

Very Necessary(12 October 1993):

Very Necessary

This album sold way better than Black’s Magic but I don’t know if I can identify anything about it which is that much better.  I think it may have something to do with the level of fun.  Much like their debut, Very Necessary is just a whole lot of fun.  Although it doesn’t deal with as many heavy issues as Black’s Magic, it still possesses the same lyrical quality and musical merit and sends a positive message.

In an interview on MTV that I saw long ago which I cannot now cite, Pepa referred to this album as their “had it up to here” album and I can see what she meant.  Salt and Pepa and Spinderella get a lot of stuff off their collective chest in this record.  Cathartic though this album may have been for them, they obviously had a lot of fun recording it, and that could be why it is so great.  If they had fun recording it, then surely we will have fun listening to it, and they have all that fun in a very skilled manner.  They are great lyricists, and there isn’t much on here which could be called “fluff.”

Their new sexy image probably has a lot to do with the album’s success.  Shoop is undeniably fun, playful, and sexy and I’m fairly certain that absolutely everybody loves that song.  My little sister loves it and she’s 14.  My mom loves it, and she’s 50.  My brother loves it and he’s 30.  I don’t hear people talk about Sexy Noises Turn Me On very much, but I think it’s one of their best songs.

This is also the first album on which Spinderella has made significant vocal contributions.  She had done some scarce vocals here and there before in past albums, but this is the first one where we hear her rap consistently throughout the album.  She’s got a great flow; they should have let her start rapping long before this!  She does a great job on Step, which is one of my lesser known favs.  She absolutely NAILED her verse in Whatta Man and continues to do so every time they perform that song.  She also had a lot to say in None of Your Business, which earned them a Grammy.  She’s got a great voice and a great flow and she really contributed a lot to this album.

If you want some good dance music, pick this one up and pop it in.  SNP definitely know how to make a man dance, and there are some great party anthems on this record.  The lyrics are clever and just downright hot, all riding a tight beat.  The only negative thing I can force myself to say (if I must force myself to do such) is that unlike Black’s Magic, I don’t listen to Very Necessary all the way through.  I always skip Big Shot and Break of Dawn.  Somebody’s Gettin on my Nerves is alright and I usually listen to that one because it has some great lines, but I think that topic has been covered in previous songs.  The chorus of Big Shot just annoys me, and by track 12 on the album, I think we have firmly established that Salt N Pepa are the bomb diggity, so I could do without Break of Dawn. However I usually make up for the two tracks I skip by listening to Sexy Noises Turn Me On three times.

To sum it up, this is a great album, and everybody should own a copy and listen to it frequently.  Doing so will help heal your soul of whatever ails you.

Brand New (21 October 1997):

Brand New

It to this day absolutely perplexes me that this album didn’t sell any better than it did.  I understand that there were financial issues with their record label that resulted in practically nonexistent promotion, but the music is so good that it seems like word might have gotten out somehow.  This one has a more serious tone than Very Necessary and that may have something to do with it.  It lacks the same level of playfulness.  All the masses really want is a good club-banger and Brand New doesn’t deliver that.  RU Ready is a decent party song and was the first single, but it was fairly predictable, all about how cool Salt N Pepa are.

The second single was Gitty Up which is a remake of Rick James’s Give it to Me.  I kind of feel like they were possibly trying to recreate the magic of Shoop and just couldn’t quite do it.  It lacked the originality.  The rest of the album deals with topics such as domestic abuse, friendship, and in Imagine, racism.  Imagine is among my favorite SNP songs.  The twangy beat is delightful and Sheryl Crow lends some amazing vocals.  The lyrics are tight and the song is on all counts well done.  I think that song should have been the lead single, but nobody asked me.

And at this point in time, hip hop culture began reaching today’s current state of affairs in which all anybody wants is a party song.  If you can’t get out on the floor and shake your ass, nobody wants to hear about it.  It doesn’t matter if the lyrics make sense or not, or even if you use actual words, as long as it is danceable.  This album is deep and meaningful and definitely contains some of SNP’s very best work, even if you can’t dance all the way through it and it doesn’t make you wanna rip your top off and swing it around in the air.

This Album May or May Not Ever Exist (Release Date TBA):

New Album TBA?

I would just like to take a second to talk about what I would like to see in a future Salt N Pepa album, if they decide to record one.  I know a lot of things have changed since Very Necessary and their future work needs to reflect those changes.  All three of them have children.  They aren’t 20 years old anymore.  Cheryl has found new strength in her spirituality.  A future album needs to reflect the growth they have undergone in the past ten years.  I would still like to hear them tackle important social issues the way they have in previous songs such as Imagine, Let’s Talk About Sex, and You Showed Me.  I understand that Cheryl doesn’t really feel like she can be as sexually explicit as she has been in past releases, but let’s be honest and say that past releases aren’t even that explicit.  Shoop is obviously about sex, but it’s about sexual attraction and not about the actual act of sex.  It is ripe with innuendo, but none of the lyrics to that song could be called offensive.  Let’s Talk About Sex is of course about sex, but it is about sexual responsibility.  In fact, the only song I can think of which they have rapped about the sex act itself is Sexy Noises Turn Me On and it is still nowhere near as explicit as songs such as LL Cool J’s Doin It or practically every song Lil Kim has ever recorded.  Compared to the work of most of their colleagues, Salt N Pepa’s work is quite modest.  Not a single SNP album carries an explicit lyric warning on the cover.

Salt N Pepa don’t rap some filth like Lil’ Kim does.  Salt and Pepa might have some different opinions on what they each think is acceptable and appropriate, however they have to strike a balance.  What makes Salt N Pepa significant is their attention to social issues, and what makes them fun is their playfulness and classy sexiness.  Both of those aspects must be maintained if another album is going to be successful.  No, Salt N Pepa probably shouldn’t do another Sexy Noises Turn Me On or another Gitty Up.

But they need to at least give us one more good club banger.  They still perform Shoop, so Salt must be ok with that.  They need, again, to strike a balance.  Pepa needs to remember that they are grown, mature, responsible women but Salt needs to still let Pep have a little fun.  Sexy can still be classy.  I think that is what Salt N Pepa need to do, because I think that is what Salt N Pepa fans want to see.  However, I am but one man.