20 Fascinating Photos of Salt-N-Pepa in the Late 1980s

In the 1980s, hip-hop hit the mainstream, and it’s stayed there in the decades since. When hip-hop emerged, it had an urgency and power that set it apart from the pop that dominated the charts, but there was one noticeable flaw: The music was largely made by men, and there didn’t appear to be many women in the scene.

Salt-N-Pepa, composed of Cheryl “Salt” James, Sandra “Pepa” Denton and Deidra “DJ Spinderella” Roper, changed all that with their 1986 debut, Hot, Cool & Vicious, which made them the first female rap group to earn a Platinum record. They would become one of the bestselling rap groups of all time.

Denton worked as a telephone solicitor at a Sears in College Point. She met Cheryl in the Sears lunchroom. They both were also enrolled as nursing students at Queensborough Community College. The pair became close friends, and also co–workers at Sears, along with future celebrities Kid N’ Play and Martin Lawrence. Another co-worker Hurby “Luv Bug” Azor was studying music production at the Center of Media Arts and had his then-girlfriend Cheryl James, and also Sandra Denton, record a song for him as a class project he had to do. This resulted in the song “The Showstopper,” an answer record to Doug E. Fresh’s hit single “The Show” by the duo, who originally called themselves Super Nature. The song used a melody from the 1984 film Revenge of the Nerds. Azor passed the song along to his friend Marley Marl who hosted a weekend rap show on a New York City radio station. Marl occasionally included the song in his set rotation, and it became so popular that the station received requests to play it during Marl’s weekend rap set. The song, however, was not available in stores as it was simply a music school assignment. The independent Pop Art Records stepped in and offered to give the song an official release, and “The Show Stoppa (Is Stupid Fresh)” became a modest R&B hit, reaching No. 46 on the US Billboard R&B chart.

After finding some success with “The Show Stoppa (Is Stupid Fresh),” Azor, James, and Denton decided to focus on the group full-time, with Denton and James soon dropping out of nursing school. Azor changed the group’s name to Salt-N-Pepa, based on the song’s lyrics “Right now I’m gonna show you how it’s supposed to be ‘Cause we, the salt and pepper MCs,” which had resulted in radio stations getting phone calls requesting “The Showstopper” by Salt And Pepper.

In September 1985, the group signed to Next Plateau Records, but the label only wanted to release a single at first; James and Denton recorded “I’ll Take Your Man,” produced by Azor, and the label released it. The song utilized a melody from the hit single “Flash Light” by funk band Parliament. Next Plateau had now requested a full-length album, and Azor felt the group should be a female trio, similar to the male rap trio Run DMC. Before starting work on a full-length album, Azor recruited DJ Latoya Hanson (called Spinderella) into Salt-N-Pepa. The ladies worked on the album and in December 1986 the trio’s debut album Hot, Cool & Vicious was released, produced by Azor, Salt’s boyfriend at the time and the group’s manager. Hanson was in the group for a few months but she and Salt were not on friendly terms and Hanson departed the group after they finished the album, but just before it was distributed to stores. Soon after, in early 1987, 16-year-old high school student Deidra Roper was recruited into the group by Azor and became known as Spinderella, the DJ in the group.

Hot, Cool & Vicious included some moderate rap/R&B radio hits, but when San Francisco DJ and producer Cameron Paul created a remix to “Push It,” the B-side of the “Tramp” single, it gave the group their first major hit. “Push It” (US #19, UK #2) became a platinum single in the United States, and a hit in several other countries, and was added to subsequent pressings of Hot, Cool & Vicious. It was nominated for a Grammy Award, and the strength of that single catapulted the album to platinum sales in the U.S. with over 1 million copies sold, making Denton, James, and Roper the first female rap act to go platinum. The album ultimately sold 1.4 million copies worldwide.

The group entered the music industry at a time when hip hop was believed to be a fad, and as major record companies were very reluctant to sign hip hop artists, many early hip hop artists recorded for independent labels. Salt-N-Pepa greatly impacted hip hop by being one of the first all-female rap groups. Concerned about sexist lyrics and video clips that objectified women’s bodies in hip hop, many feminists disliked rap and hip hop because it negatively portrayed women. However, Salt-N-Pepa changed the look of hip hop. They were scantily clad in sexy clothing and were not afraid to talk about sex and their thoughts about men. Their song “Let’s Talk About Sex” was a huge hit.

Salt-N-Pepa’s contributions in the 1980s laid the groundwork for their even greater success in the 1990s and inspired future generations of female artists in hip-hop and beyond.