Song:Whatta Man
Album:20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection: The Best Of Salt-N-Pepa
Salt-N-Pepa were a female rap trio that came along at a time when there weren't many women rapping. So they were pioneers of hip hop and rap. Whatta Man was their biggest hit at the end of their run in 1993. Cheryl "Salt" James and Sandra "Pepa" Denton met while they were studying nursing at Queensborough Community College in Queens, NY. They also worked together at Sears. A co-worker Hurby "Luv Bug" Azor was studying record production and he asked them to record with him as a class project. Along with DJ LaToya Hanson, they called themselves Super Nature. The 1985 single The Showstoppa was a big enough hit that Next Plateau Records signed them to a record deal. By this time, Hanson left and was replaced by Deidra "Spinderella" Roper and the group name was changed to Salt-N-Pepa. Azor was their producer and manager. He was dating Cheryl at the time. Push It in 1987 and Let's Talk About Sex in 1991 were top 20 pop hits. So they were doing OK but for the 1993 album Very Necessary, They left Next Plateau for London Records. Shoop reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and Whatta Man reached #3. Whatta Man is based on the 1968 Lynda Lyndell hit What A Man and it features En Vogue who were very popular at the time. It was first released on the 1993 En Vogue EP Runaway Love but it wasn't released as a single. The Salt-N-Pepa version was remixed by Azor to bring the rappers into the forefront. You can get all of Salt-N-Pepa's hits on this budget comp. By this time, Cheryl and Azor had split up and Salt-N-Pepa sued him for back royalties. As a result, they didn't release another album until 1997 on a new label. It did OK but not as well as previous albums. Salt-N-Pepa disbanded in 2002 when Cheryl quit the music business. Sandra was already acting in films and TV. They reformed for the 2007 vh1 reality show The Salt-N-Pepa show. They haven't recorded anything new but they still tour as part of the I Love The 90s concert series. Here's the video for Whatta Man by Salt-N-Pepa featuring En Vogue.
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